Canon ImageClass MF416dw
The Canon ImageClass MF416dw is a capable mono laser all-in-one printer with abundant features set and superior text quality, even though its cost is relatively high per page, it is attached for moderate-duty use.
William Harrel stated that “The Canon imageClass MF416dw is a capable monochrome laser all-in-one printer which can be useful for a small home or micro office”.
Some of its strengths include a wide range of connection choices, excellent text quality and a generous feature set with goodies like a duplexing automatic document feeder. However, the MF416dw costs $499 which is a relatively high running cost, and therefore it is best suited for moderate-duty use.
The MF416dw was one of a recent 11-machine Canon roll-out which consists of a number of similar black-and-white all-in-one printers, along with the Canon imageClass MF414dw and the imageClass MF419dw. At last, there are a very less difference among the three of these printers and also some other models of imageClass which were released with this group. For instance, although it has a $100 difference in its price, there is a lack of only Near-Field Communication (NFC) and support for Adobe PostScript for Canon MF414dw, whereas both these features are specified on the MF416dw.
Design and Features:
The MF416dw is not at all a desktop printer and it Measures 17 by 15.4 by 18.6 inches (HWD) and its overall weight is 42 pounds with the toner cartridge loaded and it’s a bit noisy as well. It needs its own bulky table or a bench, but its a good news that since it supports direct PC connection, Ethernet and Wi-Fi (802.11b/g/n), through USB, it should not be much difficulty in finding a place to put it. Apple AirPrint, Google Cloud Print, NFC (which allows you to print by simply touching your mobile device to a hotspot on the printer, that is located next to the control panel on the left edge of the chassis),Mopria Print Service, Canon Print Business and peer-to-peer Wi-Fi Direct (for connecting your mobile device to the printer wirelessly, without either connecting to either a network or a router) are included in the option “additional connection of mobile device”.
Canon has a host-based (UFR II) driver. In addition to this, also you get Adobe’s PostScript 3 and HP’s PCL6 emulation, which can come in handy in graphic design apps and desktop publishing. A 50-sheet duplexing Automatic Document Feeder (ADF) has the capability to scan, copy and fax double-sided multipage documents without the need for you to flip the originals manually. However, this is alike the Editors’ Choice “HP LaserJet Pro MFP M426fdw”, that comprises of a duplex scanner that can scan both sides of a document fed from its ADF simultaneously. Instead, the MF416dw pulls the sheet back into the ADF after scanning one side, flips it, and then scans the next side. The single-pass method is more reliable and faster.
It also includes Secure Print which comes under a security feature for this. Secure Print allows you to assign PINs to documents on the printer itself so that only you or somebody with whom you have shared the PIN can retrieve sensitive documents. You also get Department ID Management, which lets you assign up to 300 IDs to a particular department or individuals, so you can “manage,” or keep track of, printing habits to account and more purposes.
Paper Handling:
The MF416dw comes with a 50-sheet multipurpose tray and a 250-sheet main paper cassette for printing envelopes and other media that may otherwise have you to reconfigure and unload the main drawer. This printer is configured for duplex printing, which can be turned off easily in the driver interface, to help you save paper. If 300 sheets from two separate sources are not sufficient, you can add a 500-sheet cassette for $199, which brings the total paper capacity to 800 sheets from three separate sources.
Print Speed:
Canon has rated the MF416dw at 35 pages per minute (ppm) for simplex(single-sided) pages and 17 pages per minute (ppm) for duplex (double-sided) pages. We consider connecting our Windows 10 testbed PC to the printer through Ethernet to test this. When printing our all-text document that is lightly formatted, it produced the output pages at the rate of approximately 32 ppm in simplex mode and 17.2 ppm in duplex mode.
When printing an aggregate consisting of the text document which was mentioned previously including many heavily formatted documents with graphics throughout and embedded photos, the MF416dw printed at a rate of 17.4ppm in simplex mode and 11.5ppm in duplex mode. In this class, we haven’t seen the fastest and the price range, but it’s fast enough. We have rated the Brother MFC-L5800DW and Brother MFC-L5900DW at 20.3 ppm and 21.7 ppm, respectively, to print out the full suite in their default simplex mode.
Output Quality:
The print-out and copy quality of MF416dw were almost what we would expect from a monochrome laser printer at its price. Whereas the text was a little bit above average. Even it was a decorative type, standard fonts were highly readable down to around 4 to 6 points, while still legible, was a slightly difficult to read at smaller sizes.
Even though large areas of black and dark grays sometimes came out somewhat mottled, but for the most part, business graphics appeared good. Very fine lines aren’t always printed evenly, either, sometimes to the point of looking broken up. Our test prints were slightly feeble, with often uneven dark backgrounds and fill. Occasionally, even gradients looked uneven and somewhat blotchy—not necessarily unacceptable, but not the best available.
Scan and copy quality were good, too, but remember that your copies will be black-and-white. Since this is primarily a business printer, probably you’ll be scanning mostly text for OCR, which the MF416dw results quite accurately.
Running Cost:
One of the most disappointing aspects of this printer is its running cost. If you buy the highest-yield toner cartridge for this machine from Canon’s site, the cost per page comes out to 3 cents—far too much for a high-volume printer. On the other hand, our Editors’ Choice HP M426fdw delivers a cost of 2.2 cents per page (CPP), and if economic printing is crucial, you can get 1.9 cents per page with the Brother MFC-L5800DW and MFC-L5900DW, and the OKI MB472w. In any case, the more you print, the more important the CPP will be, and certainly, the CPP of MF416dw could be better.
Conclusion:
The Canon imageClass MF416dw is a well-built monochrome laser all-in-one printer with excellent text quality and-and passable graphics and images. However, a comparably high cost per page reduces its overall value. It may be best suited for a micro office or personal all-in-one printer for relatively modest print volumes. Models like the Brother MFC-L5800dw, MFC-L5900dw, the Editors’ Choice HP M426fdw and the OKI MB472w are better suited for cost-effective high-volume printing.
You May Also Like : Top 3 Best Smart Printers
