Many things in life only have one use. Then there are those that have absolutely no use at all - ornamental china kittens, for example. And in contrast, there are those greedy bodies that claim a plethora of uses, such as this multi-functional device from Canon.

The SmartBase MPC200 Photo is a 2400 x 1200dpi inkjet printer and 600 x 1200dpi scanner rolled into one; a double-decker bus of a peripheral which can be used for these dual functions, and can also combine them to emulate a photocopier. It's a pretty compact unit considering these features, with a footprint of 40 x 55cm. Design-wise the SmartBase MPC200 Photo is well built and solid, with a conveniently placed front control panel that's easy to understand and use.

Installation is a straightforward affair, with a clear step-by-step guide (they've even taped over the USB port to make sure you install the software before removing the tape and hooking the MPC up to your computer). The only downside was the lack of a USB cable, which wasn't a problem for us as we have snake's nests of the things lying in corners of the room. More novice PC users might end up a bit miffed though.

With our first run through using the printer, the SmartBase MPC200 Photo performed pretty well, knocking out about ten pages per minute of monochrome A4 text and printing a detailed A4 colour photo image inside two minutes. The quality was fairly good overall, though not top notch as the colour photo prints did suffer from some line effects.

It was noticeable that the unit shook a fair bit when printing, which was slightly disconcerting and rather seemed to contradict the solid feeling build quality (though it didn't effect the output). One other niggle is the paper feeding tray, which is too thin at the top and thus causes a stack of paper to curl slightly at the edges after a while.

The scanner was pretty impressive; it took a respectable minute to knock out a full colour A4, 300dpi scan and the results were good in terms of colour representation and detail. There was a slight patterning effect on the scans however, which let the side down a little.

Copying is a simple process and you can even get the SmartBase MPC200 Photo to size everything automatically for you. Predictably the results were good, although when copying photos some banding effects were again evident on the printout.

Overall, this is an impressive piece of kit which produces pretty good, speedy results. It's also worth noting that the SmartBase MPC200 Photo comes with direct photo technology, meaning that you can insert your digital camera's memory card directly into the front of the printer, and print off your images without actually having the unit connected to your PC.

The SmartBase MPC200 Photo is a commendable multi-functional unit. It's user friendly and it scans and prints fairly quickly, with generally good results on the quality front. There are cheaper multi-function units out there but some of them can produce pretty ropey results, whereas the Canon SmartBase MPC200 Photo does the job well at a fair price. The only downsides are the rather flimsy, undersized paper feeding tray, and the slight banding effects we noticed on photo prints, making it less than ideal for keen photographers.