Canon Pixma iP100: portable but pricey

Have you ever wanted a printer that is portable and that runs off a battery? If so, take a look at Canon Pixma iP100.
 
It’s a very compact printer with a footprint slightly smaller than an A4 page. A big battery is attached, which will give you a day of modest printing from anywhere you go. I guess I expected a portable printer that runs off a battery to not produce very good prints but I was pleasantly surprised in that regard with colors coming out bright and accurate, no smudges or smears and very crisp blacks.
 
It has a five-color ink system, which should be saving you some ink, especially if you print a lot of color. The resolution is up to 9600x2400 dpi which is more than enough for most business-purposes like letters and presentations.

Print speed is not the best though as one full A4 page with business graphics at the highest quality setting took about two minutes to appear. According to Canon the iP100 should print up to 20 ppm in black and up to 14 ppm in color.

In terms of connectivity the printer is also limited. You can print wirelessly with infrared IrDA but how many computers support that today? You can also connect with Bluetooth but that’s an extra piece of kit to buy. That leaves plugging in with a USB cable. A portable printer like this screams out for wireless printing and in that regard Canon disappoints.

Other complaints I have are that there is no case for it. Even buying a cheap PC notebook today you get a case but not with the printer, not even a simple sleeve.

What also puzzles me is that Canon didn’t see fit to equip the iP100 with a card reader. There’s nowhere to insert a flash memory card like SD or CF. That would require a display, which would add cost and power consumption, I guess, but it’s still something this sort of printer should have.

It’s somewhat of a consolation that you can at least connect a USB cable to a PictBridge-compatible digital camera and print from the camera.

If you’re considering buying this printer you do so for the simple reason that you can take it with you anywhere because you don’t need AC power. Print quality is very good but it’s lacking too much functionality for you to buy it if you don’t need portability. At 1,239 Dhs with battery you pay quite a bit extra for the pleasure of carrying it around but if that’s what you need, the Canon Pixma iP100 is a good choice.

This article originally appeared in Khaleej Times. The articles are published here one week after they appear in print. You can find all my Khaleej Times articles here.

1 year ago  /  Notes