Canon i-Sensys MF734Cdw review

It’s a good all-rounder, but the i-Sensys MF734Cdw is just a touch expensive

IT Pro Verdict

The Canon i-Sensys MF734Cdw produced excellent results. With sharp focus, accurate colours and ample dynamic range, scans were about as good as we’ve seen from a laser device. Photocopies were great, text was sharp and black, and colour graphics were bold, if a little less saturated than we’d like.

Pros

  • +

    Loads of features; Great output quality

Cons

  • -

    Pricey; Patchy touchscreen

Canon's i-Sensys MF734Cdw looks like the result of a teleportation incident involving a colour laser multifunction and a phablet. A big and reasonably chunky MFP, its slick touchscreen control panel overhangs the printer slightly on the right - we'd be worried about it getting knocked off. We've no worries about the MF734Cdw's specification, however. This MFP combines a 27ppm colour printer with a 50-sheet ADF capable of scanning both sides of an original in a single pass. It supports gigabit Ethernet and wireless network connections, has a fax modem, and there's a front panel USB port for walk up printing and scanning.

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On the device itself, control is via that huge 12.7cm touchscreen. That ought to be a good thing, but we found it didn't always respond unless we were quite deliberate with our prodding - the 'key' beep, usually an annoyance we turn off, was actually a necessary confirmation. That's perhaps a blessing in disguise, as it took us several minutes to work out how to disable it - the interface isn't as intuitive as it could be, and oddly the sound settings are accessed via a dedicated button.

Canon offers host-based, PCL and PostScript drivers which all look and behave near-identically. Get printing and the MF734Cdw is surprisingly quiet, given that it delivered our mono letter test at a rapid 23.8ppm, and our complex graphics test at 20.6ppm. Mono copies were quick, needing 10 seconds for a single page or 34 seconds for 10 pages, but the same jobs in colour took 15 and 58 seconds - a bit slower than we'd expect. Scans were quick over gigabit Ethernet, with previews completing in seven seconds, and an A4 150dpi scan in 15 seconds. We captured a 6 x 4in photo at the maximum 600dpi in 30 seconds.

The MF734Cdw produced excellent results. With sharp focus, accurate colours and ample dynamic range, scans were about as good as we've seen from a laser device. Photocopies were great, text was sharp and black, and colour graphics were bold, if a little less saturated than we'd like. At 10.4p per page this MFP is slightly cheaper to run than Xerox's WorkCentre 6515, which is similarly capable. However, the latter costs 80 less to buy - we'd narrowly pick it over the MF734Cdw.

Verdict

The Canon i-Sensys MF734Cdw produced excellent results. With sharp focus, accurate colours and ample dynamic range, scans were about as good as we’ve seen from a laser device. Photocopies were great, text was sharp and black, and colour graphics were bold, if a little less saturated than we’d like.

Simon Handby

After a brief career in corporate IT, Simon Handby combined his love of technology and writing when he made the move to Computer Shopper magazine. As a technology reviewer he's since tested everything from routers and switches, to smart air fryers and doorbells, and covered technology such as EVs, TVs, solar power and the singularity.

During more than 15 years as Shopper's long-time printer reviewer, Simon tried, tested and wrote up literally hundreds of home, small office and workgroup printers. He continues reviewing smart products and printers for a variety of publications, and has been an IT Pro contributor since 2010. Simon is almost never happier than when surrounded by printers and paper, applying his stopwatch and a seasoned eye to find the best performing, best value products for business users.