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More…The Canon Pixma iP3500 inkjet printer is ambitious, squeezing a lot of printer functionality into an inexpensive package. While it falls short in some ways, it's still a great value.
Canon Canon Pixma iP3500
Pricing
$99.99 From 1 Vendor Get Best Prices »
PCWorld Rating, October 3, 2008
6 User Reviews Add your own »
$99.99
From 1 Vendor
Get Best Prices »
- Lab Tested
- How We Test Printers »
Pros
Fast; low-priced; crisp, black text
Has a second input tray
Cons
Crowded design; inscrutable buttons
Fleshtones tend to be yellowish
Bottom Line
The Pixma iP3500 offers impressive speed, very good output, and useful features for a low price.
Canon Pixma iP3500 Inkjet Printer
Canon Pixma iP3500 Review, by Melissa Riofrio November 28, 2007
The Pixma iP3500 printed quickly and competently. Plain-text pages exited at a brisk pace of 8.3 pages per minute (ppm), while photo-printing speeds ranged from 1.6 ppm to 3.2 ppm in PC World tests, about average overall. On plain paper, even closely spaced fonts looked precise and nicely black, with just a little jaggedness in curvier letters. Most of the color images we printed exhibited a yellow to orange cast, which made them look warmer and more attractive but also produced slightly odd flesh tones. Our How We Test primer has more information on our printer tests.
At rest, the Pixma iP3500 looks like a shiny, black bread box. When it's time to print, an array of doors, flaps, and panels reveals a versatile--if sometimes complicated--set of features. The usual top-loading input tray takes a wide range of media sizes. The two-part output tray looks like an Evel Knievel jump: Paper slides from a short tongue of plastic over a small bit of empty space toward a longer end piece. Nestled into the empty space is a second input tray that takes a few standard media sizes (A4, letter, B5); you could, for instance, load plain paper there and have the top input tray free for loading photo paper or labels. The small crowd of tongues, trays, and extensions can be confusing--it's hard to tell where things go in or out--but the second input is still a nice bonus. The few controls (visible when the front door is open for normal operation) are scattered, and their icon-based labels are hard to decipher.
A permanent printhead and removable ink tanks for each of the four colors sit beneath the printer's center panel. The user-friendly design has clearly visible slots for the tanks. Like the ink tanks on some other Canon inkjets, each of the Pixma iP3500's tanks has an embedded LED that lights red when the tank is properly inserted (which seems counterintuitive--why not green?). The Pixma iP3500's ink costs, based on documents with a mix of text and graphics, seem reasonable: Black ink costs about 3.2 cents per page, and adding cyan, magenta, and yellow brings the cost to 8.9 cents per page.
The installation includes Easy Photo-Print EX software for organizing, editing, and printing photos, plus Canon's My Printer application for adjusting settings and troubleshooting. A thorough on-screen manual covers both hardware and software. A Solutions Menu interface centralizes access to all of these items.
The Canon Pixma iP3500 hits the sweet spot among inkjet printers, offering a fair number of features and performance for the price. It's one of the better low-cost printers we've seen.
