Canon MG8170 is Canon?s latest addition to Pixma series. It is a printer, copier and scanner, graced with a dynamic interface, multiple printing utilities and an eye-catching form. MG8170 is equipped with Canon?s FINE technology, which is known for high quality imaging. Besides it has Energy Star vouching for it.

MG8170 is a bulky printer with a black and shiny rectangular body. The top, which is the scanner lid, has a 3.5-inch LCD display supported by an extensive touch-based interface. The bright coloured display is adjustable and can be raised for convenient viewing. To control it, you have several touch keys, which are purpose-specific and glow to indicate what keys can be used for a particular task, saving you the exercise of searching for it. It saves a bit of power too. The interface registers slimmest of touches and responds fast.

The keys are big and are arranged like this: Three select keys under the display, followed by, On/Off switch, Home and back on the left side of a big OK key with cursor wheel. On the right are black, colour and cancel keys. The power port and a USB2.0 port are at the back. USB flash port is placed on front along with a closed panel for SD, micro SD cards. There is a paper tray in the front and a paper cassette at the backside.

Canon MG8170 is an inkjet which rolls out A4 to 4×6 size sheets in PDF and JPEG formats. Photo printing can be carried out directly from a USB flash drive and SD or micro SD cards. One can also run slide shows from the flash drive on the printer LCD and also alter the settings and preferences as desired. A special print option allows eleven template formats for A4 sheets. The print quality is crisp and intact, though it takes couple of seconds for the ink to dry up. Smallest font size of 8 showed the same amount of clarity. A4 colour printout of text and photo document takes 70 seconds and a black & white text document takes just 14 seconds. Dupleix black & white A4 print takes 50 seconds. A 4×6 glossy photo print showed remarkable vibrancy and took 30 seconds. Speed definitely is not what one should expect from it, as it also takes some time to warm-up.

It isn?t just a scanner but also a film scanner and can scan a 35 mm film strip, converting your old films into a long lasting soft copy. The scan quality is decent and is made easy with Canon MP Navigator EX, a one click scanning application. Scanning an A4 colour sheet with document and photo takes 40 seconds. MG 8170 copier works faster and copied an A4 colour document in 25 seconds and a black & white in 15 seconds. Copying can be run directly from a USB flash drive or a memory card. It is Wi-Fi equipped and will serve home or small office needs very well. It houses six ink cartridges at a time, namely 725 PGBK, 726 grey, 726 BK, 726 magenta, 726 cyan and 726 yellow and uses them quite judiciously. Each cartridge is worth Rs 725.

For 26k, one can have a laser printer. Generally, an inkjet costs lesser as it is more suited for home use. MG8170 has quality on its side, but that?s not enough. Even Pixma MG5270 is a good performer, but at a relatively lower price. MG8170 has a film scanner, which can restore old negative films.

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