Canon i550 Bubble-Jet Printer 

This is the elder cousin of the i450 photo printer, supporting the same max print resolution of 4800X1200 dpi, but without support for the Camera Direct feature. Plus, this has a 5 pico-liters ink droplet against the 2/5 pico-liters in the i450. Its rated print speed in mono is the same (18 ppm) as the i450, but its color print speed is lower at 11 ppm. The difference is that this printer has both USB and a parallel port interface. It also uses four separate cartridges for CMYK, unlike the i450, which has only two. This makes it possible to replace only the cartridge that runs out of ink. Also, the cartridges have larger ink capacity, thereby printing more pages. The printer weighs 4.7 Kg and has foldable trays to save desktop space. It gave a print speed of 10 ppm in draft mode and 7 ppm in normal mode, both of which are good for a mid-range printer. The printer gave 8 ppm when printing a full-page text document with a small color image in draft mode*. But, the quality was good despite the draft mode. The quality improved in normal mode, but the speed reduced to just 4 ppm. To print a full A4 page borderless color graphic in best mode, it took 1 min and 20 secs on glossy photo paper, which is pretty decent and also the fastest among the three Canon printers we tested this time. But there wasn’t much difference in print quality of this printer and the i450**.

S N   A   P   S   H O   T Price : Printer: Rs14,995 (one year warranty), Cartridges: Rs 545 (black), Rs 495 (for each color) Key specs : Compact design and fast printing speed Contact : Canon, Delhi. Tel : 6806572. E-mail : rajeev.singh@canon-co.in

Though this printer might be expensive for homes, it is great for printing digital photos. 

Anindya Roy