Thread: PIXMA iP1880 Printer

CANON'S NEWEST ENTRY level inkjet printer springs quite a surprise. We carried out our usual set of text and photo printing tests and noted that its print quality is comparable to that of more expensive printers. TIme for first page out was 21 seconds, and thereafter an A4 sized text printout in normal quality took just 8 seconds an impressive timing. Full page photo printing took almost four minutes, again in the same league as more expensive printers that we tested in last month's photo printer comparison.



In our test prints we could make out a faint greenish-yellow tinge, but that is something one can correct with relative ease in the driver settings or in an image editing program. There was some loss of fine detail in the white areas of the print, but in most other parts of the image, including darker areas, this was not a problem. Apart from these, there were no other flaws visible to the naked eye. Text printing in the normal mode is good overall, and improves when you select best quality.

While the purchase cost of the Pixma iP1880 is low, the running cost is pretty steep, as with any low budget printer. Even with Canon's claimed yield of 220 sheets with the black cartridge costing Rs. 825, the cost per print works out to Rs. 3.75 per page of black text printing. In actual usage, the yield will be less. If your printing is restricted to about 100 sheets or less per month, this will serve to be a good choice, especially when budget is a constraint.