Pixma iP4000R

The PIXMA IP4000R is one of the few printers that comes with an 802.11g connection, although both the Epson STYLUS PHOTO R800 and STYLUS PHOTO R320 offer it as an option. The Pixma IP4000R doesn't have media card slots or an LCD monitor, but it does have a direct-print port.

The IP4000R also has an Ethernet port; however, you can't access the printer via Ethernet and Wi-Fi simultaneously on the same network. To do that, Canon recommends sharing it through a PC connected to its USB 1.1 port.

The PIXMA IP4000R produced prints cheaply relative to other full-size printers we have tested. Ink and paper costs roughly 46 cents per 4" x 6" borderless print.

The IP4000R uses five individual ink cartridges, employing just three primary colours and two black inks: one dye-based ink for photos, the other a pigment-based ink for printing text. Nonetheless, the IP4000R printed very attractive, vividly coloured photos on letter-sized paper that impressed us as much as those printed by models using more inks. The IP4000R's snapshot prints weren't as appealing, however; we noticed fine banding toward the trailing edge of the print, where the printer apparently had difficulty feeding the smaller paper.

Using the black pigment ink, the IP4000R produced strong dark text, but the edges of some letters looked a little fuzzy. Colour graphics printed on plain paper looked less attractive: The heavy-handed use of the pigment black ink seemed to cause a posterised effect in some areas.

The IP4000R is a good all-around performer. It printed text at a speedy 6.8ppm in our tests, and was very quick at printing colour graphics, at 2.5ppm. Our best quality photo sample emerged in 76 seconds. It was also noticeably quieter than many other printers we tested.

The IP4000R can hold 300 sheets of paper: up to 150 sheets in each the bottom drawer and the upper feeder. A button on the front panel selects the paper source; a second button resumes or cancels print jobs--and that's the extent of the function buttons, other than the on/off button. The built-in duplexer enables two-sided printing, but the first side has to dry before printing begins on the other side of the paper.