Customer Reviews

Canon PIXMA iP90 Photo Inkjet Printer (9466A001)

5 star:		(75)
4 star:		(32)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(11)

 

 

I read the previous reviews and I did some research on the net about this printer. I was skeptical when I received it in the mail from Amazon about how it would be. Let me start off by saying that I am happy with it! But it is not perfect! It fits easily in my Targus backpack laptop bag with all the other gadgets I carry around with me. I saw one review that stated that the text printing was fuzzy but it seems very crisp to me and very fast for such a small printer. The photos are good quality but of course could be better from a 6 or 7-color printer, but since I have this in my bag along with a box of 4x6 photo paper I can print off a picture at any time if someone wanted a copy (and that happens a lot and sometimes I get paid for it! LOL). Convenience is King.

Here are a few specs that I figured out.

Number of photos from a single color cartridge: ~30
Approx price per photo: $.52 (With Epson glossy photo paper which I found for $16.99 for a 100 sheet box)

So, here is the deal, you are definitely paying for the convenience of printing your photos any where AND having the ability to print to letter or legal size paper. My fiancé and I have a lot of hobbies and we tend to be on the go a LOT. When we need to print out a map to somewhere or print out instructions for some kind of project while we are in the parking lot of Lowe's we count on this printer big time!

Bottom line... Is it the best and cheapest printer out there? Nope! Is the best printer for my on the go lifestyle and convenience? Totally!

I have wanted a small, lightweight travel printer for some time and after reading a number of reviews and researching a number of options I decided to buy the Canon PIXMAiP90 Photo Inkjet Printer. I travel weekly and often need the use of a printer and so the purchase of the Canon seemed timely and has proven to be a wonderful printer. I admit I also purchased the Bluetooth option and the extended batter as well so the total cost of this bundle was right around 400.00. This is a bit pricy but after using the printer dozens of times I have no regrets for purchasing the printer or the wireless and extended battery options. The printer is easy to use, quiet and prints both color and b&w documents quickly and with very very good quality. I printed an 8x11" photo on old color paper from a small image and got very impressive results. B&W documents are crisp and of an excellent quality. What else do you want from a printer. Easy, quiet, quick and sharp quality prints!
The bluetooth and extended battery options are by no means necessary but I have bluetooth and love that I don't have to carry a bunch of cables and battery charger every time I travel. The extended battery lasts a long long time. I wish I could say exactly how many hours but I have printed at least 300 pages and never had to recharge, even when the printer was not in use for more than a week.
I carry my laptop and printer in a laptop backpack and even with magazines, ipods, files and the other stuff we carry around the printer feel lightweight and doesn't add a trmendous extra weight to the pack.
Cartridge use seems adequate and I have yet to replace a cartridge. Installation of them is easy as is the installation of the software.
I give this printer a 5 star because if has exceeded my expectations of a small, lightweight travel printer, that I also use at home. I would dfeinitely purchase this printer again.

At first after doing a little research i found that the this printer had the best capabilities to be a wireless printer and that i'll be able to print what i wanted in any situation. And it has surpassed many of what i spected for it.

Good printing quality, rather fast for such a small printer, very light in weight and has a very slick design (it looks much better than the HP competition), the software that comes with it works fine, i bought the bluetooth add-on with the battery for complete wireless capabilities,overall a very good COMPUTER printer.

In the previous paragraph you must have noticed i capitalized the word "COMPUTER", and that's were it's short in its capabilities there's no support, printing system or driver for PDA's, yes it is capable of printing via bluetooth and infrared, but personally i had problems through infrared that the printing came with miscellaneou characters, i had to get a third party printing software for my pda which i was able to print but the software that i could get can only print Word documents, Excel and typed notes but no hand writing, so no support for PDF or photos, or whatever other thing.

I contacted Canon regarding this problem, asking is there a way that i'll be able to print on this equipment from my PDA?, and it seems that Canon has decided that the only way to support this devices is through some protocols called OPP or BIP, but this protocols mostly come in cellphones not in PDA's.

So the conclusion is if you are not going to print from a PDA and your going to use your computer instead it's a great buy. If your a looking for a PDA printer better stick to the HP models eventhough you have a Palm PDA or any other brand.

Ok where do I begin with this one...

Cons...

Price - Very expensive if you want to be mobile with it.

