Canon Pixma E460: An all rounder with a reasonable price tag

Canon caters to the needs of budget conscious consumers via its multifunction Pixma E460 printer.

The Canon Pixma E460 is an AIO (all-in-one) printer that offers printing, scanning and copying functions while still maintaining an affordable price tag.

Priced under RM300, it’s capable of printing documents up to A4 size, has built-in wireless capability and support for Cloud services so you can easily print photos or documents directly from your mobile devices.

It also allows you to print content from popular websites, including Facebook, Twitter, Picasa, Photobucket, Flickr, Evernote and Dropbox.

AFFORDABLE INK: The E460’s two ink cartridges are reasonably priced.

The printer runs on two ink cartridges: black (PG-47) and colour (CL-57) . The black cartridge, which Canon claims is ­capable of printing up to 400 A4 pages, is sold at RM25 each. The colour cartridge can be purchased for RM49.90 and the company claims it’s able to print up to 300 pages.

Also, the printer comes with a three-year warranty.

Easy to use

We found it to be a relatively fuss-free experience when setting up the Pixma E460 for the first time.

Canon provides a CD containing utilities software — installing it will make it easier to access and configure the printer’s functions. This is especially handy if you’re the kind of person who prefers not having to go through lots of software settings.

There is also a mobile app for iOS and Android called Easy-PhotoPrint which you can use to print images and documents directly from your smartphone. It has a fairly simple interface, so you can very quickly set it up and start printing.

ACCEPTABLE: Print quality was generally satisfactory.

There is also a Facebook app called Print Your Days which you can use to create and print collages of your Facebook photos. However, according to a notice posted on the app’s Facebook page, the service will be discontinued from April 30, 2015.

This was due to difficulties in maintaining the service as a result of “changes in the specifications of the integrated Facebook’s ­application programming interface”.

As for the print quality, we found it to be generally satisfactory, especially given the fact that this is one of the more affordable Canon printers out there.

Photo prints were vibrant and documents that were printed or copied also came out fairly crisp.

Printing A4 documents ­usually took slightly more than a minute, whereas photo printing was typically below two minutes.

SPEEDY: The E460 may not have a fax function but it does scan documents quickly. 

Scanning was much quicker though and usually took less than a minute. Meanwhile, when it comes to copying a document, the printer can get it done in as little as 15 seconds.

The E460 can carry out duplex printing, but you will need to manually turn and feed the paper back in order for printing to be done on the opposite side of the paper.

Viable choice

In general, we were quite satisfied with the E460. What is especially appealing about it is the price. The cost of getting replacement ink cartridges is also fairly reasonable.

However, as the printer uses only one colour cartridge, this requires you to replace the entire ink tank once any one of the primary colours runs out.

Consequently, you may end up having to replace the printer’s colour cartridge fairly often and this might end up costing more over the long run.

There is also no fax function on the E460, so the printer may not be suitable for home office users who may need to have such a feature on hand.

On the whole, the E460 is a suitable option for those who are looking for a multifunction printer that won’t break the bank.

Pros: Has all the basic printer functions you need; affordably priced printer and replacement ink cartridges.

Cons: Entire colour cartridge has to be changed when one colour runs out; printout size limited to A4.

Pixma E460
(Canon)
Dual-cartridge colour inkjet printer
PRINT SPEED: 4.0ipm (A4 colour)/8.0ipm (A4 black and white)
PRINT RESOLUTION: Up to 4,800 x 6,00dpi
SCAN RESOLUTION: 600 x 1,200dpi
COPY SPEED: Up to 1.6ipm for colour
INTERFACE: USB 2.0 hi-speed
DIMENSIONS (W x D x H): 426 x 306 x 145mm
WEIGHT: 3.5kg
WEBSITE: www.canon.com.my
PRICE: RM279
RATING: 4 stars
Review unit courtesy of Canon Malaysia, 1800-88-2000