It's a funny thing with domestic inkjet printers but they seem to be just a vehicle for selling over-priced replacement cartridges. There are options to buy unbranded or recycled cartridges but I've had mixed results with these so tend to stick with the manufacturers products.

My old HP was a three way multi-function device that printed, scanned and faxed. It also copied but that is just a variant on the above. It was a bulky machine that looked like a cut down office copier with a flimsy feeder tray on top and a heavily buttoned control panel. It was ugly in an industrial way but that was a popular style a few years back. It produced pretty good document and photo prints and the scanner was adequate for documents but not of a standard to copy photos. When coming to choose a new printer these were the characteristics I was interested in. It had to print to a high standard, the scanner needed to be better and I didn't want it to look like an ugly lump of corporate kit with attachments falling off all the time. Despite painfully setting up the fax functionality first time round I have never received or sent a fax using the HP, in fact I don't think I've faxed anything this century so that functionality was dispensable.

Out of the box ~
Canon supplies everything you need to get you up and running so with the printer you get power cables, ink cartridges, CD/DVD tray and set up disc. You'll need your own printer cable but this is standard USB connection so you should have one.

Look and feel ~
The MP600 looks very good and I don't mind admitting that this played no small part in my decision to buy. With flaps closed it looks quite stylish with a matt silver plastic body and glossy black panels. When not in use it is fairly discrete but it doesn't take much to bring it online. A section of the cover lifts to reveal the LCD screen and control panel and the front folds down to collect the paper.

Paper is stored in a cassette that slides into the bottom of the unit, closing flush with the front panel. This is a very good system as paper is stored flat and therefore doesn't warp if left for a few days. Paper can also be fed from an extendable feeder on the top, this also allows duplex printing. This feeder folds out of sight into the body when not in use.

Performance ~
As you'd expect these days text printing is excellent and virtually laser quality, colour printing of graphics is equally impressive with strong, accurate colour reproduction. Photo printing is good, better than my old HP, but still not as good as from Boots or Jessops. Given that Canon themselves quote a cost per print of 10p for 6x4 photos it's not as if it's any cheaper either.

Device Type: Copier / printer / scanner
Copier Type: Digital
Dimensions (WxDxH): 45 cm x 38.9 cm x 19.4 cm
Weight: 10.3 kg
Inkjet Technology: Canon FINE (Full-lithography inkjet Nozzle Engineering) - 5-ink
Max Copying Speed: Up to 30 ppm (mono) / up to 24 ppm (colour)
Max Printing Speed : Up to 30 ppm (mono) / up to 24 ppm (colour)
Max Printing Resolution: Up to 600 x 600 dpi (mono) / up to 9600 x 2400 dpi (colour)
Scanning: 2400 x 4800 dpi
Display: 2.5"
Original Size: 216 x 297 mm (max)
Media Size: Legal (216 x 356 mm) (max)
Media Type: Envelopes, plain paper, iron-on transfers, photo paper, printable CD/DVD disc
Standard Media Capacity: 300 sheets
PC Connection: Hi-Speed USB, Ethernet 10 Base-T/100 Base-TX, IEEE 802.11b, IEEE 802.11g, IrDA
Office Machine Features: Print from memory card