Canon Pixma MP160 review

The Pixma MP160 connects via USB only, but it does provide support for both Macs and Windows PCs. Setup is simple and straightforward, and the included documentation will walk you through both the MP160 and the MP180.

The Canon Pixma MP160 posted impressive task speeds, especially given its low price tag. It printed text at 5.81 pages per minute (ppm), graphics prints at 1.62ppm, and 4x6 photos at 1.36ppm. The photo speed is especially impressive, as it's just shy of the 1.84ppm posted by the much more expensive Canon Pixma MP830. It also held its own in scanning: 6.47ppm for black-and-white scans and 5.61ppm for color scans.

We were also pleasantly surprised by the MP160's print quality, though we can't say the same for the scan quality. Its text prints weren't perfect--we saw some jagginess on edges--but characters were consistently formed and text was readable down to very small point sizes. The color graphics page was especially impressive: it showed smooth curves, excellent color reproduction, lifelike skin tones and excellent photo elements, a grayscale devoid of color, and clean, sharp edges. The only issue we noticed was some minor banding in color gradients, but overall, we were very pleased with the color graphics page. The 4x6 test photos were quite good, as well. We liked the sharp detail and the vibrant colors in the photos, including in skin tones, though we did notice some graininess. Still, the quality more than suffices for snapshots.

The MP160's Achilles' heel is scanning--specifically, color reproduction. The color scan was sharp, but the colors were so dark and murky as to be wrong. A magenta gradient turned out purple, and a cyan gradient inexplicably ended up aqua. The grayscale scan didn't fair much better: again, it handled patterns well enough, but both ends of the grayscale were compressed, the dark end in particular, so that details were lost in the shadows.

Canon provides a one-year limited warranty for the Pixma MP160, as well as a year of free, toll-free phone support, Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. and Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. ET. You can extend the warranty to three years for $95. You can also get tech support via e-mail, and Canon says it will respond within 24 hours. Canon's site has FAQs, a troubleshooting tool, downloadable drivers and software, and PDFs of product and software manuals.