Canon PIXMA MP160 All-In-One Photo Printer (Gray)

• Sleek, stylish unit can help improve office efficiency and productivity
• offers resolution as high as 4800 by 1200 color dots per inch and copy speeds up to 22 pages per minute in monochrome and 17 ppm in color
• Print photos directly from a PictBridge compatible camera or DV camcorder; borderless 4 x 6 photos print in just 52 seconds
• Comes with a one-year warranty
• All-In-One photo printer lets you print, copy and scan photos and documents

I was reasonably happy with my 5-month old printer until I discovered how Canon''s ink management works. These comments are not necessarily specific to the MP-160 and some are probably relevant to any printer using Canon''s new chipped cartridges. I learned a lot from a Canon MP-150 (v. similar to the 160) service manual obtained from the net.

Here are my beefs:

--the driver provides only 4 warning levels: 70%, 40%, "low," (whatever that means) and out. After "low" comes on, I''ve been able to continue printing for a long time, but I''m afraid to start an important job because I don''t know how much ink is really there. And I now realize I replaced my first color cartridge prematurely when the "low" light came on not realizing I could probably go for quite a lot longer without replacing the cartridge. FWIW, I got into the service readout. I''m still on my 1st standard black cartridge (low warning light is on) after having printed 368 pages since I got the printer (the vast majority in black economy mode). Canon estimates 355 pages/black tank in standard mode. I''m on my 2nd standard color cartridge (low warning light is on; having replaced the 1st prematurely). Canon estimates 308 standard sheets/color tank and 120 4x6''s. I''ve printed 9 photos.

--If I understand the MP-150 service manual, a standard black cartridge contains 43 gm of ink. The printer periodically cleans itself and uses 0.1 gm of ink when it does. My service readout says that my printer has cleaned itself 10-13 times and if the MP 160 uses the same amount of ink to clean itself, that means that 3% of my ink has gone to cleaning. This system of ink management would also explain why my color ink level suddenly went from 40% to "low" even when I hadn''t recently been printing in color. I was probably near "low," the printer cleaned itself and since there are only 4 warning levels, the ink level appeared to drop suddenly for no reason.

--Canon has made it difficult to refill their cartridges or use 3rd party cartridges because the ink monitoring system is disabled unless you''re using a new Canon cartridge. So if you use a refilled or 3rd party cartridge, you won''t know how much ink you have left.

Very telling: the MP-150''s product life, per the service manual, is 6000 pages (about half in black, half in color) or 3 years of use, whichever comes first. That is, Canon **expects the MP-150 to fail in 3 years or less**. This doesn''t bode well for my MP-160.

I did not spend much on the printer. In fact, I''ll pay more for a couple sets of ink cartridges than I paid for the printer. It seems to me that by building low-end printers with very limited product life and by making it hard to use generic inks, Canon is encouraging us to fill landfills with their printers.

Buy Canon PIXMA MP160 All-In-One Photo Printer (Gray) Now

STRENGTHS:

Canon printing and scanning quality; reliable; prints photos directly from camera; can make copies as stand-alone copier without being connected to PC.

WEAKNESSES:

Tiny ink cartridges run out quickly and are very expensive for small capacity!; Somewhat lower scanning resolution 600 dpi is ok for documents but for high quality photo scans 2400 dpi is preferred.

OVERVIEW:

Overall, I thought it was a great all-in-one machine, printing high quality color photos and grayscale documents. It saves space and is packed with features. So far, I printed one page in color. Colors are OK but ink runs out quickly! Therefore I will be using it mostly for scanning, printing, and copying documents in grayscale mode. You may even copy your documents without connecting it to PC. One of the cons is a bit high noise of its paper loading mechanism. For ink replacement I recommend buying original Canon ink cartridges only! Because generic ink may clog printing nozzles. Canon MP160 appeals only by its 3-in-1 function, nothing much exciting beyond that.

