Canon PIXMA iP4600 InkJet Photo Printer

I love Canon printers. After some unsatisfactory experience with the HP brand, I switched to Canon about five years ago with the i560. That printer gave me five years of good and trouble-free performance, but it was time to change again and I opted for the Canon Pixma iP4500. The i560 cost me $100., which I sold on eBay for $69. The iP4500, which is far superior to the i560, cost $99. on Amazon.com. So for $31., I upgraded to a new printer with many more features, much faster and higher quality text and photos. Recently I purchased the Pixma ip4600 for my granddaughter. I wanted a low cost printer with good features that she could use for her computer. The ip4600, like the ip4500 did not disappoint. It cost me about $86. with shipping from a partner site on Amazon. You can get it now for $60. plus shipping at a partner site on Amazon.

The iP4600 is the same size as the ip4500 measuring 17.5 W X 11.9 D X 6.3 H. It uses 5 ink cartridges....Black for text only and black & 3 colors for photos, etc. The ink costs about the same as the cartridges for the i560, except there is one more to buy. The look is much more sleek than the i560 and it certainly has many more features. The Pixma iP4600 has PictBridge capability which means you can print directly from a PictBridge compliant device, such as a camera, camcorder or mobile phone without turning on your computer.

Printing resolution is fairly high at 9600x2400. I am not sure of the exact ppm, but I know this printer is plenty fast for me. The i560 would take a while to warm up from a cold start before printing the first page. The Pixma prints almost immediately and even faster for the first print after being turned on first. Another nice feature is the duplex printing. You can check a box on the print screen for duplex and the paper will be printed on both sides automatically. A great paper saving device and also very nice for creating presentations or manuscripts.

There are two paper feed sources on this machine....a top loading tray and also a cassette which slides beneath the printer. There is a lighted button on the front which you can operate to choose which paper source to use for any particular print job. Very neat, although I don't use the cassette, a nice feature for those who would. There is the normal on/off lighted button and also the standard resume button on the front. The unit attaches to a power source with the "brickless" power cord...nice touch, and with a USB cable to the computer. As with most new printers today, there is no serial cable. In the box is the printer, ink cartridges, power cable, CD-ROM and Quick Start Guide. However there is no USB cable shipped with the printer. You will have to pick one up if you do not have one already, but they are fairly inexpensive. Setup was easy and although Canon claims the printer cannot be networked, I was able to network with my laptop so that I can print from my desktop or laptop.

The printer can be set to power on with each print job and power off automatically after a pre-determined time, i.e. 2 minutes, 5 minutes, etc. A default protocol can be set such as draft printing (which does save a lot of ink & is much faster) and you can override that setting for any print job. The default is automatically reset on completion. Besides many different sizes of paper accepted by this printer, it will also print on legal size, but only in the top tray.

Another nice feature is the lighted ink cartridge slots which indicate the ink status of each cartridge.....steady light indicates cartridge is properly seated and has enough ink, flashing slowly indicates ink is low but printing can continue and flashing quickly indicates that the tank is inserted incorrectly or is out of ink. So to check the ink status all you need to do is open the top cover and wait for the printhead to move to the center and check the lights. Unfortunately, Canon changed the ink cartridges from the ones that were used with the ip4500 to a different type for the ip4600. You don't have to use Canon brand cartridges which are quite expensive. You can buy third-party cartridges from online sites such as 4Inkjets.com. I have used these and find them to be as good as Canon cartridges and they have the microchips imbedded in them to sense when the ink is getting low. They sell for 1/3 the price of Canon cartridges.

Maintenance features are abundant and include print head cleaning, print nozzle checks, print head alignment, bottom plate cleaning and roller cleaning. There is also a Quiet Mode setting to reduce operating noise for night or silent situations. I did not find the need to use this because I feel that the printer is not very noisy under normal operating conditions.

As far as quality of prints are concerned, I have found the Pixma iP4600 to be the best I have ever owned. Text is very sharp and clear and aligned perfectly to paper. Color printing is just a little less sharp than B&W, but still very acceptable. Photos are comparable to professional lab results if you use good Canon photo paper, and a little less so with other papers. The Quick Start Guide is well done with excellent explanations of all operations. There is more information contained in the User's Guide which is loaded with the CD-ROM.

The only faults I can find with the Canon ip4600 are the rather large footprint of this printer and the very shiny black finish which seems to attract and show dust quickly. There is a newer version of this printer available, the ip4700, but I do not see much difference between the two except that the ip4700 is slightly faster. However since the newer version ip4700 cost almost 3 times as much, I would stick with the ip4600.

One of the reasons why I like Canon products (besides the fact that they are quality made), is their easy access to technical support. A toll-free number connects you with Canon and a tech person who is proficient with your particular product will answer very quickly and courteously help you with any problem. I have called them several times with questions and have found them to be extremely helpful and very well mannered. They also all speak English!