Main Review

The Canon MP540 fits easily into our £100 budget and manages to offer the best compromise for the money. The unit has the appearance and build quality that you would associate with a much more expensive product. It is the only unit of the three tested that has a proper TFT LCD display, even though it’s quite small. Pop the screen up and you reveal a neat looking control panel, with a very Canon-esque control wheel, though in practice I felt this was very fiddly to use. Unusually, there is a paper tray that fits under the unit, as well as the usual top-loader at the back. In general, plain paper goes underneath and photo paper loads, by default, from the top.

Print quality is pretty good, with maybe a small criticism of a lack of saturation in some prints, but they easily out-rank the other units tested this month. Photo print s speed is not bad either, with an A4 borderless sheet emerging in under four minutes.

There are no complaints about the scanner, either, which again easily out-paced the opposition and produced good colour and sharp detail.

Printer Max. Dots Per Inch (Dpi): Up To 9600  X 2400 dpi
No. Inks/Colours: 5 Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Black, Pigmented Black (Single Ink Tanks)
Ink Type: Dye-Based Colour And Black Inks, Pigment Black (Plain Paper Printing)
Scanner Max Resolution: Up To 2400 X 4800dpi
Scanner Type: Contact Image Sensor (CIS)
Scanner Sheet Feeder?: No
Fax Facility: No
Copier Facility: Colour And Mono
Memory Card Types Supported: CF I&II, CF Microdrive, SD/SDHC/MMC, Sony Memory Stick Pro, Sony Memory Stick Duo
LCD Screen:  Colour TFT Display
Dimensions: 450 x 366 x 157mm
Weight: 7.8kg

Verdict

The Canon MP540 offers remarkable value for money.

Reviewer: WDC Team