Canon Pixma MP510 review

It always used to be the case that all-in-one devices used to do three things badly rather than one thing well, combining inferior printing with unimpressive scanning. Recent designs have started to edge away from this, but few do it as convincingly as the MP510.

Top photo printer

The photo output is extremely impressive, churning out borderless A4 images that wouldn’t shame a dedicated photo printer. It’s quick, too, even when printing photos, and text print gets both a separate ink tank and paper tray.

There’s a comprehensive list of options when printing from the impressive range of memory cards – all types are supported, although you need an adapter for wilfully obscure types like Memory Sticks and xD.

Built-in infra-red means you can print straight from a compatible phone, too, although irritatingly you can’t do so from a simple USB stick.  There’s also no fax capability, but we’re going to interpret that as a plus as it will only help hasten the death of faxes as we know them.

Scanning bonus

Scanning isn’t quite as impressive but it’s a useful extra. You can scan in A4-size documents at 1200 x 2400 resolution and control how they’re saved from the printer itself without having to turn to the PC.

It’s even quite attractive with it. While the bread-bin bulk will need a decent amount of desk space, it is at least finished in silver trim rather than surgical-appliance beige – although at this price we’d probably put up with even that.