Canon's latest in the IP4000 range, and it's better than ever (Canon Pixma iP4500)

Member Name: Jonny_L

Product:	Canon Pixma iP4500
Date:	15/08/08 (226 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Simple to use, great quality prints, cartridges last for ages

Disadvantages: A little flmsy in places, expensive ink (£40 ish for a set)

Unfortunately my old faithful Pixma IP 4300 just gave up the ghost last week. It stopped printing cyan, and after much fettling I decided to just get a new printer. So I decided to replace it with the new version, the IP 4500. At around £80 it seemed like the logical option.

This really is just the new version of the old one, it is shaped exactly the same and everything is in the same place. The top loading paper tray is great for sticking the odd photo or envelope in, while the bottom tray (yes, it has two!) is great for just sticking a load of A4 in.

This printer also has the ability to print to CDs, which was the selling point for me as I do that a lot. the CD tray is quite handy on the front, and while you still need to load the CD in using the flimsy looking - and easy to lose - plate provided, it does a wonderful job. The only annoying thing is that I still had to change the size of the CD printable area in Canon's software, CD labelprint, but then that may just be what I get for buying cheap CDRs.

The quality of the plastics is better too, though not all that good still, the out tray is still really flimsy, I can imagine just a gentle push would snap the thing.

The printer is slightly quieter than the old one, though not really noticably. There is the option of a quiet mode which just means it'll print a little slower, but really it's not a quiet printer. It's fine for home use, but I could imagine if it was in an office banging out prints all day it'd get annoying for those around it.

So, the printer is generally good in a functional way, but what does it print like?
Easy answer is very well indeed. Canon have surpassed themselves yet again, and they've upped the DPI to a really respectable 9600x2400dpi. The printer uses the same cartridges as the old one, which means you still need 5 cartridges! Black, photo black, cyan, magenta and yellow. Don't be scared though, while I've not had this printer for very long the previous one lasted almost a year of heavy home office use on it's first set of cartridges.

It's fast too. You can print out simple text documents in no time, really about 4 seconds per page. Photo printing takes longer, and on the max setting it can take around 20-30 seconds per photo, which still really isn't that bad considering the quality.

So there we have it. I'm perfectly happy with it, and I'll most likely be buying a second one at some point.

Summary: A great printer for the price, I can't really fault it.

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