Canon Pixma iP100 Mobile Printer Review

Design

Canon made the body of the iP100 simple yet elegant. The matte silver body has curved edges and a sleek black trim. Its overall visual appeal is sharp enough for presentations and business meetings.

The iP100’s top cover and paper tray fold neatly into the printer body for easy portability. If you have a fairly large laptop bag, you may be able to slide the iP100 next to your PC.

Print quality and performance

The print quality of the iP100 ranges from average to spectacular. He created text documents with mostly crisp, clear letters, but occasionally some characters looked a bit blurrier than others.

Photo quality was consistently outstanding. I’ve printed 4 x 6 and 8 x 10 images. The iP100 reproduced even the smallest details of colorful landscapes with crisp lines and true-to-life colors. The ink doesn’t dry instantly, but after a minute or two you won’t have to worry about smearing.

The iP100 is also fast. He finished a single page of a text-heavy Word document in less than 15 seconds and needed just over a minute to recite nine more pages.

I printed a 4 x 6 borderless photo in 50 seconds and an 8 x 10 photo in 2:46. Both speeds are faster than Canon’s previous model, the iP90.

useful features

You can connect your PictBridge compatible camera directly to the iP100 and create prints immediately. Alternatively, you can transfer images via IrDa infrared capability, or gamble $50 for optional Bluetooth connectivity.

Canon offers a variety of optional accessories to make your iP100 even more useful on the road. The car adapter is $89, or you can opt for the $99 battery pack that runs for about three hours before you need to charge it again.

iP100 Printer: The Bad

High costs are the biggest drawbacks of the iP100. The printer itself is quite expensive. But ink cartridges are also expensive. The small black cartridge is sold for $12 and the tri-color cartridge for $17. In the end, you’ll spend about 25 cents for a full-color 4 x 6 and about 3 cents for a letter-size black-and-white sheet of text.

Without the optional battery pack, your only option for power is the AC adapter, which isn’t ideal for many tasks on the go. So unless your usage plans include constant access to an outlet, you’ll need to factor in the cost of your adapter or car battery.

And if you need perfectly sharp text documents for business use, the iP100 is a questionable choice.

good overall value

Portable inkjet printers are very much a niche product aimed at people who really need printing on the go. You’ll sacrifice some quality and speed when choosing a portable printer like the iP100, but very few printers can offer this kind of performance in such a portable package.

For a full list of iP100 specifications, click here.