CANON IMAGECLASS MF4450 TONER CARTRIDGE

Canon ImageClass MF4450 Review

Overview:

As the stripped down version of the popular Canon ImageClass MF4750DN, the ImageClass MF4450 has a lot to offer the personal user at a lower price point than its network ready counterpart. Unfortunately, the savings are not enough to make this unit particularly more appealing than the higher end model that is equipped with duplexing as well as Ethernet.

Pros:

The Canon ImageClass MF4450 does maintain a flatbed scanner as well as a 35 page automatic document feeder, making it great for personal scanning and stand alone copying. The unit also makes a great faxing tool as the ADF can help a great deal when sending very large faxes.

Faxing capabilities include up to 256 sheets worth of storage data to protect your incoming faxes in the event of a paper jam or outage and a Super G3 33.6 Kbps modem. The unit only includes 4 one touch speed dial buttons but you can program up to 100 numbers into the machine’s phone book.

Copies can only be made at resolutions of up to 600 x 600 dots per inch. This means that imagery copied through the machine will be of somewhat substandard quality, though simple black and white text should replicate just fine. The copy speeds, like print speeds, are mediocre at only 24 copies per minute. Similarly priced units that are available can far outmatch this copy speed. The device’s first copy time is good though at about 9 seconds, meaning those requiring a quick single page reproduction will be in and out in no time.

Optical scans also top out at only 600 x 600 dots per inch, but users can take advantage of an interpolated scan for quality up to 9600 x 9600 dots per inch, though these enhanced scans often take painfully long amounts of time to execute. The scanner is also capable of rotating images and “pushing” scans to a PC. Unlike the other features of the unit, the Canon ImageClass MF4450 can scan in full color at 24 bits.

Cons:

The unit is a little large for a USB only printer, as it would most likely end up taking up a lot of space on one’s desktop. Additionally, the additional network support costing roughly $50 extra simply makes the Canon ImageClass MF4750DN the more attractive printer. If a built in duplexer and network card would truly go to waste for your uses, go ahead and save the money, but if there is any chance whatsoever that these features could be valuable, shell out the extra dough.

Canon also rates the Canon ImageClass MF4450 slightly slower than the 4750 as far as print speed with the brand claiming 24 pages per minute against 26. While this is only a marginal difference in speed, it can prove to be noticeable when dealing with large projects. Essentially though, both printers are going to operate with the same hardware throughout and the boost in speed can probably be attributed to additional memory, which can be added to the 4450 for a price.