The Canon D480 is a multifunction monochrome laser printer designed for the small office user. It offers fast speeds and good print quality, and a multitude of well-designed features in a fairly compact unit.
Although the Canon D480 is a little larger than some multifunction units, its design makes it feel quite compact. The input and output trays are both located on the front of the unit, and are well-separated. The automatic document feeder and flatbed scanner are located on top of the unit, but it still needs very little vertical space. The unit measures 17.4 inches by 15.4 inches by 14.2 inches, and weigh 28 pounds, so it is easy to move when necessary.
The D480 can print, scan, copy, and fax. Each of its multifunction features is well-implemented, and they compliment each other very well. Scanning, outgoing faxes, and copies can use either the flatbed scanner or the 50-sheet automatic document feeder. The 50-sheet capacity is larger than many small office machines, which typically have a capacity of 35 sheets, and it can scan sizes up to legal. Even though the printer is only monochrome, scanning can be done in color, at up to 9600 dpi resolution and 24-bit color depth. The usual copying features are supported, such as reducing and enlarging from 50-200%.
The Canon D480 includes a built-in ethernet port for easily sharing it across a network. Most of its features can be accessed from a computer on the network, such as printing, faxing from a computer, and scanning to a network computer. Print speed is quite good, at up to 23 pages per minute. Print quality is excellent. Text is dark and sharp, and graphics are good enough for in-house use, though probably not good enough to give to a client. Using both the Toner Save mode and/or the duplexing mode will result in quite a bit of savings in the Canon D480 toner and paper costs.
The toner cartridge for the Canon D480 has a small 2,000 page yield. For the medium to large office user, the Canon D480 toner cartridge's capacity is far too small; but with the Toner Saver mode and a small office, it would be plenty.
Overall, the Canon D480 is an excellent multifunction device at an affordable price in a compact package. Duplexing, networking, and a large automatic document feeder are great bonuses.
