If you go to Canon's Web site to compare the Canon Pixma MX392 Office All-In-One Inkjet Printer with the Canon Pixma MX372 Office All-in-One that it's in the process of replacing at this writing, you may be left wondering why Canon bothered with a new model. The two offer essentially the same features, from their 30-page automatic document feeders to their 100-sheet paper trays. They even print at essentially the same speed on our tests. However, the MX392 turns out to deliver notably better looking output, which makes it, as well as its output, much more attractive for the price.
Like Canon's other MX printers, including the Canon Pixma MX452 Wireless Office All-In-One Printer that I recently reviewed, the MX392 is nominally meant as an office, rather than home, printer. That's not to say it can't easily serve in the dual role of home and home office printer or as a strictly home printer. However, it focuses on office-related features, including its automatic document feeder (ADF) and its ability to fax, which means its best fit is as a personal printer in any size office.
Basics, Setup, and Speed
The MX392 can print and fax from, as well as scan to a PC, and it can work as a standalone copier and fax machine. Thanks to the 30-page ADF, which supplements the letter-sized flatbed, it can also scan multi-page documents and legal-size pages easily. However, it doesn't offer such photo-centric features as the ability to print directly from memory cards and PictBridge cameras, which are all but standard on printers meant primarily for home use.
Two key features peg the printer for personal use. First, there's no network support, and, second, the paper handling is limited to a 100-sheet paper capacity and manual duplexing with no upgrade options. The first makes it hard to share the printer. The second limits it to light-duty printing, which should be sufficient for most personal use, but would be a little meager for a shared printer, even in a micro office.
Setting up the MX392 is standard fare for a USB-connected printer. For my tests, I installed it on a system running Windows Vista.
The MX392 came in at the same speed as the Canon MX372 on our tests, which is consistent with Canon rating both at the same speed. For both printers, the speed is best described as a little slow, but not too much slower than most of its competition.
On our business applications suite (timed using QualityLogic's hardware and software) the MX392 came in at an effective 2.0 pages per minute (ppm), essentially tied with the MX452, at 2.1 ppm, and not too far behind the Epson WorkForce WF-2530, at 2.6 ppm. It's lot slower than the Editors' Choice Brother MFC-J430w, at 4.3 ppm. But, of course, the fast speed for business applications is a key reason why the Brother printer is Editors' Choice.
The MX392 also came in at a slow speed for photos, averaging 2 minutes 9 seconds for a 4 by 6. The Brother MFC-J430w was only a little faster, at 1:59, but most printers in this price range manage speeds between 1:03 and 1:39.
Output Quality and Other Issues
Output quality for the MX392 is reasonably good overall, with text at the low end of a tight range where most inkjet MFPs fall, and both graphics and photos dead on par. Text characters aren't anywhere near good enough for, say, serious desktop publishing, but as long as you're not too much of a perfectionist, you won't have any complaints.
Graphics quality is easily good enough for any internal business need including PowerPoint handouts and the like. Most people would also consider them good enough to hand out to an important client or customer who you want to impress with a sense of your professionalism. Photo quality is roughly equivalent to what you can expect from drugstore prints, which makes them true photo quality by definition.
The most natural fit for this printer is as a personal MFP for light-duty use in any size office. If you expect to print a lot, you'll be better off with a faster choice like the Brother MFC-J430w. But if you print only a few pages a day, and also need the ability to fax, copy, and scan, the Canon Pixma MX392 Office All-In-One Inkjet Printer can certainly do the job, which makes it a more than reasonable choice.
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