[Review] Canon Pixma E500 Inkjet MFD Print/Scan/Copy

[Alien]

Canon Pixma Ink Efficient E500 - [Short term review]



Price: Rs. 5750/-

Flipkart Product Page
Canon India Official Product Page and Specifications

This is my first printer, so can't compare with any other product.

Build Quality: It is pretty average to be honest and the plastics feel flimsy. The paper input and output trays feel as if they might break with some accidental pressure. The glossy blue/black finish looks good but is a fingerprint and dust magnet. I would have loved a matte finish.

Print Quality: Both colour and black/white prints are pretty good in standard mode but in draft mode the texts appear smudgy and the colours dull. The print speeds are pretty decent, but i don't know how it fares against the competition. Haven't printed any photos yet but here are two quotes from external reviews.

Unlike Canon printers we have been reviewing over the years, the photo quality was not really up to the mark. Colours had a darker shade than the original, while there was graininess throughout. A saving grace was that the A4 colour photo printed really fast in just 3 minutes and 40 seconds.

For full photo prints, the time taken was even longer, but in terms of quality, it is simply superb. Remember that we’re keeping in mind the price tag as well. Detailing is impeccable and we don’t use that word too often. The added vivid mode allows you to spruce up the colour of the images, if you’re not satisfied with the colour intensity. Extremely fine details like colour overlapping, gradients, sharpness and colour retention have been taken care of really well. We noticed a very fine grain for certain boxes of colours and colour tones, but that was barely visible. Overall, images appeared crisp and clear and if compared to printers above Rs.15,000, the difference was minimalistic, at best.

Scanning: The device can scan up to a resolution of 1200*2400 dpi. Photo scans are pretty good and the colour and details are well preserved.

Copy: This does the work pretty well, but it is more affordable to get it done outside when you have many documents. For the odd one/two copying it does the job pretty well.

Some other significant points:
1. Control panel

As you can see, it has only the '+' button. So if you have to reduce the number of copies needed you press all the way up to 9 and then come to 1. They could have provided a '-' button. Otherwise the control panel is pretty easy to use.
2. Setting up the printer and changing cartridges is very easy.
3. The printer is very noisy and might give you a scare.
4. It stops automatically while printing, giving the impression that the paper is stuck but it resumes printing after a couple of seconds. Don't know if this is normal.

Features sorely missed:
No wireless, no memory card reader. You need a computer for printing almost anything. Even though i knew what i was buying, i miss not having them..

Cartridge price and Cost per page:
The standard Black cartridge costs Rs. 650/- with a claimed page yield of 800, making the cost per page 80 paise only. The colour cartridge is priced at Rs. 825/- with a claimed yield of 400 pages. Cost for colour print comes to Rs. 2/- per page. Real world yield may be less, but it is still very much lower when compared to the competition. The main reason i went for this.

Now some pictures..







Links to external reviews.
Link 1
Link 2

[prasanth11]

good review

can you give me actual number of page yield against as advertised by canon

does colour cartridges give atleast 300 pages ?
and b/w will give atleast 600 pages?

[Alien]

I'm not a heavy user, just used the printer for 3 weeks now. I can comment on real time page yield only after using it for some more time, till i drain one set of cartridges.

[prasanth11]

Thanks for the reply

anyways you have put up a very nice review, will help lot of people

Kudos

I am struck between Canon E500, hp k209g and brother DCP J125

i NEED a econimical printer with better quality of the three printer

i find Brother DCP J125 is also good buy as it has individual tanks and one can use Non OEM compatible cartridges.
Even Original Brother catridges come under 1200-1300 or even less
any suggestions from anyone would be greatly appreciated

[GhorMaanas]

nice review alien!

could you just sum up very briefly points of difference between MP287 and this model here?
take your time. no hurry