Pros & Cons
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- Prints, scans, and copies.
- Fast.
- Ethernet and Wi-Fi.
- Ample paper capacity plus manual feed.
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- No fax.
- No automatic document feeder for scanning.
- No duplexer (for two-sided printing).
Canon imageClass MF212w Specs
| Color or Monochrome | Monochrome |
| Connection Type | Ethernet |
| Connection Type | USB |
| Connection Type | Wireless |
| Maximum Scan Area | Letter |
| Maximum Standard Paper Size | Legal |
| Monthly Duty Cycle (Maximum) | 8,000 pages per month |
| Number of Ink Colors | 1 |
| Rated Speed at Default Settings (Mono) | 24 ppm |
| Scanner Optical Resolution | 600 pixels per inch |
| Scanner Type | Flatbed |
| Standalone Copier and Fax | Copier |
| Type | All-in-one |
If you're looking for a monochrome laser multifunction printer (MFP) for personal use or for light-duty shared use in a micro office, don't scan or copy much, and need Wi-Fi, the Canon imageClass MF212w ($189) can be a good fit. It delivers fast speed, better-than-typical text quality, and ample paper capacity. It's also short enough to sit on your desk without towering over you, making it a particularly good candidate for a personal MFP.
The MF212w is a step down in most ways from the Canon imageClass MF216n, our Editors' Choice personal or light-duty MFP for a micro office. But it's also a step up from the Panasonic KX-MB2000 that the Canon MF216n recently replaced as our preferred pick.
View All Compared with the Panasonic model, the MF212w offers the same 250-sheet input capacity with no duplexer (for two-sided printing), but it adds a one-sheet manual feed and delivers faster speed. Compared with the Canon MF216n, it offers the same paper handling for printing, adds Wi-Fi, and costs a touch less. The tradeoff is that you don't get the Canon MF216n's fax capability or its automatic document feeder (ADF). That makes the MF212w of most interest if you primarily need a printer, but want one that can also handle some extremely light-duty copying and scanning.
Basics, Setup, and Speed
Basic MFP features for the MF212w are limited to printing and scanning—including over a network—and copying. One extra, which the Canon MF216n also offers, is support for mobile printing from and scanning to Android and iOS phones and tablets.A key limitation to the mobile support is that the only way to connect to the printer is through an access point on your network, which means the printer also has to be connected directly to the network. Unlike some of the competition, including the Samsung Xpress M2070FW, the MF212w doesn't support Wi-Fi Direct, which would let it connect to a mobile device directly, even with the printer connected to a single PC by USB cable.
The MF212w measures 12.3 by 15.4 by 14.6 inches (HWD), which may be too big to share a desk with comfortably. However, it's certainly small enough to keep in arm's reach nearby. At 23.8 pounds, complete with its toner cartridge, it's also light enough for one person to easily move into place. Setup is standard fare. For my tests, I connected it using its Ethernet port and installed the drivers on a system running Windows Vista.
Canon rates the printer at 24 pages per minute (ppm), which is the speed you should see when printing text or other documents that require little to no processing. I timed it on our business applications suite (using QualityLogic's hardware and software for timing), at 12.2ppm, making it essentially tied with the Canon MF216n. It's also fast both for the engine rating and for the price. The Panasonic KX-MB2000, for example, came in at only 8.0ppm on our tests. The Samsung M2070FW came in at 9.8ppm.
Output Quality
Output quality is also a strong point, particularly for text, which is at the high end of the range that includes the vast majority of monochrome laser MFPs. That translates to being suitable for almost any business use, even if you need to use small fonts.Graphics quality is also within a range that includes most monochrome laser MFPs, but in the bottom half of the range. Whether you'd consider it good enough for, say, PowerPoint handouts, depends on how critical an eye you have and whether you mind if the output doesn't look fully professional. However, it's easily good enough for any internal business use.
Photo quality is typical for a monochrome laser MFP. It's roughly equivalent to that of newspaper photos, making the quality good enough to print recognizable images from photos on a Web page, but not for anything more demanding than that.
If you need mobile printing and scanning with a printer you plan to connect to a PC by USB cable, be sure to take a look at the Samsung M2070FW for its Wi-Fi Direct support. If you don't need to connect directly from mobile devices, but you need faxing and want an MFP that's better suited than the MF212w is for scanning and copying multipage documents, you'll be better off with the Editors' Choice Canon MF216n, which doesn't even cost much more than the MF212w.
That said, if you don't need faxing, an ADF, or Wi-Fi Direct, and you want to connect to your network by Wi-Fi, the Canon imageClass MF212w may be the printer you want. It delivers essentially the same speed and paper handling as the Canon MF216n, along with better text quality than most printers. If your scanning and copying needs are light-duty enough for a letter-size flatbed to handle them conveniently, the MF212w can be an attractive choice.