Canon Pixma MP970

By Felisa Yang, CNET.com
Nov 1, 2007

The Canon Pixma MP970 is the 2007 refresh of last year's Pixma MP960. We were looking forward to a top-notch photo-oriented photo multifunction, as we've come to expect stellar quality from Canon, and we loved last year's version. Unfortunately, we were surprised to find slower task speeds and print quality that doesn't meet Canon's usual standards. On the plus side, it includes Ethernet networking standard (otherwise, it offers a very similar feature set).

Aside from the performance and quality issues, we'd like to see Canon take some steps to improve the onboard image editing options and include support for USB hard drives and flash drives via the front-mounted USB host port; many other manufacturers have done so and we wonder why Canon hasn't. Overall, we feel let down by the Pixma MP970. If you don't need network-support, we suggest you go with the Pixma MP960. And for a networked, photo-oriented multifunction, we recommend the HP Photosmart C6180, though it's a bit slower than the MP970.

Design

The Canon Pixma MP970 is a monster of a printer, so make sure you have enough desk space for it. It measures 471mm wide, 396mm deep, and 214mm tall, and weighs just over 11.9kg. The body is silver with black highlights. Hidden behind a door are two memory card slots, and a PictBridge USB port resides beneath the slots.

   

For more details on the Canon Pixma MP970's design, click on the image.

The control panel is similar to last year's model, the Pixma MP960, with some minor differences. It's embedded in the scanner lid, hidden under a fold-up panel. Embedded on the underside of the panel is a large, 3.5-inch LCD. Like the MP960, the MP970 has a very simple control panel, due in part to the fact that most of the functionality is accessed via the onscreen menu. The menu options are arranged in a circle that revolves on the screen as you turn the scroll wheel on the control panel.

The wheel gives a tactile response as it turns, which we liked. Arranged in a ring around the wheel are four direction keys that you can use instead of the wheel, and an OK wheel resides in the center of the wheel. Other control panel buttons include a feed switch, a Home key (to take you back to the top menu), a Navi button that serves as a shortcut to tutorials on advanced features, two start buttons (color and black), and two soft keys that change function by menu.

The MP970 offers two paper input sources: A rear input and a cassette. Both hold up to 150 sheets of plain paper. Canon recommends using the rear input for photo paper and some other specialty media, as these papers can jam when forced around a roller, as media coming from the cassette must do. The printer's front panel folds out to serve as the output tray.

Canon loaded up the MP970 with a seven-ink print system with individual ink cartridges. The pigment-based black ink is ideal for text prints, while the six dye-based inks (including a dye-based black, and photo magenta and photo cyan) make for better photo prints.

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