Printer ($250 plus shipping) along with the optional bluetooth adapter (an additional $80 or so plus shipping), and also the optional battery pack kit (an additional $140 plus shipping). I paid a total of over $500 plus shipping costs for this printer and the accessories to be able to use it wireless.

Included Software - Didnt auto install and doesnt always work

I had to call tech support to find out if the disk was bad or what and we ended up going into the disk and manually installing each program which ended up not installing the icons or other little special things.

Printer/Bluetooth Installation/Setup -

If you are using a usb connection then you are ok but be warned of the "work arounds" needed and other problems when using the printer strictly with the bluetooth adapter.

The printer would not install via the bluetooth connection right out of the box. There is no documentation with the printer or bluetooth manual as to where the adapter should be installed either. I had to call tech support to find out where to install the adapter. I had to call twice to tech support in order for someone who would actually take the time out to help with the situation.

Cannon has a very weird way of a work around to get the bluetooth adapter to work with the printer and computer. First of all you have to figure out which way you want to connect the printer on your computer. Your computer's bluetooth hardware has to be configured to work with Microsofts drivers for the printer to work properly such as giving you ink status and other functions. You only have one way communication under Windows XP SP2 and that is to only print to the machine and nothing else. The other draw back to this configuration is that other devices such as my wireless headset wouldnt work anymore using the microsoft drivers. So, if I wanted both devices to work I had to use the device drivers that came with my computer's bluetooth adapter and I was back to square one with only one way communication to the printer but at least all other wireless devices would work again.

When I called tech support about this problem they tried to help but didnt know about any such problems even though its all over the internet about people having problems getting the bluetooth to work properly or even at all with their bluetooth adapters that are installed in their pc. One tech even had me uninstall the printers software and upon reboot the computer would not boot up at all. I spent a month trying to reinstall everything back into the pc.

Setup also requires you to install the printer using a usb connection first and then installing the printer again but with the bluetooth connection therefore installing two different printers. Anytime you need to do something to this printer it has to be connected via usb to do any maintenance on it.

This printer was a major pain to get up and running.

Print speed/Quality -

The printer takes a lot longer to print the same page of text compared to my lexmark x6170 all in one. Also, in between each page there is a default drying time which can be changed to go longer but not turned off completely.

Pros...

Mobility - No need for wires or power adapters
Small - fits in a briefcase or laptop bag easily
Print Quality - is better than most small compact printers
Cartridges - are cheap but dont really last that long since they are so small

Do I recommend the printer you ask...yes i recommend it if you are a mobile person and need to print things on the spot anytime anywhere and are willing to shell out over $500 to do so.

Once you do get it up and running properly you will not be dissapointed with it.

I AM IN LOVE WITH THIS PRINTER. Ok, as much as a person can appropriately be in love with a printer...
But this thing has seriously been great. It doesn't seem to use much ink, the cartridges are affordable (a nice change!), and it prints really beautiful, vivid 4"x6" color prints - with or without borders. It prints edge-to-edge flawlessly.

I've been using it for about 6-8 months now and it's a little workhorse. I've recommended it to many people and in my line of work, it's extremely handy to have along in order to print info on the go. I've printed in my car before - just plugging it into a converter in the cig lighter and beamed (via infrared) the info to my laptop. I've never connected it with a cable to my computer - just used infrared.

It does occasionally pull in more than one piece of paper, but not half as much as the HP printers I've owned in the past. Also, it DOES NOT come with a printer cable, which I think is pretty crappy. Lucky for me, I only use infrared. But for the average person, it may be an unpleasant surprise.

Overall, this is the best printer I've ever owned - it's worth the price for the quality. And if you have a Canon digital camera, you just plug it right in and can print photos without needing to use a computer or laptop at all!

GREAT PRINTER! Can't beat it!

