Frankly, we’re stumped. We just can’t work out how Canon has stuffed so much functionality into this, its flagship MX all-in-one. Scanner, printer, copier, fax, document feeder, two paper inputs, memory card slots, colour screen and Ethernet are all present, and it’s all styled with understated flair.

It’s easy to use, too – the only time we had to delve into the manual was when setting up the printer to operate on a network. It is bulky, however, at almost half a metre wide and not much less deep.

Phenomenal value

You forget that when you look at the specs and the price, though; £131 for a device of this richness is phenomenal value. And because it uses Canon’s admirable ink system (individual tanks for the four ink colours, plus a replaceable ink head), its running costs are competitive, too. If you churn out hundreds of pages a week, a laser printer is still going to be more economical, but the flexibility of the MX700’s photo-capable inkjet system still makes it a top all-rounder.

Print quality is up to Canon’s usual high standards. Text is crisp, and photo reproduction, although guilty of Canon’s tendency to over-saturate, is very good. We did notice some occasional banding, and full ink coverage on plain paper does tend to make the sheets a little floppy before they dry properly, but, in general, things are impressive.

With documents, we were getting a little over seven pages per minute, an A4 photo took a couple of minutes on best quality photo paper and a 6x4-inch borderless print dropped into the output tray in 46 seconds; none of these speeds – recorded over a network, not USB – are uniquely fast, but they’re respectable.

Scan quality is in line with expectations. Consumer scanners can be a little soft, but the rich (if ugly) scanner driver gives options for sharpening, as well as colour curve and balance controls.