Canon Bubble Jet i850 printer
- — 01 May, 2003 07:56
Canon is recommending its Bubble Jet i850 printer based on its speed, quality and ink nozzle technology and we’re pleased to report that it delivers on all fronts. It might be expensive but with the i850 you pay for quality.
Canon’s printers have never looked as good as its scanners but we think someone in the printer division has borrowed the design template to come up with the i850. While it’s still boxy, the navy blue and brushed aluminium look gives it a sharp finish. The Bubble Jet’s loaded with a generous software bundle and supports USB as well as parallel, so anyone with an older PC is catered for.
The Bubble Jet i850 not only looks good however -- it takes advantage of Canon’s MicroFine Droplet technology and is capable of delivering two picolitre-sized ink droplets accurately to create a maximum print resolution of 4800x1200dpi.
The ink is contained in four cartridges which is much more economical than having to replace tricolour cartridges when only one colour has run out.
We couldn’t match the quoted print speeds from Canon -- we pushed out 9ppm (pages per minute) for mono and 7ppm for colour. Draft printing for coloured text and graphics had some banding and the colour scheme was dull, but notching it up one quality setting sorted this.
However, the i850 really impresses on speeds for high-resolution photo printing. We printed a full-colour photo on the highest resolution in three minutes. Vivacious natural colours and great detail, this is the i850’s forte. Not only was it extremely fast but the i850 is virtually noiseless across all print jobs.
In brief: Canon Bubble Jet i850
If you want a cheap inkjet for text and graphics printing with low running costs then the i850 isn’t for you. If, however, you want a fast, reliable printer with excellent photo printing capabilities we highly recommend this great new printer from Canon.
Price: $499
Phone: (02) 9805 2000
URL: www.canon.com.au
