Canon has just launched four new inkjet printers; the multifunction Pixma MX870, Pixma MX350 and Pixma MX340 and the single function Pixma iP2702. The new printers went on sale in February in the USA and are aimed at the home, home office and small business market.

The top of the range MX870 is an all-in-one device with print, fax, copy, scan and wireless connectivity as standard. Print resolution is up to 9600 x 2400dpi and Canon’s new software, Auto Photo Fix II, makes it even easier for amateur photographers to print quality photos. The built-in software automatically categorizes the images, then optimizes each one for brightness and colour balance to ensure accurate skin tones and optimal exposure. Also included are Easy Photo Print and Easy Web Print which, like Auto Photo Fix II, are standard across the range. Dual Color Gamut Technology optimizes original hard copies so that copies stay true and Auto Scan Mode automatically recognizes an original scanned document and saves the appropriate settings. Again, these are both included on all three models.

The MX870 can print a borderless 6in x 4in photo in as little as 39 seconds, compared to 43 seconds for the MX340 and MX350, both of which have a maximum print resolution of 4800 x 1200dpi. Automatic duplex printing and a duplex automatic document feeder feature on the MX870 and MX350 but, at roughly half the cost of the range-topping model, if you want the MX340 to print on both sides, you’ll need to turn the paper over yourself.

The Pixma iP2702 is a cheap and cheerful entry level inkjet printer which nevertheless features the Easy Photo Print, Easy Web Print and Auto Photo Fix II software and also looks pretty stylish. As you’d probably expect, all four printers will support Windows 7 and Mac OS 10.6 Snow Leopard.

Canon is rolling out a couple of new multifunction color printers of the imageCLASS series — MF8050Cn and MF8350Cdn. The devices are tailored for small office and home users, and have an appealing price tag.

Canon MF8350Cdn prints as fast as 21 pages per minute in both color and black-and-white modes. Double-sided printing is supported; besides, this model is also a copier and fax machine.

imageCLASS MF8350Cdn is ideal for small companies given the standard paper cassette of 250-sheet capacity, a multipurpose 50-sheet paper tray and optional 250-sheet paper cassette.

Canon MF8050Cn is half as fast — only 12 ppm in monochrome and 8 pages in color. It bests fits the needs of small offices and home users.

Maximum resolution of the two printers is 600x600dpi. You can connect into network for use with several computers. The printers allow saving scanned documents directly on USB storage device.

imageCLASS MF8050Cn and MF8350Cdn sport 5-line display for menu navigations, feature Canon Auto Gradation Adjustment for color management and color cartridges usage monitoring for toner saving.

Speaking of the toner. Canon MF8050Cn printer uses the same 4 color toner cartridges as the MF8350Cdn does. Yellow, magenta, cyan (Canon 2659B001AA, Canon 2660B001AA and Canon 2661B001AA accordingly) have the toner yield of 2,900 pages at 5% average page coverage. The black cartridge — Canon 2662B001AA — is capable of printing 3,400 pages before it depletes.

In a study on reliability in 2008 made by PCWorld magazine, printers were found slightly more reliable than desktops or laptops. About 3 in 10 respondents reported having one or more significant hardware or software problems with their printers during the preceding year. That figure correlates neatly with customer satisfaction: Two-thirds of users said that they were either very satisfied or extremely satisfied with their printers.

Canon is to printers what Apple is to desktops and laptops: Simply put, our readers love their products. Like last year, the vendor garnered high marks in eight of nine categories, missing only on the “Problem was never resolved” measure.

Meanwhile Hewlett-Packard, which earned five below-average scores, stays on the schneid. Indeed HP’s printer grades in 2008 are worse than they were last year, when it collected subpar marks in just two areas (“Any significant problem” and “Average phone service”). Readers deemed HP printers average–up from below average–in usability this year. In any event, despite its poor showing, HP retains a commanding share of the market: Of the 16,000-plus readers who participated in the printer assessment, half use an HP inkjet or laser printer.

Lexmark didn’t fare much better than HP did, though it did improve on last year’s results. Our readers slapped it with it four subpar grades, down from six last year. Specifically, our readers indicate that Lexmark still needs to upgrade its printers’ usability and reliability; its phone support is improving, however, as is its ability to resolve customer problems.

Kodak dropped a bit this year, too, slipping to a below-average score (for three total) in ease of use.

Canon Pixma iP1900 is as simple printer as it gets. This is no surprise given this printer’s low price. The PictBridge, a memory card slot and an LCD are all missing from this printer. The lack of a output tray is probably not so predictable though, so you’d better be sure there’s a lot of space before the printer to stop finished pages from falling to the floor.

Inkjet technology hasn’t advanced much in the past 12 months. This is a plus for the Canon Pixma iP1900 as it means there’s no problem with it keeping up with the specifications of other printers.

The 4800 x 1200 dpi resolution is more than you’d ever really need, and the 2-picolitre ink droplet matches that of more expensive competitors of Canon Pixma iP1900.

Thanks to the use of Canon’s ChromaLife100 system, photo prints are guaranteed to last a good century if stored in an album. The software assortment is not so rich, but Canon’s Easy-PhotoPrint EX suite is enough for most printing situations.

As for the quality, don’t expect high-end text printing from the Canon Pixma iP1900. Even in the finest mode (at about 1.9 pages per minute), text is rather fuzzy and poorly defined. However, the results are legible, and the middle mode (with a ppm of 6.3) produces readable results at a reasonable rate.

Color graphics are never fast though. On paper the printer is stated to produce 17 color pages per minute, but the reality is not so bright — the speed is about 10 times slower even in the fastest mode. The Canon Pixma iP1900’s gamut is a touch light, and certain colors are reproduced inaccurately. The results are OK, but brooding intensity certainly isn’t a virtue of the Canon Pixma iP1900’s output.