PRINTER REVIEW

Canon i80 review

8.3

Editors' Rating

Service & support		8.0
Design		8.0
Features		9.0
Performance		8.0

Dong Van Ngo CNET

Published: 16 Feb 2004

With the sole exception of its grey cover, the Canon i80 looks identical to its predecessor, the immensely popular i70. On the inside, however, the portable i80 photo printer boasts myriad technical improvements, including enhanced photo quality, better print speed and improved ink efficiency. Although Canon offers an optional Bluetooth module and car adapter for the i80, it carries a hefty £194 (inc. VAT) price tag without any accessories. The associated costs alone will keep this portable inkjet printer out of the hands of all but the most dedicated digital-photo enthusiast. If, on the other hand, your job keeps you out of the office -- say you work as an estate agent, a sales representative or an insurance adjuster -- the i80 is your best bet for printing high-quality photos no matter where you are. It's expensive, yes, but it's worth every penny.

Design

Weighing less than 2kg and measuring only 31cm by 17.4cm by 5.2cm (W, D, H), the Canon i80 is among the smallest and lightest inkjet printers we've tested. And yet, unlike the snapshot Canon CP-300, the i80 handles with ease all different sizes of paper, including letter, legal, A4, 4in. by 6in., 5in. by 7in. and envelopes. The printer's top cover quickly becomes the intake paper tray and can hold 30 sheets of plain paper or about 15 sheets of photo paper. Unfortunately, this printer is not designed to handle heavy print jobs; for instance, there's no output tray. Whenever we loaded more than a few sheets of plain paper, we experienced paper jams.

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.

Features

Despite its compact size, the i80 comes with a range of feature options, including a car adapter, Bluetooth adapter, battery kit and cradle kit. 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 picolitres. That means better image quality, faster print speeds and more efficient ink usage than the i70. The i80 also offers resolutions up to 4,800 by 1,200 colour dots per inch (dpi), and it supports a variety of photo papers, including borderless.

On the software front, the i80 includes Easy-WebPrint and Easy-PhotoPrint, which simplify and enhance the process of printing either photos or Web pages.

Performance

The i80 performs as well as the i70 in speed, but it surpasses its predecessor in quality. In our 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 10.5in. by 7in. test photo, the i80 managed 0.36ppm, tying the i70 for speed and finishing well ahead of the 450cbi's 0.22ppm.

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 colour matching throughout. The only glitch in our tests was that the text and the graphics were light, although 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.

The i80 is frugal with ink, too. By our calculations, the i80 used about 50p's worth of ink and paper for every 10.5in. by 7in. 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 colours, it's likely that you'll spend even less.

Service & support

The i80 comes with a one-year limited return to base warranty. While the product is under warranty, Canon also provides free phone technical support during normal working hours (9am to 5.30pm), although you'll pay for any calls at national rates.

Canon's Web site features updated drivers, user guides and FAQs. There's also a well-organised knowledge base available for troubleshooting.