Canon i-SENSYS MF724Cdw review

Canon's i-SENSYS MF724Cdw is a colour laser multifunction peripheral (MFP), aimed at the home or small office. It costs more than an entry-level device, but the extra outlay buys a better specification: the MF724Cdw has a 50-page automatic document feeder (ADF) and can print and scan automatically on both sides of a page (duplex printing and scanning), so you can sit back while it makes a double-sided copy of a double-sided document. You can connect it to a wired or wireless network, and it has a front-panel USB port for direct scans and prints.

Even for its type, this is quite a heavy MFP - you'll need two people to unpack and move it about. We weren't overly keen on its large touchscreen, which seemed slow to respond, and not always accurate. As a matter of course we tried to update the firmware, but over several attempts, the MFP reported either that the server wasn't available or that there had been a communication error.

While it might have a good range of features, the MF724Cdw isn't especially fast: Canon quotes a modest 20 pages-per-minute (ppm) print speed, and we recorded 16.5ppm in our letter test. We were more impressed by its colour graphics speed of 14.8ppm, though. The flipside of this relaxed pace is that the print engine is unusually quiet, with the comparative hush spoiled only by a loud cooling fan.

Connected over wired Ethernet, the scanner needed 25 seconds to capture an A4 page at 300 dots per inch (dpi), but only 15 seconds at 150dpi. Single-page photocopies were quite quick for a laser device, taking just 15 seconds in black or 18 seconds in colour. Using the ADF, we made 10 single-sided mono copies in 43 seconds - quick enough - while the same job in colour was less competitive, needing 77 seconds.

Our test results were impressive. Black text prints were predictably good, but colour graphics were great, with strong colours, a consistent toner finish and no obvious artefacts or jaggedness. Unfortunately, the printer's tendency toward lively colours was less welcome on photos, which seemed warm and a little too saturated. The MF724Cdw's scanner is much better than the majority of office-focused devices. Despite a maximum 600dpi resolution, its scans were sharply focused and packed full of detail, with the Auto Tone feature ensuring great exposure on a range of originals.

Unlike Dell's competing H825cdw, the MF724Cdw has just four consumables which each combine toner and drum. Fairly typically, those supplied in the box are good for a meagre 1,200 black and 1,400 pages, but normal capacity replacements should print around 3,400 black pages and 2,900 in colour, giving running costs of around 9.3p per page. Buy the black value pack, which contains two toners giving 6,800 pages, and this falls to 8.9p.

Verdict

A comparable inkjet would still be much cheaper to run, but if you're set on a laser device there's little between this and the Dell H825cdw. Both are good: buy the latter if speed is a priority or the MF724Cdw for slightly lower costs.