Canon PIXMA iP2600

Canon Pixma ip2600 is a photo printer which is excellent value for money, but does have a small flaws.

== Setup ==

Inside the box you get the printer and the power cable. You get also the inside the manual to how to use the printer and a disc which installs drivers onto the computer. Inside the printer already is the two cartridges you need, which just need the tape ripped off to make them work.

The cable ...
...the middle you have the Canon logo which is dominate in the printer topping and you have underneath a rotten grey colour. The colour is quite bad considering the rest of the printer looks really nice.
At the back of the printer you have where the mains adapter goes which is quite tough to get in and out. I like something which is easy to plug in and out and then to put away again but this is quite difficult.

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Canon Pixma ip2600 is a photo printer which is excellent value for money, but does have a small flaws.

Setup

Inside the box you get the printer and the power cable. You get also the inside the manual to how to use the printer and a disc which installs drivers onto the computer. Inside the printer already is the two cartridges you need, which just need the tape ripped off to make them work.

The cable is easy to put in and not that difficult to work out how it all works. The disc they provide loads up not only the drivers needed to print of documents but also adds their very own picture service which fixes red eye pictures, the brightness and contrast and more.
Extremely easy to load up and install and doesn't take up much memory.
You will need a cable to use to print items like a printer cable and they are usually £2 on play.com if you wanted one.

Design

The printer is designed in this very stylish and polished black colour which has this glowing look every time you look at it. All made out of this plastic which is quite durable.

Around the trims is this grey section which sort of hides all the corners.
In the middle you have the Canon logo which is dominate in the printer topping and you have underneath a rotten grey colour. The colour is quite bad considering the rest of the printer looks really nice.
At the back of the printer you have where the mains adapter goes which is quite tough to get in and out. I like something which is easy to plug in and out and then to put away again but this is quite difficult.

You have on the left hand side a connection for plugging into your computer via USB and this is the signal between the computer and printer which gives out orders.

On top are 2 buttons, the first is to turn the power on and the second is to basically pause the printing which is good if you need to add more paper or sort out a paper jam. These buttons highlight in orange when power is on.

The printer has also got at the front a fold down section which reveals the cartridges and at the back is the paper tray which folds forward save room.
The design is clever as you are going to buy a printer not just on what it can do but how it looks as well overall. I think the look is pretty good for this printer.

Statistics

This printer is 442mm in Width, 253mm in Depth and 142mm in Height. Looking at these numbers it is not that high which is useful and the width is quite long but I think overall the problem I have is the depth as it does look quite big in the depth department regardless of what the measurements tell you.

Well the printer itself weighs 3.7k which is not too bad but it can be a lot smaller in weight because there are some things with this printer which could be taken away.
This printer does photos up to 4800 x 1200dpi which again is not too bad but could be better.

They suggest a mono document that they can print 22 sheets per minute of this and I have to say I have tried and the best I got was 19 and never got any higher so that to me is debatable it is more like 19 rather than 22.
They also suggest that you can get 17 sheets per minute done and yet again I think the best I have had is 14 so the numbers of the amount of prints in my experience are down and could be more improved.

Your actually printer in the printer tray can hold 100 sheets of paper which is superb and when you look at it doesn't look like it could hold 50 let alone 100. I like it has so many because it stops you getting up every five minutes to go and fetch more paper if you have ran out.
You can do borderless printing as well on various A4 sizes such as 20x25cm, 13x18cm, 10x18cm and 10x15cm.
Overall the printer is pretty quick.

Printing

When you want to print an item you will find that on the screen this menu pops up which tells you how much ink you have left and what percentage of the printing has been done, which is useful and good to have.
You then have the printer accepting that you have told it to print something but takes over a minute to finally print something. You hear it make noises like it is about to start and it doesn't and that is a problem as sometimes you think it will never print and then it does, so a little slow to begin with.

Well when I print I like to use normal standard white paper and for the picture images I use glossy paper.
When I print normal word documents in black and white I do this on plain paper. The paper comes out and is printed on with ease but I notice sometimes when I pick up a document there is this really nasty burning smell which is vile and smells awful. So this is one issue I have and it does happen a few times.

When it comes to the picture images I like to use glossy paper and I find this does help the image improve overall. The printing ink does take up to 10 minutes to dry which again I find pretty bad because I would hope within a minute to have a document dried and ready to be picked up. So the printing of colour items can take a while to dry.

Even though the ink takes a short while to dry the actual image they produce is really superb and has such detail and depth to it and you get this really good feeling inside that the person you give the item to will believe you had it done professionally.

Speed wise they are average and at times when I print out normal black ink word documents I notice how the words have this hint of blurry text next to them. You know how you feel with double vision well the printer seems to print double vision of the work you write.
The one other final issue is that when you put the paper in straight occasionally it grabs the paper and actually prints it at an angle and it will do this unless you hold the paper straight, doesn't do it all the time but sometimes it does.

Cartridges

This is the biggest downside to this item because it takes 2 cartridges and one is black and the other is colour.

The colour can last a couple of months but tends to run out extremely quickly and the price for a new one is around £24.99 and this is the cheapest sort as well.
A black cartridge does last and I have to say I have had my printer a year and print regularly and still over a quarter left so it is good but the price is £18.99 to get a new one.

So for two new cartridges you are looking at around £45 and the printer isn't even worth that much.
So that to me is excessive and previous photo printers I have had the ink usually costs me just £12 each and things so this is high.

Good Points

Well the printer is easy to install and get going and I think anyone can do that and without the instruction book as well.
I like how the printer tells you when it has got a document printing the sort of time frame it will take and the ink levels in the cartridges and that is a really good to think to see.

I love the look of the printer and how is it very appealing and makes you want to purchase it because of the look of it overall.
I think that it does print a good number of documents out and even though it does not meet the numbers they suggest it does it is still pretty good overall.
I also like the way the disc provided installs this image software to help images come out even better which is a nice freebie to have.

Bad Points

I do not like the prices of the cartridges at all and I think they are very highly priced. My advice would be that if the cartridges go and it comes to a time when you need new ones I would just go ahead and just buy a new printer because it works out that you would save money by about £15 compared to buying two new cartridges. Each printer contains new inks with them so you would be getting a better deal this way.

Sometimes when you print and item you get a paper jam which we all get from time to time and the printer on screen display informs you that this has happened so you remove the paper and click continue and the printer does not realise that this has happened and in return you have to turn off the printer and leave it off for 10 minutes before you can continue to print a document. I have had this happen so many times it is frustrating. If you are like me and have deadlines to reach at times and you get a paper jam and need to wait 10 minutes before it lets you do anything again then it does get annoying very quickly.
I do not like how the printer does not dry the coloured ink images that quickly, I think this is a problem and perhaps not a huge one but for me I feel it is.

Summary

If you want a printer to do you colour images which are really good standard and to have a printer which can be useful for any occasion then this printer is the one for you.

Even though it has some flaws they are not constantly happening and they happen occasionally, and considering how much the printer can be then I think you are in a good position not to complain too much.
This printer is priced at currently £38 on amazon.co.uk but just yesterday I found this one a website for a daily deal for just £30.
Sadly the deal has passed but plenty of website with this item on and many good deals to be found. 

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