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! Canon PIXMA iP90 Photo Inkjet Printer (9466A001)
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. - Portable - Canon - Photo Printer - Mobile Printer'
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