Until we saw the Canon Pixma iP1600, we thought that the HP Deskjet 3940 Color Inkjet Printer was the epitome of the "giving away the razor to sell the blades" marketing strategy. Subtract the price of the ink cartridges that come with the 3940, and the printer itself is only $20. But the iP1600 makes the 3940 look expensive. The iP1600's two ink cartridges cost $44.98 direct from Canon. Subtract that from the $49.99 direct price for the printer, and iP1600 itself is only $5.01. Call it the world's first disposable printer.

Also call it an impressive value at the price, suitable for home or home office, with reasonably high-quality output for home and business needs and impressively good speeds for its price. In our tests, the cartridges lasted noticeably longer than the cartridges for the 3940—or for the Canon iP1500, which the iP1600 replaces. We needed three sets of cartridges to complete our test suites for the 3940 and three for the iP1500. With the iP1600, we needed only two sets.

At 9.8 by 17.1 by 6.5 inches (HWD), the iP1600 will fit just about anywhere. But it lacks an output tray, so unless you want pages to fall to the floor, you have to keep it far back from the edge of your desk. You also have to keep the space in front of the printer clear so it can serve as the output tray. Setup is otherwise standard for a four-color printer. Install the black and tricolor cartridges, run the installation program, and connect to the computer using a USB cable—which you'll have to buy separately.

Compared with other ink jets that sell for $100 or less, the iP1600 quality ratings are a little below average for text, typical for graphics, and among the best for photos. Two of our highly stylized test fonts required 12 points for easy readability, which is what held the rating down to good, and means you may have a problem printing things such as greeting cards that have stylized fonts, depending on the paper you're using. But the iP1600 can handle standard documents easily enough. The rest of the fonts were easily readable at 5 points or smaller.

Graphics were at the high end of good, which makes them more than adequate for schoolwork or for printing things at home to bring into the office for internal use. But they fell short of the quality you would want for an important customer, with banding in default mode, a tendency to lose thin lines, and a tendency for full-page graphics to make our standard test paper curl.

Photos earned a very good rating, with true photo quality for most individual images. In our tests, we saw several problems printing in monochrome that we didn't see with color photos, including banding, relatively obvious dithering, and slight posterization, with sudden changes in shading in areas that should change gradually. We consider these problems minor, however, and most people should find the iP1600 suitable for printing snapshots, with the possible exception of monochrome photos. On the plus side, with Canon's new generation of ink and paper, the company claims a 100-year lifetime for photos kept in an archival-quality photo album in plastic sleeves, or 30 years for framed photos behind glass—claims that Canon has never made before.

The iP1600's performance (timed with QualityLogic's hardware and software, www.qualitylogic.com) was surprisingly good. Total time on our business applications suite was 21 minutes 52 seconds, compared with 33:02 for the HP 3940, and 54:24 for the Epson Stylus C66. Photos were also fast, averaging 1:58 for each 4-by-6 and 4:01 for each 8-by-10. In comparison, the 3940 took 4:57 for each 4-by-6 and 12:29 for each 8-by-10.

These times don't win any speed records for ink jets in general, but they make the iP1600 faster than any other printer selling for less than $100. The combination of performance and output quality makes the iP1600 the printer of choice on a $50 budget—and the most impressive $5 printer we expect to see any time soon.

Compare the photo inkjet printers we mentioned above side by side.

Quality ratings:
Text:
Graphics:
Photos: