Canon Maxify MB5370 review: An inkjet printer tailored to business needs
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Introduction, Design & Features
Maxify = Combining the best of Pixma and Imageclass?
Those following Canon will know that the maker of EOS cameras traditionally has two printer series in its stable: Pixma and Imageclass. The former is inkjet-based, and has been in the company’s lineup for at least 10 years now. While it consists of both personal and business machines, the general focus around Pixma is still very much on quality photo printing. On the other hand, the Imageclass series typically consists of laser printers (both single and multi-function models) geared towards business users looking for the quality associated with the technology, be it fast print speeds, professional-looking documents, or high page yields.
The printer we’ve here today is neither a Pixma nor an Imageclass model. Instead, this MB5370 belongs to Canon’s recently launched Maxify series, and is inkjet-based. In short, you can think of Maxify as an Imageclass-influenced Pixma, designed to serve the needs of businesses better than the latter. And by better, we meant areas like high-volume color printing, fast document print speeds, along with advanced security, network, and cloud connectivity features. Of course, that’s not to say these features aren’t valued by the average consumer; it’s just that they are usually ranked higher by business users, than say, the fast 4R photo print speed we’ve come to expect from the Pixma models.
We’ve touched on the first three models of the new Maxify series in an earlier article, but to recap, the MB5370 is the flagship of the trio and is a multi-function model. It has two 250-sheet paper trays, and a 50-sheet, single-pass, duplexing automatic document feeder (DADF) for faster scanning of two-sided documents. One rung below it sits the MB5070, which really doesn’t differ a lot from the MB5370 other than the fact that it only has one paper tray and its ADF isn’t a duplexing unit, which means it scans one side of a document first and then the next side (essentially a RADF, or a reversing automatic document feeder). If you don’t need the copy and scan functions, there’s the single-function iB4070, which uses the same print engine as its two multi-function siblings, thus offering the same print speeds of 23 images per minute (ipm) in black-and-white, and 15ipm in color.
Design
The Maxify MB5370 looks more like an Imageclass printer than a Pixma printer, with its boxy shape and black matte plastic chassis. There’s this brushed treatment on the front door and the front of the two paper trays, which is pretty clever as it creates the illusion of metal on this otherwise very plastic-looking casing.
In its most compact form, the MB5370 has a footprint (width and depth) of 463 by 394mm, with the depth going up to 607mm if you were to extend the input and output trays to accommodate an A4 or larger paper size. While it has a USB 2.0 port that lets you use it as a personal printer, to serve other people in the workgroup and walk-up jobs, it’s clear that this 13.1kg multi-function device is best placed on an empty desk at a corner of the room, hooked up to the network via its LAN jack or over Wi-Fi.
Speaking of walk-up jobs, the MB5370’s top panel is home to a 3.0-inch color LCD. Because it’s a (resistive) touchscreen, there’s no need for too many controls other than the very essential ones around it, like Power, Home, Return, Start, and Stop. In short, while not backlit, these plastic, tactile buttons are generously sized and easy to press. Protip: If you do a lot of copying, scanning, or faxing, you can save commonly used settings as custom profiles for easy recall.
The business angle
BYOD is a reality, and one thing that’s common between the Pixma and Maxify series is their focus on mobile printing, and support for protocols like Apple AirPrint and Google Cloud Print. The go-to mobile app for printing what’s on your smartphone or tablet or saving a scan to the mobile device is the Pixma/Maxify Printing Solutions app, and it’s available for both Android and iOS. Then there’s Pixma/Maxify Cloud Link, a service that lets you access your files on your social networking sites and cloud storage providers (e.g., Dropbox, Google Drive, Microsoft OneDrive) directly from the printer. You can even store your scans to the cloud directly or email them straight to the recipients; and on the MB5370, you can also scan or fax to a network folder for later retrieval.
One feature that we really like is the printer’s ability to multi-task. For example, it’s now possible to initiate the next task while the printer is still printing. For a multi-function device that’s going to be used by a group of people (often at the same time), this makes tremendous sense.
Settings Restrictions and Operation Restrictions are another two business-oriented features on the MB5370. Simply put, Settings Restrictions lets you set an admin password on your network and device settings - you know, so that unauthorized personnel can’t tampered with them. On the other hand, Operation Restrictions limit what the users can or can’t do on the printer. For example, you can specify that document copies are always made in black-and-white mode, or limit printing from or scanning to a USB memory stick.
There are also other features like the ability to monitor usage and program the device to turn itself off or on at preset timings. While they don’t sound particularly exciting to the average consumer, we can see how it can be useful for the cost-conscious business owner.
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