1. Works like a dream
2. Software installs quick and easy
3. Print quality excellent for documents and great for photos
4. Ink cartridge usage with low level notice is nice one for B/W one for color
5. Small size is perfect for travel and small workplaces
6. Speed of printing is surprising
7. General Comments on Comments:
It seems that many expect the moon with a small, compact printer like this one. USB cable is a sure connection and no problem when on the move. Too much is said about how it doesn't work with unnecessary bells and whistles like Bluetooth. Why worry...just use the USB. Saftware installed easily and the icons on the desktop pop up just fine. As does the user's manual and set-up guide. Ink cartridges have to be small so printer can be compact. If ink $ is a problem use the cheap compatables. No printer provides all things for all users so you just have to decide what is most important to you in a compact portable printer. If it is fast, great looking color as well as B/W documents from a printer that can fit in your laptop bag then look no further, this is the one for you. For good, fast, clear printing from a neat, compact little printer there is nothing in the market that is better than this one. Though I do not consider this a reason to downgrade my rating, for full portability the battery pack would be a good investment. For me, I just make sure there is someplace where I can plug it in and I am on my way with whatever print job I need done. Buy it, you will like it!

I bought the ip90 to use while traveling, and I've been quite satisfied with the performance. So far I've only used it via IRDA and a USB connection -- I don't have the battery kit, car adapter, nor the Bluetooth adapter, so I can't comment on those. As to the printer itself:

+++ Prints surprisingly fast; I was really stunned by how quickly it spits out pages.
+++ Photos look quite good; also better than I expected. I tried out printing directly from a Windows Mobile phone (over IRDA) with one the 10 sheets of photo paper Canon includes with the printer; worked like a charm!
+++ Great compact size with a reasonable weight... I found one of those "zipper three ring binders" -- where the actual binder rings were removable -- and it makes a great carrying case (since it includes folders for paper!), all for $9.99.
+++ The printer driver natively supports (manual) duplexing, 2-up/4-up/etc. printing, and otherwise is quite full-featured (these days almost everything I print is 2-up/duplexed -- I just don't want the bulk of all that extra paper); not at all 'crippled' like, say, HP printer drivers are for their super-cheap, kinda-compact printers (e.g., the 35xx family). Granted, for the price you pay for the ip90, this should be the case.

--- Text printouts aren't really as black as I'd like; closer to a dark gray.
--- Lines are a little more 'jagged' that what most printers produce these days.
--- True, the price is expensive, although if you think about it, it's still dirt cheap to what printers cost even just 5 years ago. The pricing of printers in general has become warped since then, with the marketing shifting to selling the mass-market printers for little more than cost and making all the profit on the ink... I suppose that Canon figures that with a portable printer like this, you probably won't really be doing THAT much printing, so they'd better get their profit up front?

Overall, I'm quite satisfied. This is a solid product, and -- at least from what I've read in reviews -- seems noticeably better than HP's portable entries.

This 4 pound printer is great. It's a bit pricy, but then most portables are. There are two things about this printer that I really like. First of all, it's fast. Second, the text looks pretty good and the color graphics are very good. Don't buy any other printer that's slower. You will be frustrated! I've only had this printer a short time but so far am very pleased. Fast output and no paper jamming!!! One thing, the extra-cost battery is expensive, but if you need it, it's a wonderful add-on and its charge last quite a long time. I recently used this printer and it's battery all weekend for printing invoices at a show I was doing. Not a problem and at the end of the weekend the battery still had plenty of charge. It was great not having to plug in the printer to electricity. The Canon iP 90 is highly recommended. One other thing: some say the ink cartridges are small and don't last very long. Well, perhaps, but they're not very expensive either.

I needed a printer for document and letter production while traveling with my laptop computer. I have not tried the photo option yet. The printer is compact, produces clear and clean printing, is easy to use and easy to transport. I had an initial problem installing the ink cartridge and called the company for help. The company responded promptly and the problem was quickly resolved.

I bought this printer as a compact desk printer. I most frequently print 2-4 page items in color. Mostly mapping/directions, short legal documents, faxes, and forms. I've printed a couple digital photos, but they were taken from compact digital cameras where expectations are moderate. The output on all these items has been great.

The printer works well and takes up very little space. I use it with a few different laptops, and I used to plug it directly into each one. When plugged directly into a computer the desktop software has a nice ink and paper management tool which alerts you to any important conditions and the ink-level.

I recently attached it to a Netgear wireless 4-port switch and usb print server. This is a nice way to get remote printing from a bunch of computers without leaving any of them on. However, I've yet to get the nice Canon ink/paper status monitor to work with the netgear print server. I turned on bi-directional support on the netgear LPT device, and that's not enough. If you decide to use a device like this, keep in mind you might loose this printer-status feature in the process.

I highly recommend the Canon iP90. Just like big brother printers, only smaller.