Oki MB290

Versatile all-in-one for the cost conscious

Wed 30 Sep 2009 // 08:02 UTC

Scanning quality is entry-level, achieving a mere 0.35 score in our ‘modulation transfer function’ lab test (based on a rating between 0 and 1). To be brutal, any MTF score below 0.4 puts the scanner in the ‘cheap and nasty’ category and not one you would want to use to capture quality photo prints. We have seen plenty of worse MTF scores on other devices, but not recently.

Scanning performance is average, but the no-wait lamp ensures copying tasks are fairly swift

However, our main complaint with the MB290 is its difficult user interface of unintuitive buttons and indecipherable menus and icons in the status window. Everything we did produced loud beeps and errors. When we pressed the Stop Print button to cancel a job, the status responds ‘Press to confirm’… but press what? Whatever we pressed, we got annoying beeps and the print job continued regardless.

User documentation is only slightly helpful, hindered by its own peculiar, cursory use of English. ‘Enter object for mail’ had us puzzled for a while until we realised this was a prompt to type in the subject for a message. Another was ‘You can start copy by pressing the copy button at any time in below steps’. And so it went on. We were much happier controlling the device from a computer, but a large part of an MFD’s attraction ought to be its built-in usability.

Verdict

Cash-strapped small businesses should find the Oki MP290 useful as a general-purpose mono fax, printer and copier. The fax and messaging functions are particularly versatile. However, with respect to printing speed and copying quality, you get what you pay for. ®