Pros
- Inexpensive; excellent documentation
- Simple, intuitive control panel
Cons
- Garish skin tones; expensive black ink
- Poor paper tray design
At A Glance
It's a surprisingly decent machine for the price, but its high black ink costs are the tradeoff.
Manufacturer’s Description
Compact and stylish multifunction photo printer with 1.8 LCD & memory card slots. PIXMA MP490 prides itself on is ease of use so you can conveniently get the photo lab quality you want. The new Auto Photo Fix II software is built right into the machine and automatically corrects your images while easy viewing and editing can be done right on the 1.8 LCD.
The Specs
| Pricing | |
|---|---|
| Part Number | 3745B002 |
| Requirements | |
| Operating System Compatibility |
|
| Display | |
| Display type | Color |
| Ports and Connections | |
| USB 1.1 | No |
| USB 2.0 | Yes |
| PictBridge | Yes |
| Parallel Port | 0 |
| Serial Port | No |
| Power | |
| Maximum Power Draw (watts) | 12 watts |
| Standby Power Draw (watts) | 19 watts |
| Faxing | |
| Fax page memory capacity | 0.0 |
| Dimensions | |
| Width | 17.8 inches |
| Depth | 13.2 inches |
| Height | 6.1 inches |
| Weight | 13.0 pounds |
| Media Handling | |
| Standard Number of Input Trays | 1 |
| Standard Input Sheet Capacity | 100 |
| Manual Feed Slot | 1 |
| Automatic Duplexer | Not Available |
| Max Input Trays | 1 |
| Maximum Paper Height | 14.0 |
| Storage Media | |
| Compact flash | CompactFlash |
| Micro SD | xD-Picture Card |
| SD card | SD Card |
| Memory stick | Memory Stick |
| Compact flash | Yes |
| Resolutions | |
| Monochrome horizontal optical resolution | 600 x 600 dpi |
| Color horizontal optical resolution | 4800 x 1200 dpi |
| Scanning | |
| Scanner Type | Flatbed |
| Maximum External Bit Depth |
|
| Maximum Scan Resolution | 19200 x 19200 |
| Optical Scanning Resolution | 1200 by 2400 |
Performance
| PCWorld Test Center (Quality) | |
|---|---|
| Print quality: Text | Superior |
| Print quality: Color photo | Very Good |
| Print quality: Grayscale photo | Very Good |
| Copy quality | Superior |
| PCWorld Test Center (Speed) | |
|---|---|
| Print speed: Text | 8.7 ppm |
| Performance | |
|---|---|
| Overall Scan Quality | Good |
| Color Output Quality | Good |
| Final Scan Time, 2-by-2-Inch Document, 600 dpi | 12.77 |
| Sports Action Shot (secs) | 38.93 |
| Tested Grayscale Speed (ppm) | 2.5 |
| Line Art Output Quality | Fair |
| One-Page Line Art, Maximum Resolution | Good |
| Three-Page Word Document (secs) | 35.51 |
| Grayscale Glossy Output Quality | n/a |
| 300dpi Line Art Image (secs) | 15.1 |
| Ten-Page Word Document (secs) | 89.29 |
| Tested Glossy Photo Speed (ppm) | 4 |
| Preview Scan, One-Page Word Document, 300 dpi | 5.72 |
| Preview Scan, 4-by-5-Inch Document, 100 dpi | 5.7 |
| One-Page Webpage (secs) | 27.31 |
| Two-Page Excel Document (secs) | 53.89 |
| Final Scan Time, One-Page Word Document, 300 dpi | 7.86 |
| Final Scan Time, 4-by-5-Inch Document, 100 dpi | 6.9 |
| One-Page Copy (secs) | 14.96 |
| Preview Scan, 2-by-2-Inch Document, 600 dpi | 5.75 |
| 4 by 6 Color Photo (secs) | 20.95 |
| One-Page Word Document, 300 dpi | Good |
| 4 by 6 Grayscale Photo (secs) | 24.29 |
| Tested Color Speed (ppm) | 2.3 |
