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CNET editors' rating:
4.0 stars
Excellent
Detailed editors' rating - Average user rating: 3.5 stars out of 18 reviews
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Product summary
CNET Editors' ChoiceFeb 04
The good: Excellent print quality; compact design; fast print speeds; optional car adapter; optional Bluetooth support; easy-to-use software.
The bad: Plain paper often jams; expensive.
The bottom line: With a car charger and Bluetooth support, the i80 brings mobile printing to the next level. It is best suited for those who work out of the office.
Specifications: Printer Type: Photo printer - Ink-jet - Color; Max media size: Legal (8.5 in x 14 in), A4 (8.25 in x 11.7 in); Connectivity technology: Wired, Wireless; See full specs
CNET editors' review
- Reviewed on: 02/09/2004
- Released on: 02/09/2004
The USB 1.0 port on the right side of the i80 connects it to a PC or a Mac. (The USB cable, however, must be purchased separately.) On the left side of the printer, there's a USB 2.0 port for Bubble Jet Direct- or PictBridge-compatible digital cameras, such as the Canon PowerShot S50. There's also a proprietary connector strip along the back for use with an optional battery or cradle kit. And the i80 can also be powered from your car's cigarette lighter--again, with an optional adapter.
Setting up the i80 is a very simple process, aided by a well-illustrated setup poster. The printer's design itself is so straightforward that anyone can get this printer up and running within a matter of minutes right out of the box. Despite its compact size, the i80 comes with feature options to beat the band. Unfortunately, most of them cost extra: for the car adapter, add $89; for the Bluetooth adapter, add $79; for the battery kit, add $99; and for the cradle kit, add $139. The good news is that the i80 shares the same i70 battery and cradle kits, allowing current owners of the i70 to upgrade with less expense.
The basic i80 printer does ship with a few new features included. In addition to supporting the Bubble Jet Direct format, which allows you to print images without a PC or a Mac, the i80 includes PictBridge photo technology, once available only in Canon's high-end inkjet printers, such as the i960. Plus, the i80 uses a smaller print head, producing droplets as small as 2 picoliters. That means better image quality, faster print speeds, and more efficient ink usage than the i70. The i80 also offers resolutions up to 4,800x1,200 color dots per inch, and it supports a variety of photo papers, including borderless.
Like the i70, the i80 includes easy-to-use software. ZoomBrowser Ex and PhotoRecord are apps that manage and archive your photos. Easy-WebPrint and Easy-PhotoPrint simplify and enhance the process of printing either photos or Web pages. And there's a very interesting application called PhotoStitch that creates panoramic photos from individual shots. The i80 performs as well as the i70 in speed, but it surpasses its predecessor in quality. In CNET Labs tests, the i80 pumps out 5.6 pages per minute (ppm) of text on regular paper, compared with 7.5ppm for the i70 and a very sluggish 1.5ppm for the HP DeskJet 450cbi. On a 10.5x7-inch test photo, the i80 took a mere 2.8 minutes per page (mpp), tying the i70 for speed, and finishing well ahead of the 450cbi's 4.5mpp.
The i80's overall print quality is impressive, to say the least. On inkjet paper, both text and graphics look sharp and crisp, and graphics specifically have excellent gradients, as well as perfect color matching throughout. The only glitch in our tests was that the text and the graphics were light, though this can be fixed by adjusting the print driver. But the Canon i80 impressed us the most with its excellent photo quality. The printouts look as crisp as those from the highest-quality printers we've seen, such as the Canon i960's or the Epson R300M's.
The i80 is frugal with ink, too. By our calculations, the i80 used about one dollar's worth of ink and paper for every 10.5x7-inch photo, about average for a quality photo printer these days. Given that our test photo is graphically dense and rich, with a wide palette of colors, it's likely that you'll spend even less.
Inkjet text speed test (Longer bars indicate better performance)
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Inkjet color photo speed test (Shorter bars indicate better performance)
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Inkjet printer quality
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On our test calls, Canon's technical-support line was responsive, and we were able to speak to a real person within a few minutes. An additional $95 will extend the warranty to up to three years. By comparison, HP's warranty on its 450cbi is a slightly better deal, covering free shipping for repairs and toll-free, 24/7 tech support for one year, with another three years for $65.
Canon's Web site features updated drivers, user guides, and FAQs. There's also a well-organized knowledge base available for troubleshooting.
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