Canon unveils new scanners and AIO printers

LiDE 210

Canon has launched its latest CanoScan flatbed scanners models - the LiDE 210 and LiDE 110.

The LiDE 210 has an optical resolution of up to 4,800 x 4,800dpi (dots per inch) while the LiDE 110 offers up to 2,400 x 4,800dpi. To scan a colour A4 page at 300dpi, the LiDE 210 takes 10 seconds while it takes 16 seconds for the LiDE 110 to complete the task, Canon said.

To scan efficiently, both models feature an auto-scan mode, which recognises the type of original documents - from standard-size documents, photographs and business cards. It then crops and scans with the appropriate image optimisation settings, and saves the images on the computer automatically.

New AIO printers

Canon also unveiled two wireless photo all-in-one (AIO) printers - the Pixma MG 6170 and Pixma MG 8170; and a monochrome laser printer, the Laser Shot LBP 6000.

The MG 6170 and MG 8170, which have a print resolution of up to 9,600 x 2,400dpi, support the 802.11n wireless standard.

MG 8170

One of the highlights of the two models is the ability to print any frame from high-definition video footage captured with a Canon digital camera.

With the Easy-PhotoPrint Pro plugin for Adobe Photoshop, users can edit images with greater ease, Canon said. There is also the Auto Photo Fix II feature with colour cast correction for optimisation of images before printing.

Both the MG 6170 and MG 8170 feature tilt LCD screens that measure 3in and 3.5in respectively. The MG 8170 is also capable of scanning 35mm film and slides.

Monochrome laser printer

The LBP 6000 prints at 18ppm (pages per minute) with print quality at up to 2,400 x 600dpi. This model uses Canon's Advanced Printing Technology 3.0 printing software, where the file size of a print job is compressed on the computer before it is sent to the printer.

LBP 6000

According to Canon, this improves the efficiency of the printer without the need to increase memory capacity.

The LiDE 210 (RM523), LiDE 110 (RM298), MG 6170 (RM988), MG 8170 (RM1,688) and LBP 6000 (RM468) are available now.

Other other products launched at the same event include the Laser Shot LBP 6750dn monochrome laser printer (RM4,688) and two AIO Pixma printers - the MG 5270 (RM888) and MG 5170 (RM698).

HP Officejet 4500 G510 : Reviewed

The HP Officejet 4500 G510 is a relatively compact AIO printer that gets the job done.

The HP Officejet 4500 G510h is an all-in-one printer that comes with all the standard features - print, copy, scan and fax.

It has a relatively boxy design with a mix of glossy and matte finish. The glossy finish, although nice, will attract fingerprints and is easily scratched.

The compact printer weighs 6kg and doesn't take up a lot space so it is ideal for home and small offices.

Setting up the printer was straight forward and quick. We just needed to install the software driver, fit the ink cartridge, and hook up the printer to a computer via a USB cable.

The 4500 has a fairly simple control panel that doesn't cram too many buttons in a small space. There is a number pad for faxing and a dual-direction navigation pad for making selections.

SIMPLE INTERFACE:G510h's small screen makes navigation and changes to settings cumbersome.

The monochrome LCD is used primarily for switching modes and tweaking the printer's settings. As it's a single-line display, it's quite cumbersome and time consuming to make changes to the printer settings.

But it's not so bad as the printer comes with HP applications that allow you to fully control the printer to scan, print and fax from a desktop PC.

Performance

We tested the printer's scanning feature by having it scan documents and images.

Surprisingly, the printer took a rather lengthy 40 seconds to complete a scan of a document or an image.

You can also run an OCR on scanned documents to easily edit the content but the results are usually far from perfect.

If the document has handwritings on it, this would cause the fomatting to go out of whack and strange symbols to appear.

Plus, scanned documents or images can also be automatically be attached to an e-mail message.

SCAN THIS: The G510h opens up to reveal a scanner underneath the hood.

In terms of print speed, the printer has a Fast Draft mode for churning out pages really quick.

In our test, the 4500 was able to print plain text document at a rate of 15ppm (pages per minute). While this is really quick but it's done at the cost of quality.

However, the difference in quality is only marginal and the text is still sharp and legible.

The result is not so great when printing images in colour. In Fast Draft mode an image is printed out in just 15 seconds but the loss in quality is very evident.

In normal mode, the printer takes 35 seconds to print a colour image. Though slightly longer but the quality is much better.

It takes twice as long to print a picture using the best setting and the image quality is marginally sharper than the normal mode. We found the normal mode to be the best for getting a decent print out in a shorter time.

The 4500's copying speed varies depending on the methods used. When the sheet-feeder is used, it takes about a minute to copy a document but it only takes about half that time if the flatbed scanner is used.

We were not impressed with the quality as there was a noticeable difference between the original and the copy. This is particularly more evident with pictures than plain text.

Conclusion

The HP Officejet 4500 G510h is a compact AIO printer with a decent set of features.

UNDER THE HOOD: Refilling ink cartridges is easy. Just open the tray and slot new cartridges in.

Print quality was good especially for monochrome text documents. For colour images, the results were dependant on the mode chosen.

And when you want to get your pages really fast, there is the Fast Draft mode which works really good with plain text.

However, the photocopying function and scanning speed is a tad below par.

Overall, the Officejet 4500 G510 is a decent AIO printer for the price you pay.

Pros: Compact size; handy Fast Draft mode; decent print quality.

Cons: Photocopying quality below par; slow scanning speed.

Officejet 4500 G510h
(Hewlett-Packard)
All-in-one printer
Print resolution: 4,800 x 1,200dpi
Print speed: 4ppm (colour)/15ppm (monochrome)
Scan resolution: 1,200dpi
Copy resolution: 1,200 x 1,200dpi (colour)/ 600 x 1,200dpi (monochrome)
Copy speed: Up to 22cpm (colour)/28cpm (monochrome)
Interface: USB 2.0
Paper handling: 100-sheet input tray, 20-sheet top loading tray
Paper sizes: Up to A4
Dimensions (W x D x H): 43.36 x 40.16 x 21.31cm
Weight: 5.91kg
Website: www.hp.com.my
Price: RM469