Canon Pixma Ip2600 – Best Budget Printer?
The latest budget photo printer from Canon is the Pixma iP2600, which is a replacement for the Pixma iP1800 and is available for less than £30. This is a basic photo printer with few features, having no PictBridge port or memory card slot but is capable of producing excellent sharp prints and presents a pleasing sleek design.
Design
A lot of work has been put into the design of the Pixma iP2600 and Canon are to be congratulated on a job well done. The smooth exterior, a space saving 5.6×17.4×10 inches is complimented by a glossy black look, with a slightly mirrored finish that looks very sleek sitting on your desktop. A far cry from the usual boring grey plastic body that usually signals an inkjet printer. The output and paper trays both fold into the unit when not in use, creating a sleek box that more resembles part of a high end Hi-Fi system. The output tray has a slightly flimsy arm which extends to catch loose paper, but lacking a stop cap at the end tends to let sheets fly off the end, annoying, but not critical. The minimalist control panel has only two buttons, one acting as a paper feed button and the other doubling up as both a power button and error warning light. The power cord fits into the rear of the printer and the USB port is also located here. It is worth noting that a USB cable is not supplied, so you will have to purchase one as an extra. At this price you cannot expect PictBridge or memory card slots, so all images will have to be sent to your photo software on your PC and printed from there.
Cartridge supplies
Only two cartridges are required in the Pixma iP2600, a black ink cartridge and a three-colour cartridge. There are two capacities of each available, the standard black cartridge, PG37 has 11ml of ink and the higher capacity PG40 has 16ml. The standard colour cartridge, CL38 contains a total of 9ml of ink, 3ml of each cyan, magenta and yellow, whilst the higher capacity CL41 contains a total 12ml of ink, 4ml of each colour. With the PG40 costing less than £14 and the CL41 less than £17, these cartridges represent the best value for use in this printer.
Performance
In speed tests the Pixma iP2600 performed very well. It managed to produce 5.68 pages per minute of black text, which compares well with both the HP DeskJet D4260 and the Lexmark Z845, that are both more expensive printers. The canon also performed well in quality tests, the characters formed were precise with crisp edges and created no blurred areas, in colour graphics tests most documents came out with solid colours and nice even distribution of colour. The only slight area of concern was in portions where gradual colour gradients occurred but these imperfections were barely noticeable to the bare eye and only a perfectionist could grumble.
4×6 photos printed on Canons semi-gloss paper were also impressive. They were not perfect but were well balanced and even, a difficult job for a budget printer.
So with solid printing performance at relatively quick output speeds and acceptable photo prints, the Canon Pixma iP2600 is an affordable choice and is a printer that performs well above its weight, making it probably the best budget buy under £50.
Post a comment