quality of scanners in Canon all-in-ones?

[Brendan R. Wehrung]

I recently bought a computer and am eligible to buy one of two Canon
all-in-ones, the Canon Pixma MP-160 or MP-160. I'm looking to replace a
Lexmark that does not weem to ahve a driver written for it for Vista,
which will eventually replace XP on my new computer.

While the MP-160 gained a Best Buy for bargain all-in-one from Consumer
Reports, an online review was critical of its scanner qualities. The
clerk at the store says the MP-600 is a vastly superior printer, but again
online remarks (user reviews in this case) hint that the scanner part is
deficient, that copies are almost unreadable.

I thought scanners were one of Canon's strong points.

After rebate, the MP-160 costs $45 including mandatory ink purchase, while
the MP-600 comes in at $150. The latter claims much better resolution, but
does that work out in practice?

Brendan

 

[CSM1]

I recently bought a computer and am eligible to buy one of two Canon
all-in-ones, the Canon Pixma MP-160 or MP-160. I'm looking to replace a
Lexmark that does not weem to ahve a driver written for it for Vista,
which will eventually replace XP on my new computer.

While the MP-160 gained a Best Buy for bargain all-in-one from Consumer
Reports, an online review was critical of its scanner qualities. The
clerk at the store says the MP-600 is a vastly superior printer, but again
online remarks (user reviews in this case) hint that the scanner part is
deficient, that copies are almost unreadable.

I thought scanners were one of Canon's strong points.

After rebate, the MP-160 costs $45 including mandatory ink purchase, while
the MP-600 comes in at $150. The latter claims much better resolution, but
does that work out in practice?

Brendan

Absolutely.

Higher Resolution is always a good quality to have in a scanner. You never
know when you might need to scan a low quality document that will benefit
from a higher resolution scan. Some Line drawings need at least 600 DPI to
resolve the fine lines.

What can you expect from a machine that costs less than the replacement ink
cartridges will cost.
You will buy the machine everytime you replace the ink cartridges.