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More…You find few true bargains among low-cost color inkjets--such products always involve trade-offs. But Canon's Pixma iP2600 color inkjet printer has the goods where it counts, producing surprisingly decent print quality, even on plain paper. As a result, this supercheap printer's mediocre speed may be less of an issue for many buyers. Another reason to like the iP2600: Canon's better-than-average performance in our recent Reliability and Service survey.
Canon Canon Pixma iP2600
Pricing
$28.88 - $79.99 From 6 Vendors Get Best Prices »
2.5
1 User Review Add your own »
$28.88 - $79.99
From 6 Vendors
Get Best Prices »
- Lab Tested
- How We Test Printers »
Pros
Very inexpensive
Impressive text and photo quality
Cons
Minimal features
Mediocre to slow print speeds
Bottom Line
Home and student users should love the prints and the price, but they'll need a little patience.
Canon Pixma iP2600 Inkjet Printer
Canon Pixma iP2600 Review, by Melissa Riofrio May 6, 2008
How mediocre was its output speed? In our tests, the Pixma iP2600 printed text on plain paper at a rate of 8.5 pages per minute--slower than both the Epson Stylus C120 and the Lexmark Z2420 Wireless. Its print speeds for color graphics and photos ranged from average to worse, but the actual printouts were worth the wait. Text samples looked deep-black and pretty crisp. Color images printed on plain paper appeared vivid, maybe even a bit overdone. On Canon's own photo paper, the same images improved markedly and were smooth, detailed, and natural.
The printer's simple, boxy design includes a 150-sheet rear input area and a 150-sheet front output tray. Both are surprisingly roomy, but the output tray--a foldout front panel with a narrow pivoting extension--is also disappointingly flimsy. On-screen prompts walk you through manual duplexing (two-sided printing). The ink cartridges are fairly easy to replace, and a helpful illustration sits above the bays.
The iP2600's control panel, however, is sparse and hard to decipher. It consists of two buttons with symbolic labels and integrated LEDs that turn on, turn off, or flash to communicate the printer's status. Such secret-code-like designs are typical among low-cost printers; apparently, making them easier to use costs too much.
The printer ships with standard-size black and tricolor cartridges; higher-yield versions are also available. Canon calculates the page yields based on a suite of standard documents with a mix of text and graphics. Even with the higher-yield cartridges, such a document costs at least 14 cents in ink alone (6.1 cents for black, 8.2 cents total for all three colors) and drains the cartridges within 300 pages or so. Simpler documents will use less ink.
Canon bundles useful software with the Pixma iP2600. The apps include a centralized interface for accessing the user guide and other support; an on-screen status monitor where you can also check printer settings; and Easy-PhotoPrint EX for editing and manipulating photos.
The Canon Pixma iP2600 is a cheap printer that many people could live with happily. It doesn't do much other than print well on both plain and special papers, but for this little money, tolerating its poky speed is worthwhile.
--Melissa Riofrio
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PCWorld Lab Results
- Rating Breakdown
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70
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59
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83
- See Complete Lab Results »
Performance Comparison with Similar Printers
70
74
82
82
Performance
| 300dpi Line Art Image (secs) | 15.7 |
| 4 by 6 Color Photo (secs) | 27.3 |
| 4 by 6 Grayscale Photo (secs) | 25.97 |
| Color Output Quality | Very Good |
| Color Photo Quality | Superior |
| Copy Output Quality | n/a |
| Copy Quality | n/a |
| Grayscale Glossy Output Quality | n/a |
| Grayscale Output Quality | Good |
| Line Art Output Quality | Good |
| One-Page Webpage (secs) | 32.25 |
| Overall Scan Quality | n/a |
| Sports Action Shot (secs) | 45.12 |
| Ten-Page Word Document | 91.89 |
| Ten-Page Word Document (secs) | 91.89 |
| Tested Color Speed (ppm) | 1.9 |
| Tested Glossy Photo Speed (ppm) | 1.3 |
| Tested Grayscale Speed (ppm) | 2.3 |
| Tested Lineart Speed (ppm) | 3.8 |
| Tested Text Speed (ppm) | 8.5 |
| Text Output Quality | Very Good |
| Three-Page Word Document | 60.43 |
| Three-Page Word Document (secs) | 60.43 |
| Two-Page Excel Document | 65.53 |
| Two-Page Excel Document (secs) | 65.53 |
Text Printing
| Text output quality | Very Good |
User Reviews
Average User Reviews for Canon Canon Pixma iP2600
1 Review Add your own »
- Latest User Reviews 1 review
-
Reviewed by: Vern
Duration of ownership: 4 Months
Strengths: Prints decent quality.
Weaknesses: Color ink runs out fast with only black & white print. Although the color has to be replaced, the black turns to green until the color is replaced. Ink is expensive and it appears to use that flaw.
Overall: Well below my previous Canon i560
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