We wouldn’t say Canon’s new color multifunction printer is cute, but it’s 30-percent smaller than the model it succeeds. The Pixma MX492 ($100, available in black or white) takes on a completely new form-factor and design that is more rectangular, minus the curves and shine of previous models that we’ve grown accustomed to.
It’s designed for environments where space is tight, yet it retains many of the office-centric MFP features one would expect, including an automatic document feeder, borderless photo printing, fax (for those who still use it), and fast print speeds of 8.8 images per minute (Canon rates it as images, rather than pages) for black and white and 4.4 ipm for color. The printer uses a four-color ink system, since it’s a productivity printer as oppose to photo printer, but we’ve found that Canon’s four-color printers are adept at photos too.
All new printers should have Wi-Fi, and the MX492 is no exception. Besides wireless printing from mobile devices and computers (the MFP supports Apple AirPrint), the MX492 also features Canon’s Pixma Printing Solutions (PPS) that lets you access content from cloud services like Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, Dropbox, Google Drive, etc., without a computer. And in Access Point Mode, you can create a direct Wi-Fi connection with mobile devices, bypassing the need to log onto a network first.
Best part is perhaps the price. Rated print speeds are lower than the predecessor, the MX472, but you get a more compact unit and support for cloud printing.