--Melissa Riofrio
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PCWorld Lab Results
- Rating Breakdown
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79
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79
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82
- See Complete Lab Results »
Performance Comparison with Similar Printers
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Performance
| 300dpi Line Art Image (secs) | 10.01 |
| 4 by 6 Color Photo (secs) | 16.17 |
| 4 by 6 Grayscale Photo (secs) | 15.22 |
| Color Output Quality | Good |
| Color Photo Quality | Superior |
| Grayscale Output Quality | Very Good |
| Line Art Output Quality | Good |
| One-Page Webpage (secs) | 18.96 |
| Sports Action Shot (secs) | 37.05 |
| Ten-Page Word Document | 93.72 |
| Ten-Page Word Document (secs) | 93.72 |
| Tested Color Speed (ppm) | 3.2 |
| Tested Glossy Photo Speed (ppm) | 1.6 |
| Tested Grayscale Speed (ppm) | 3.9 |
| Tested Lineart Speed (ppm) | 6 |
| Tested Text Speed (ppm) | 8.3 |
| Text Output Quality | Very Good |
| Three-Page Word Document | 42.7 |
| Three-Page Word Document (secs) | 42.7 |
| Two-Page Excel Document | 39.71 |
| Two-Page Excel Document (secs) | 39.71 |
Text Printing
| Text output quality | Very Good |
User Reviews
Average User Reviews for Canon Canon Pixma iP3500
1 Review Add your own »
- Latest User Reviews 1 review
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Reviewed by: rperry0220
Duration of ownership: 8 Months
Strengths: compact good looks
Weaknesses: Frequent jams, high ink costs per print
Overall: Poor ink management makes this a cheap printer to buy, but an expensive printer to maintain. Photo reproduction is mediocre, even when compared to other budget printers. I've experienced frequent paper jambs, particularly from the front loading tray. It does have crisp black ink printing, but the cartridges are expensive and an internal chip prevents them from being refilled.
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User Reviews From Around the Web
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Reviewed by: skidlin
Strengths: Fast, great printing quality, low price, auto-power on/off, 2 paper feed directions, and separate ink cartridges(interchangeable with other Canon printers).
Weaknesses: Basic features.
Overall: I bought this printer to replace my two old Epson printers because the ink cartridges for them were becoming costlier and harder to find. I'm glad that Canon has one uniform line of ink cartridges for most models so that I don't have to worry about its cartridges running out of production for quite a long while. The printing quality is definitely outstanding, at least, compared to my other two Epson's. Very clear text printing without smudges. Beautiful photo prints especially with the photo glossy paper included in the box. Overall, very satisfied.
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Reviewed by: hoalong
Strengths: Compact, sleek, fast, quality to price ratio is excellent. 4 trade component for separate replacement of cartridges.
Weaknesses: Lack of features, replacement cartridges are NOT THAT CHEAP (versus MP390 etc.),Occasional jams.
Overall: Overall, it's best to purchase this printer with a camera combo, because you will get additional savings. Purchasing the printer by itself is definitely not worth it given the lack of features. However, as a combo purchase with your digital camera, then it is more than a worthy photo printer for your BASIC NEEDS. Recommend only as a secondary printer.
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Reviewed by: shahhere
Strengths: For the price that you can get the printer for its a good printer.
Weaknesses: Expensive for a low end photo printer out of the box.
Overall: Most of the iP line printers are good but the only knack is that the inks are expensive which makes these printers throw away printers if you can get them for free or close to free after rebates.
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Reviewed by: cucu4coco
Strengths: Quite surprise of the print quality, speed, and 2 paper trays.
Weaknesses: Basic with no extra features, like memory slot readers, and legal size paper or smaller only.
Overall: I bought this printer the same time I bought a Canon SD800 camera so cost of printer was very cheap after rebate. Since I do most of my heavy printing at work, this printer is perfect for my home when I need occasional printouts and when I want to do photo prints. When I do have the need to use this printer, I'm quite surprise of the print quality on such a low cost printer. The speed is actually decent too, on par with the higher cost printers of $150-200. Also, nice that it uses 4 separate ink cartridges so save on cost. We all know black is the 1st color that runs out. The lack of extra features isn't as surprising since it IS a low cost printer. Usually, Canon have rebates for this printer so you can get it for very cheap. This printer is great for the simplistic person. People that want more gadgetry will be disappointed with this printer but should had known that at the low cost. As a warning, if you're using photo paper, it's best to use the back paper holder since using the front will roll the paper during printing.
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Reviewed by: trikat
Strengths: Low Price and fairly small size. Printing quality is great. Fast printing and may have a rebate.
Weaknesses: Inkjet, fairly basic (but to be expected), needs more features.
Overall: Great printer for the basic printing jobs needed at home. Print quality is great and the print speed will not dissapoint you. As usual this printer is a great product made by Canon and my next printer purchase will most likely be a Canon.
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