Canon Office Products PIXMA MX892 Wireless Color Photo Printer with Scanner, Copier and Fax

I spent a lot of time researching printers before I bought this and was getting ready to pull the trigger at the listed price of $139 around Black Friday, when I decided to wait for Cyber Monday, when I got it for $69.99. Of course, I'm tickled to death with the deal, how could I not be? But, when I received it, I realized I would've felt I got an excellent deal at $139 - I now understand why the original retail was much higher.For many years, I was a strictly HP printer user, but the quality of their items has significantly declined in the past decade. I was very disappointed with the Photosmart 6180 I bought in late 2006 compared to several deskjets and laser printers I have owned / used. Two older laser printers are still going strong, despite the fact that they are scheduled to be collectibles any minute now, they are so "old".At this point, when it comes to quality in lots of electronics, I expect disposable level quality or poor function just outside of warranty status, even when I've done my homework, unless I pay a small fortune...and sometimes even when I do. This seems to be an increasingly unfortunate fact in the past 10 - 15 years.I was looking for an all-in-one wireless unit that would do quality scans, had a document feeder, and had two-way printing capability.I haven't been as impressed with anything as much I am with this Canon printer in years - especially considering the price I paid for it. But, as I noted above, I would've believed I got an excellent value for the $139 I was considering paying. I truly NEEDED a new color printer, I've been without one for a while.I haven't put ALL of the features through the paces yet, but I am duly impressed with the following:Quality constructionAttractive designEasy set upEase of WIRELESS connectivity on Mac and Windows (stunning! a first!)Extra features on the hatches and "doors" and ink cartridge install / changeEasy to use displayUnobtrusive softwareQuality print outEase of touch scanningI've got to say that I am blown away by the cool operation of the access doors on this printer - I chuckle with glee every time I print something watching how the output area door pops open by itself and out pops a printed sheet. I grab my print out and close the door.Electronics are dust magnets - allowing for the unit to be as closed down as possible when not in use...genius.The access to the printer cartridge area has something like a spring-loaded hinge - you can't damage it, it eases right into place.I've never seen a printer which has a lighting system associated with the ink cartridge placement. The cartridges are very easy to install, but you also don't have to worry about whether you've popped them into place correctly, because they light up when they are properly positioned. Also, genius.It's been a long time since I was able to set up a new piece of hardware as fast as I did this printer - as long as a the hardware isn't so old that it wasn't meant to be compatible with a Mac, it's the easiest thing in the world, practically effortless, to get things working on my Mac.But we have several Windows computers in our house, and that's where the nightmares happen...and sometimes continue. Especially if there is networking involved. This was the first time I can remember that the setup was effortless on Windows as it was on the Mac. And by the way, that was Windows XP. (We have one Vista laptop...haven't tried it yet, but don't expect problems, considering.) I truly expected to use a USB cord to get the printer to work with XP, at least during setup. Not necessary. Wireless connectivity...totally painless. Amazing. BRAVO, Canon!I will be testing the true capabilities and the quality of the scanning on this unit in the next week or so. I also haven't tried out printing from a smartphone, but will be doing so. We have Androids and iPhones in our house, so we'll be putting them both to the test.I'll report back in the future about those issues, and about ink usage. That seems to be a concern for some people.

My wife & I have been Canon enthusiasts for over 15 years - 5 digital cameras and 5 multifunction printers - but this PIXMA MX892, which I've now owned for 8+ weeks, has me frustrated to the point I'm ready to tear my hair out.On the plus side, the MX892 has (at least on paper) lots of features that were lacking in most of my earlier Canon Multifunction machines (eg, fax capability, duplex printing, optical character reader ("OCR") etc.). And the features I've actually used have been high quality and definitely satisfactory. But so far, after 8+ weeks of several hours per day use, I have been unable to use several of these on-paper features, primarily because (1) Their use is NOT intuitive or user friendly, and (2) The on-screen manual is near useless in instructing you how to use those features. (Also I can no longer find the phone number of the warranted toll free telephone support.)Example # 1 - OCR: Just yesterday, I spent 2.5 hours trying to use the OCR sub-function of the Scan feature. I was NOT successful. (I was trying to take an attorney prepared Will, standard typeface, and scan/OCR it into my word processing program for a minor revision that switched a small gift from one charitable beneficiary to another - Why pay an attorney $400/hour for such a simple change?) First, the manual's table of contents does not even mention OCR. Then when I used the manual's search engine for OCR, it returned 22 different sections that mentioned OCR, but none of the sections had step-by-step instructions on how to use OCR. (It was like Canon started with a comprehensive 100 paragraph treatise on how to use OCR, but decided to include only paragraphs 19, 33, 57 and 83 in the on-screen manual.) One of the 22 sections had a picture of a form which at the bottom had a click-able box entitled "convert to text file"; but when (finally, after 2.5 hours) I got that form onto my monitor, it did not have the "convert to text file" box on the bottom. I then gave up in frustration. What good is an OCR function if you can't use it?Example # 2 - Incoming Faxes: (a) I spent over an hour scrupulously following the manual's instructions re settings and connecting the MX892 to a telephone jack, and a telephone to the MX892. Turns out, two of the manual's recommended settings were incompatible, you had to use one or the other, but not both. But the manual neglected to say that. Not a fatal flaw, but definitely frustrating and time consuming. (b) Before purchasing the MX892, I checked the on-screen manual, which clearly said that if the MX892 itself was in your office, but you picked up a ringing phone extension in the kitchen (what Canon calls the "remote" extension) and heard a beep (meaning the incoming communication was a fax), you simply pressed 25 on the remote extension, and the MX892's fax function took over and did its job. Turns out, this is NOT true if the extension phone is a conventional extension phone with its own telephone jack - The "remote extension" feature works only if the remote extension is a wireless handset linked to a base unit that is connected to the MX892. But the manual didn't tell you that. OK, so now (several weeks later) I've purchased and installed the requisite wireless phone system. But now it's even worse - I can't receive any incoming faxes at all, whether I pick up the wireless remote handset, or the handset on the base unit which is hard-wired to the MX892. I've had the MX892 for 8+ weeks, and I still can't get incoming faxes.Maybe I'll eventually find that toll free technical support phone number, and maybe I'll get my MX892 fully operational. Maybe.Note: My wife & I have loved Canon products for 15 years, and I still believe the hardware portion of Canon products is top quality. But a few years ago - about the time they switched from paper manuals to on-screen - the quality of the manuals went from A- to F+. And as a practical matter, that makes the high quality hardware less than fully functional.