Canon knows how to combine its own technology with great print quality and speedy delivery in its Bubble Jet printers, and the A3 i6500 is no exception. You won’t get the best value for money in terms of running costs, but it’s surprisingly cheap to purchase.

The i6500 connects via parallel or USB. Its plain boxy case isn’t much of a looker, but it’s what’s on the inside that makes this model beautiful. It offers wide-format borderless printing with a good photo-quality output thanks to the high 4800x1200 maximum resolution. Since the i6500 is capable of achieving this resolution in hardware, rather than resorting to interpolation, its prints aren’t suffused with unnatural colour.

Canon achieves the 4800x1200dpi resolution by its own MicroFine droplet ink nozzle technology that delivers five picolitre-sized ink droplets evenly over the page. The impressive results speak for themselves, but take extra care when installing the cartridges and printhead. Unlike a lot of inkjet cartridges on other manufacturers’ models, the i6500’s inks aren’t in a sealed unit and can spill easily.

The ink is contained in four cartridges, which is much more economical than having to replace tri-colour cartridges when only one colour has run out.

We couldn’t match the quoted print speeds from Canon but the i6500 maintained good rates on difficult print jobs. We printed a full-page A3 photo at the highest resolution and got stunning results back in only three minutes 12 seconds. Bumping up the quality settings eradicates some of the banding and dull colour problems.

Canon Bubble Jet i6500
Price: $799
Vendor: Canon
Phone: (02) 9805 2000
www.canon.com.au