Multifunctional units that combine many hardware capabilities into single packages are notorious for their high price tags. This is largely in part to the commonality of super inflated, industrial grade features that only businesses with extremely high output demands would be interested in. Not everyone needs three hundred one-touch speed dials on their fax machine. The Canon Copier ImageClass MF3240 is a practical answer to this dilemma as it has been designed as a home to small office level printer with a low price tag.
This is not to say that the unit is not very well equipped with features including one touch speed dials, though there are only, a more reasonable, eight of them. The Canon Copier ImageClass MF3240 can also store up to 100 coded dials in the standard on board memory of 32 MBs, and has a transmission reception memory of up to 256 pages. Fax quality can be set at any common monochrome standard, from fine to super fine up to 203 x 391 dots per inch. The 33.6 kbps modem is as quick as you should ever need for medium to low level requirements.
The printing resolution is one area where quality has noticeably been cut in the interest of cost, and caps off at 600 X 600 dots per inch, a bare minimum for a printer intended for business use. Black and white text should turn out crisp and clean at this level, but charts and graphics will suffer. Print speed, on the other hand, is very competitive, and clocks in at up to 21 pages per minute along with the copy speed. The lack of an automatic document feature will put a damper on copy jobs with large input demands, but otherwise the paper handling of the imageCLASS MF3240 is good, with a 250 sheet paper capacity and a simplified single cartridge style toner setup.
A single cartridge toner system can help save time and money due to staggered, constant swap outs of multiple parts, making it a great innovation from Canon for the novice laser printer user. The cartridge yield is only 2,500 pages but, with the maximum monthly duty cycle locked down at only 5,000 pages, it is apparent that this printer was never designed for exceedingly high output that would demand a large cache of ink.
For a conservative multifunctional model, its footprint may seem a little large with dimensions of 17.7″(W) x 18.2″(D) x 14.5″(H), though the weight is small at 24.7 pounds (without a cartridge). Copy and scan features are also standard for a home office unit, matching the print resolution at 600 X 600 dots per inch each, with interpolated scans of up to 9600 X 9600 dots per inch; again, bare minimums for a business class unit.
Like all Canon products, the Canon Copier imageCLASS MF3240 is designed with a specific user in mind. The lack of an automatic document feeder and low monthly duty cycle limit this hardware to those with light usage requirements, but the unit also includes all the basics, for those who still need to have access to them on a daily basis.
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