Canon FAX-JX210P Inkjet Fax

Comment: Before I bought a new fax machine I read all the reviews here. I wanted a simple fax machine, having few requirements in a home machine. I didn't plan to hook it up to my computer, so the lack of Mac OS drivers didn't concern me even though every other manufacturer has Mac support. The JP 210P seemed to fit the bill. I set it up and proceeded to read the instruction manual to adjust the settings.

The nightmare began....
The instruction manual is the most obtuse I have ever encountered-and I have 30 yrs expreience in technology consulting and have seen some doozies. There is no way to turn off the ringer without about 20 steps using the online menu. No simple mute button! After I thought I had it set up, the phone rang and I answered it on a different extension. 20 seconds later the fax phone rang, sent a scretching faxtone into my ear and could only be stopped by truning the fax machine off. After more consulting of the manual, of which half the instruction examples did not match the actual menu I was trying to change, I gave up and called tech support. The technician at Cannon was very pleasant and tried hard to help me correct this situation, but was just as confused as I was. He finally asked a supervisor for help. The conclusion: this model will not work in fax/phone auto mode if there is an extension phone on the same line. Only solution is to set for manual mode. Who designs these things for Cannon? What planet are they from? If I coud give this 0 stars I would. The Print quality is good, but if you need a machine that works on anything but a dedicated line and want to be able to recieve faxes unattended, look elsewhere.

I had simple needs, but this machine is for masochists who enjoy being frustrated. If it weren't such a hassel, I woud return this in a heartbeat. Cannon, I will stear clear of your products in the future.

Comment: I bought this fax machine to replace an old one at a small business office. It works fairly well and the office staff are happy to have a new model to replace the old one that was definitely failing. A couple of things to note: there is no paper discharge tray, so when a fax is sent or received, the papers slide out the bottom of the machine directly onto whatever surface the machine is sitting on, with nothing to stop them from sliding onto the floor. Obviously, this doesn't affect the functioning of the fax machine, but it's irritating to be constantly picking papers off the floor, or having to rearrange your office machines so that the fax machine has a longer stretch of table in front of it. A catch tray would have been simple enough to include as an option, I would think. Secondly, the keypad used to enter fax numbers is not a nice, light touch keypad. You have to 'press' each button solidly, and then wait a moment for the appropriate number to show on the display screen. Just dialing the number with the same speed and pressure we use on our office telephones does not work. Invariably you will end up dialing only 10 digits out of the 11 digit number and get a 'cannot recognize the number' error. We don't send more than a few faxes a day at our office, so it's not a big deal, but I can imagine that for those who send many faxes a day this 'push - wait - push - wait - push - wait...' would start to feel very slow and tedious.

Comment: I needed a fax machine to do casual faxing, you know the things that crop up where a fax is essential either for a form to be filled out and sent or copy of an original document is needed and scanning and e-mailing will not do.
The Canon FAX-JX210P Inkjet Fax fit the bill. The price was reasonable and the machine has not disappointed me. I was originally looking at a more expensive fax thinking something as reasonably priced as the Canon FAX-JX210P Inkjet Fax would not meet my expectations.
First off, out of the box it took me no more than a half hour to set up and send a fax. I had no problems following the instructions for the initial setup or for the sending of faxes.
I send on average 3 to 5 faxes a week containing 5 to 10 pages each.
The speed is fast enough for the casual user.
So far no problems after 6 weeks.
I am very pleased and so it gets 5 stars.

Comment: I've had the machine for about a month and it works fine as a FAX, and a black and white copier and printer. Very nice copying of text and photos, if you don't need the color. Good print quality and reliable sheet feeding. Chintzy handset, if it matters. The low maximum FAX speed is acceptable to me. Not for heavy FAXers.
I give it four out of five because of the clumsy menus to set all of the FAX parameters, time and date, etc. There sure are a lot of them! Oh how I wish they had a computer setup screen to do all of this instead. You already have the thing hooked up with a USB cable for printing, so Canon you're missing a great opportunity!

Comment: This fax is easy to use, directions not too difficult. Holds faxes in memory. Two things I would want to change. Wish it had a bottom tray to hold the paper, its a top feed, but didnt find one I liked as much as this one for the money that had a paper tray. Also it takes a little time to print the confirmation. These two things were not a deal breaker. Faxes are clean and very good quality. Would recommend this to anyone with a small office or for home use.