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I bought the Canon imageCLASS MF3240 about a month ago, and so far it has exceeded my expectations. I’d definitely recommend it to anyone who is in the market for a multifunction device without the need to print in color. If you prefer getting your digital photos printed by an online or in-store photo processor, a laser multifunction is usually the way to go — since it’s a lower cost per page, it’s faster, and the output is better quality than an inkjet.

APPEARANCE/CONSTRUCTION:

You can tell that it’s a sub-$200 machine by the construction. Don’t expect the same kind of solid feel that you’ll get from a much more expensive piece of equipment. A few of the plastic parts feel a little flimsy, like the paper tray. But they all seem to work fine, and I don’t have any concerns about durability. Unless you’re really tough on your office equipment, you should be ok.

The MF3240 isn’t the sexiest looking multifunction out there (if you’re looking for a great looking device, try the Canon PIXMA MP830, which uses inkjet technology so you can print in color too). In fact, my wife keeps saying the MF3240 looks like a cooler sitting on the desk. But the buttons are laid out logically on the keypad, and from the investigating I’ve done into a lot of different multifunction devices, the footprint on this one seems to be a reasonable size.

PERFORMANCE:

So far, so good. If you’re really a stickler for the highest output possible — if you need the most crisp, darkest text and flawless images — this probably isn’t the machine for you. Don’t get me wrong…the output is very good, borderline excellent. But you can tell that it wasn’t printed on a $1,000 heavy-duty laser printer.

This baby is fast! Total time for the first page to arrive in my hand after clicking the Print button (including warmup time) was 13 seconds. It’s considerably faster warming up than my old HP laser printer.

It’s not the quietest machine I’ve ever heard, but I wouldn’t call it too loud either.

It has a toner saver mode, but I’d call this an annoyance. You’re supposed to be able to set the toner saver either directly on the printer control panel or through the printer driver. I’ve tried a number of times to set up two profiles: one that uses toner saver and another that doesn’t. It works sometimes, but other times it’ll end up in the wrong mode. Even when I get it to work, I don’t notice much of a difference in output between toner saver mode and the regular mode.

I’ve also been having a minor problem with the fax. I have the MF3240 hooked up to my phone line, and a phone extension hooked into the fax machine. The fax machine is set in Manual mode, so it shouldn’t do anything unless I take action on my own. But I’ve had one or two phone calls on the extension that’s hooked up to the fax where the machine hangs up on the person I’m talking to after about 10 minutes! If I can’t get this problem to stop, I may end up getting a splitter for the phone line and hooking the phone extension into the line separately.

SOFTWARE:

It comes bundled with a light version of OCR software. I tried it once, and it seemed to recognize every single word on the page I scanned. I was quite impressed — much better than older versions of OCR I’ve tried (although I must admit this is the first OCR software I’ve tried in at least 6-7 years, so I’m sure the technology is much better now).

It also installs a piece of software called Canon Multifunction Toolbox 4.9. This is the most pleasant surprise I’ve experienced with this printer so far. It allows you to click one button, go through a couple simple settings, and then get a scan and go straight to an e-mail, or straight to a PDF, etc. The smartest feature is that it allows you to pick a target file size, and it’ll adjust the resolution to achieve that file size. So it eliminates trying to scan something and then finding out the resulting file is 20MB, then needing to go back and re-scan it at a lower resolution before you e-mail it. You simply pick your target file size (let’s say 1MB) and the software will scan your document at the proper resolution to achieve that file size. Very smart!

OVERALL:

Amazon has even knocked ten dollars off the price since I bought it…now it’s going for about one hundred fifty bucks…so it’s an even better value today. This is a very good multifunction device for light/moderate home or home office use. Given the chance to do it all over, I’d definitely buy the MF3240 again.

Rating: 5 / 5

This is a good product for its price. I have not found any deficiencies so far in the features this machine offers.

There are two major features (from my point of view) that this unit lucks:

- automatic document feeder;

- double-sided printing;

For those of you who would like to have those features, I strongly recommend to consider another model, like Canon MF4150 for example (which btw costs only $40 more). If I could turn back time, I would definitely go for the MF4150.

Rating: 3 / 5

This black and white laser printer serves as a flat-top copier ,color image scanner, and a fax machine. The warm-up time is very short, and printing speed is quite good.

Did I mention that the price is very reasonable as well?
Rating: 5 / 5