PRICE PER PAGE ANALYSIS:

If you use it mostly for grayscale printing, then I don''t recommend it because it is VERY EXPENSIVE to run! I counted about over 200 pages printed in grayscale mode and now both ink tanks showing low ink indicator and asking for replacement. Capacity of PG-40 blank ink is 16ml and it cost $20. I have Canon IP3000 printer, it uses BCI-3eBK black with 27ml capacity, which cost $15. Which one is a cheaper to run?! I think it is evident from comparison of capacity and price. Now let''s go into a deeper analysis. Although I don''t print in color, this printer uses both ink tanks, PG-40 black and CL-41 for grayscale printing. Replacement of these two original inks will cost you $45 (PG-40 $20 and CL-41 $25 ) shipped free from Amazon as any orders over $25. Now do the fair calculation. You can print maximum 300 pages in grayscale using both inks though. Now,$45x100(cents)/300(pages)= 15 cents per page. I have to cry out loud to Canon WHAT A RIP OFF! Although I don''t like HP brand, now I''m planning on buying HP 1020 monochrome laser printer. Because it is better quality and better value for grayscale printing. Even though cartridge (HP Q2612A) of HP 1020 is more expensive ($59 shipped), it will last for about 2000 pages. Divide $59 to 2000 pages, it will be about 2.95 cents a page (59x100cents/2000pp=2.95 cents)! Nothing personal against Canon, I still love Canon cameras, scanners and other printers. It rather was just fair calculation of expenses. Bring on your counterarguments in comments, if you have any.

FOLLOW-UP:

If you open "My Printer" from setting you may select use black ink only option. Here is how:

Open "My Printer" and click on Printer Settings;

From there, click on "Maintenance" tab and then click on "INK CARTRIDGE SETTINGS", select Black Only. You may change this option any time if you decide to print in color later. However, if you print mostly in grayscale mode I''d highly recommend black-ink-only setting.

I''m not sure if it will help saving ink if you intend to use printer for grayscale prints exclusively, like I do. Because I still think that for cleaning purposes printer will be using color ink as well. And believe me, printer cleans itself more often as it needs too! I''m suspicious if it does cleaning almost or close to every time you turn it on.

Of course that''s the only way to make even a thrifty user who uses printer occasionally to buy ink over and over again.

Read Best Reviews of Canon PIXMA MP160 All-In-One Photo Printer (Gray) Here

Alas, I was not so fortunate as a few of the other reviewers who practically STOLE this printer for a mere on Black Friday.

However, for the just-under that I paid after rebate, I am extremely happy with my purchase. This printer is not compact but neither is it particularly hulking, and otherwise is very aesthetically pleasing. More importantly, the software does not hopelessly bog down my Pentium 4''s system resources like my old HP multifunction did. A plague upon HP for its infamous bloatware!

The printing is a tad on the noisy side (takes a good 30 seconds to get ready upon powering on) but nothing I''d really complain about. Print quality is excellent, though I have not tried printing photos with it---I bought it mainly for text printing, copying and scanning which it all does quite well, even though I had not bothered to align the print cartridges straight out of the box. (Developing digital photos is still much cheaper and more convenient at my local Wallyworld or Sam''s Club so why bother.)

At first I was a bit hesitant about this model not having as high a scan resolution as the higher-priced models, until I realized that I actually don''t even use higher than 600dpi anyways! Copying is also a one-touch, standalone (no PC required) breeze.

Two lessons learned herein:

1. Don''t buy more printer/scanner/copier than you actually need! The mp180 would have cost about twice as much, and for features that I can VERY happily live without (higher scan resolution, a tiny LCD screen, and memory card slots).

2. God bless cheap overseas manufacturing and the steadily declining cost of better technology: my 4 year old crappy HP multifunction (a T65) cost about 4 times more and couldn''t hold a candle to this baby!

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I brought this printer for 20 bucks on black Friday at Best Buy. I didn''t need anything fancy for my college dorm. While a little on the bulky size, this printer is very fast in both printing and scanning. However, I noticed that the text quality is lower than the HP printer I have at home. The ink price relative to HP is lower. The PG-40 offers 16ml of ink for around 20 bucks whereas HP''s entry level all in one (F380) uses the HP 21 cartridge that offers only 5ml of ink for 15 dollars. Personally, if the MP160 was not on sale, I would opt for the MP180. The MP180 offers a LCD screen (as opposed to the MP160''s LED screen), memory card slots, and a higher resolution scanner.

I made my decision to buy this all-in-one printer based on Consumer Reports testing and they were right on. It was inexpensive and does everything I ask of it very well.