Canon i-SENSYS MF229dw: A great value multifunction printer for home and small business [review]

There’s no shortage of cut-price mono laser printers on the market, but the multifunction Canon i-SENSYS MF229dw is the perfect example of why it’s worth paying a little extra to get a printer that can do everything you’d want it to, and more besides.

Obviously it’s a mono printer, so the one thing it can’t do is output color pages, but aside from that it can print single and double-sided, scan (in 24-bit color), copy pages, and fax documents. It’s a wireless printer, and you can send photos and documents to print directly from iOS and Android devices.

Setting it up is very easy, you just remove all the orange tape and tabs, install the software, power it up and then use the touch sensitive panel on the front to configure everything and connect it to your wireless network (Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n). This last step is done through the panel, but the process is quick and painless. You can also connect the printer via a wired network (10/100 Base-T Ethernet). You have to choose one or the other networked methods, not both, and wired LAN is the default.

The angle of the operation panel on the front can be adjusted to suit, and once it’s all up and running, you can use the touch screen to copy, scan and fax documents, access the address book, and adjust various settings.

Text is output at 600 x 600 dpi, and is pin sharp. The quality of photos is similarly impressive at up to 1200 x 1200 dpi with image refinement.

Canon quotes printing speeds at 27 pages a minute, and outputting a 27 page single-sided document took exactly that. Printing the same document in duplex took one minute and 45 seconds. The Quick First Print feature reduces the waiting time for the initial page, which is a great addition.

The scanner has an optical resolution of 600 dpi and this can be stretched to 9600 dpi with enhancement. You have the choice of flatbed and a 50 sheet Duplex Automatic Document Feeder (DADF), and the flatbed can expand to take thicker material, such as books and brochures. Quality is very good, and A4 photos took on average 7 seconds to scan in full color at 300 dpi, and 17 seconds at 600 dpi.

The MF229dw works well as a photocopier, and can enlarge and reduce documents (arrange multiple documents on one sheet, for example), copy one sided documents on to both sides of the paper, and collate your copies. There is a choice of copy modes -- Text, Text/Photo, Text/Photo+, and Photo. Copying an A4 photo in Text/Photo took 9 seconds, and 15 seconds in Photo. The difference in quality between modes is very noticeable.

Faxing is still a thing for some businesses, and the MF229dw’s Super G3 fax can send a page every three seconds, and store up to 256 pages in memory. There are four one-touch dials and 100 coded dials.

There’s very little to dislike about the MF229dw. It’s a tad on the chunky side perhaps, Gigabit networking would be good and 256MB memory isn’t exactly generous, but those are minor complaints. It’s a very capable multi-function model that offers superb print and scan quality, and which I can definitely recommend without reservation.

If you’re looking for a new, stylish and versatile office printer, the MF229dw should be near the top of your list.

It’s available from Ebuyer for £241, including delivery.

Technical Specifications