Canon Pixma IP4600 Photo Printer

Canon Pixma iP4600 Color Inkjet Printer

Pixma IP4600 Photo Printer Review, by Susan Silvius, PC World March 24, 2009

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• Latest User Reviews 2 reviews
• Reviewed by: johnbachel

  Duration of ownership: 4 Months

  Strengths: Beautiful photo prints. Can print duplex pages.

  Weaknesses: Goes through ink tanks too quickly. I spent $200 in three months on ink, before getting rid of it. My I860 cost me far less to run.

  Overall: Okay for user who prints infrequently. Not good if you want to print a lot of pictures or text.

• Reviewed by: pauldelmore

  Duration of ownership: 1 Year

  Strengths: canon reliability

  Weaknesses: very low ink level in carts. Much less than in my 4100

• Reviewed by: JRMR

  Strengths: Aesthetically pleasing, FAST, impressive options and features, easily transported, excellent instructions and documentation

  Weaknesses: Long setup process, no USB cable included (!!!), hard to find significantly below MSRP anywhere

  Overall: I got this printer after my 8.5 year old HP Deskjet 842C died. The printer is absolutely beautiful right out of the box.Unfortunately, you'll have to forget its looks for the next hour or two while you go through the setup process. Preparing this printer for initial use is unfortunately like prepping a fighter jet for combat. There are a myriad stages, so don't even think about jamming the cartridges in and printing away. The installation process has at least 13 minutes of prescribed "breaks" - I kid you not - while the printer aligns its heads and does other things to prep itself to become your servant. Thankfully, the entire process is backed by detailed paper instructions with everything from exactly what to do to what could possibly go wrong. It's a bit obvious from a few grammatical errors that the manual wasn't originally written in English, but it's still easy to understand.Despite its deceptively simple external looks, the iP4600 has more moving parts than nearly any other electronic device I've ever owned. This includes a paper tray that's practically invisible - good for form, terrible for function. The upshot of the printer's design, however, is that it collapses into a rectangular box when not in use, which saves space and also makes it infinitely easier to move than most models from competitors. Combined with the glossy black finish, the Canon looks gloriously sleek on any desktop.In true Canon form, the printer has more features and options than any but the most hardcore users are likely to use, including the fantastic ability to save your preferences into separate profiles. The best feature - and the one I bought this model for - is autoduplexing, which should save a lot of paper.The only 2 gripes I have is the arduous setup and the lack of a USB cable in the box. Given the featureset, Canon probably figured that anyone who bought this model would probably not only be OK with complicated setups but would probably also have a couple USB cables lying around anyway. Since this description matches me, I'd have to agree with them, but I must admit that in absolute terms both issues diminish the appeal of the printer and cost it a 5 star rating.All things considered, I think this is a great printer at the $100 price point - it's easily worth $200 for its feature set, although that fact won't help those users who're on a budget. Surprisingly, nearly all the stores that sell it list it above MSRP, which is odd for a tech product.I hope I can get another 8.5 years out of it as I did with my previous HP. 4 stars.