As the middle model in Canon?s D1300 series, the Canon imageClass D1350 ($599 direct) adds fax capabilities to the Canon imageClass D1320 ($499 direct, 3.5 stars). It?s a solid monochrome laser multifunction printer (MFP) geared to small offices, and in that role it provides good paper capacity, respectable speed, and acceptable output quality, if you?re not too picky about graphics. It lacks some extras that come with the Canon imageClass D1370 ($799 direct, 4 stars): PCL and PostScript drivers, secure printing, and the ability to scan to e-mail or a network drive, as well as to route incoming faxes to those locations.
The D1350 can print, copy, scan, and fax (including from your computer, PC-Fax); and print from or scan to a USB key. The white D1350 measures 18.4 by 17.8 by 18.6 inches (HWD)?large enough that you wouldn?t want to share a desk with it?and weighs 45 pounds.
On top of the D1350 is a 50-sheet duplexing automatic document feeder (ADF), which lets you scan, copy, or fax two-sided documents without having to feed the sheets one at a time. The ADF swings up to reveal the scanner?s legal-sized platen. Beside the output tray is a port for a USB thumb drive, which you can print from or scan to. Above the output tray is the front panel (more of a ?top panel? in this case, as it faces nearly upward); a 5-line monochrome display, a four-way controller, an alphanumeric keypad, and a modest set of function buttons.?
The D1350 has a standard 550-sheet paper capacity, split between a 500-sheet main tray and a 50-sheet feeder. An automatic duplexer, for printing on both sides of a sheet of paper, is standard. (As with other recent Canon printers, the D1350 ships with duplex printing as the default. An additional 500-sheet tray ($200 street) is available as an option, for a maximum paper capacity of 1,050 sheets. The D1350 can connect to a PC via USB cable, or to a local-area network via Ethernet. I tested it over an Ethernet connection using a PC running Windows Vista.
Print Speed
Our standard procedure for testing business printing speed is to test using the printer?s default settings. Canon is perhaps the only printer manufacturer that makes duplexing (double-sided printing) the default on most of its recent printers. Thus, we tested the D1350 in duplex mode, which tends to be slightly slower than simplex (one-sided) printing.
On the new version of our business applications suite (using QualityLogic's hardware and software for timing), I timed the D1350 at an effective 8.9 pages per minute (ppm), a good speed for its 35 ppm engine rating (for printing text documents without graphics or photos), especially considering it was printing in duplex. It slightly lagged both the D1370 (9.8 ppm) and the D1320 (9.5 ppm). The Editors? Choice Brother MFC-8480DN ($400 street, 4 stars) tested at 10.6 ppm for simplex (one-sided) printing on the same tests.
Output Quality
Output quality was essentially the same as the other two D1300 models: slightly sub-par text, below-par graphics, and typical mono laser photo quality Text quality was slightly below par for a mono laser, which is still very good: fine for standard business uses, though not good enough for applications using very small fonts, such as desktop publishing.
Graphics quality was below average for a mono laser, okay for most internal business uses, but I wouldn?t want to give them to clients I was seeking to impress. All of the illustrations showed dithering (dot patterns). Certain graphics with black backgrounds appeared slightly blotchy. One printout that should have shown a gradient between dark and light zones printed out as uniformly dark.
One test illustration is a graph consisting of colored lines, some of them very thin, against a black background. All those lines should show up as white when printed out on a monochrome printer, but the thinner ones were totally lost. (When I printed out the test suite on the D1370 using its PCL and PostScript drivers, the lines showed up as they should, though they were invisible in the output from that printer?s default driver. Otherwise, there was very little difference between the output from the Canon D1320, D1350, and Canon D1570.)
Photo quality was typical of a mono laser, good enough to be able to print out recognizable images from files or Web pages. All of the prints showed dithering (dot patterns). Another problem I noticed was aliasing, the tendency for straight lines to appear sawtoothed or jagged. Detail in dark areas showed up reasonably well, though bright areas tended to look washed out.
Other Issues
The D1350 has relatively high running costs for a mono laser, at 3.3 cents per page. This is true of the other D1300 series models as well.
The D1350 lacks some of the bells and whistles of the D1370, such as secure printing, additional scanning and faxing capabilities, and the extra drivers. It has a lower price tag, so if you don?t need those features (and don?t think you will in the future), you might as well save the money. Speaking of saving money, if you don?t need fax capabilities on your MFP, you can have the D1320 for $100 less.
The D1350 has greater paper capacity than the Editors? Choice Brother MFC-8480DN, but its sticker price is higher, and the Brother 8480DN has lower running costs?the more you print, the more you?ll save?and better graphics quality. Still, the Canon imageClass D1350 is a perfectly reasonable choice, and worth consideration if you?re looking for a small-office MFP with solid speed and a good feature set.
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