Canon Pixma MP990

Ease of use and plentiful software is all very well but print quality is critical and the Pixma MP990 performed well in this regard. It’s a six-colour printer, with black, cyan, magenta, yellow, photo black and grey inks. Print resolution is 9,600 x 2,400 dpi and images printed on Canon’s Photo Plus Glossy II or Everyday Use Glossy paper were crisp and detailed, albeit not quite as sharp as the Epson TX710W tested in the July issue. Prints benefited from being adjusted in software or having the “Vivid Photo” box ticked as saturation was a touch light. There wasn’t even a hint of banding and wide areas of colour were absolutely uniform. The grey ink is claimed to enhance monochrome images and these were fabulous, with deep contrast and no colour abnormalities whatsoever.
The print and copy quality on plain paper was good, as was the resolution of scans, with deep colours and crisp edges.

Ink consumption was reasonable and there were no paper jams or operational hitches at all. Print speed on 4 x 6-inch prints at best quality was quick, averaging in at 61 seconds from the same laptop we used in last month’s group test, while A4 prints had an average print run of just under four minutes.

All in all, Canon’s Pixma MP990 puts in a very good performance. There’s nothing to complain about in terms of operation, ease of use or image quality. Compared with the HP and Epson units from last issue, the Canon’s price seems steep but then again, it had absolutely no issues with excessive ink consumption or wireless setup, so perhaps the cost is justified.