Canon PIXMA iP4600 Printer

I've just bought this from Amazon - speedy service and nearly the best price online -many thanks. I am mighty impressed by the iP4600 already and don't think anyone need look further than this unless they need A3 printing.

I bought this mainly for my consulting work, and was after a printer that could produce the best quality colour documents. It has been very hard finding useful reviews on business-grade ink-jet printers, as most reviews seem to concentrate on photo printing ability rather than plain paper performance. However, although this may primarily be a photo-printing machine, it is absolutely outstanding at plain-paper documents too.

Setting up was straightforward - it all fitted together fine and there was nothing complicated in the 6-stage process that is clearly set out in the documentation. As usual, no USB cable is included so if you don't already have a spare one, you will need to buy one to use this printer. One very minor gripe was that as part of the setup process, it walks you through the installation of drivers from the CD, followed by a restart, and then configuration of the system. Part of this includes a clever printhead self-alignment procedure, but when presented with the on-screen option to carry this out, you have to press 'Execute' rather than 'Next'. If you do the latter, it doesn't carry out the alignment process, and there is no back-button to allow you to re-select it. I couldn't find any way to manually start the alignment test, and in the end had to reinstall the drivers to trigger the whole installation process again. That being said, it seems to calibrate itself automatically so there is no user-involvement required other than feeding the paper in and running the alignment test.

Printing documents at normal quality on basic paper produces excellent results - plenty good enough for presenting to clients for routine documents. Using good paper and high-quality printing, it is still surprisingly fast and the quality is superb - close to 'proper' litho-printed standard -and just the job for when you want to really impress. Text is crisp black and very well defined indeed - unless you get the magnifying glass out, it really is very hard to tell that it hasn't been professionally printed. White text on colour backgrounds is superb, and blocks of colour are impressively solid with no speckling or banding. It really is excellent, and I prefer the matt finish of the ink to the slightly glossy output of some colour lasers. Certainly anyone else looking for a printer to produce really professional documents will be delighted with this - you just can't fault the output at all. I was prepared to spend £100's if necessary to get top-grade document printing, but truly there is no need - this does the job beautifully.

I don't normally use my own printers for photos as I prefer the quality and price of online services. Having said that, I have printed some photos with the iP4600 to see how it does, and again it is very impressive. The quality is absolutely excellent and it is also remarkably quick. You would be very hard pushed to spot the difference between a lab-print and one of these - it certainly does not look like it has come from a sub-£100 ink-jet. Price per print is a little tricky to estimate, but 6x4 paper sells for c.7.35p per sheet on Amazon, and if you could print an average of say 300 prints per set of inks (£40ish) that would add 13p or so of ink cost, so a total price of about 20p per print sounds about right. Online services charge 5-10p + postage, so still represent better value if you're printing off a decent batch, but for speed and convenience, these printers are an excellent choice.

I was a little nervous about buying this printer as it seemed too cheap to deliver the quality I wanted. I was totally wrong - this is a superb machine and worth every penny. It looks great and performs brilliantly. My last machine was, I suspect, harmed by using cheap non-branded inks. The quality of print output noticeably improved when I switched back to Canon inks, but damage had already been done. I use a lot of illustrations and graphics in my reports, and the vibrancy and quality of the print output from the iP4600 is really impressive - way better than any printer I've seen for under £1,000. And this time, I am going to stick to using Canon own-brand inks....

An brilliant piece of top quality kit.
Easy to setup, use and work with. I bought this to replace an aged but still good Epson CX6600 which was recenlty rendered useless due to a refilled cartridge. The iP4600, on the other hand is something else. Out of the box and working in no time. As usual, no USB cable but no issue there as I have plenty. I downloaded the latest drivers prior to delivery incase of any installation issues but was not required.
Installation program was very easy to follow. Clear and simple as always with Canon.

Initially, I expected to pay around 200GBP and get an realtively good printer. When a friend suggested I consider the iP4600 I was unsure considering the price. All I can say is, you would be hard pushed to tell the difference from a lab print and one from this printer... very hard pushed.

Since it's arrival 24 hours ago, I've done around 50 prints on 6x4 glossy and satin and the quality is incredible. The print speed is brilliant too. I was very surprised to see my print on the tray and still achieve truly professional results.

Upkeep is cheap too. An ink set is around 33.00GBP and refills are expected to be fractionally less (although I won't be using them for a good few years - just prefer having confidence in branded goods, that's all.)

It's also worth noting that Canon allow you to replace/repair the print head too contrary to other brands. Should this ever fail it won't require a new printer, just a new head.

In all, best purchase for a long, long time. Truly excellent value for money, awesome speed with no compromise on quality both technically and functionally.

I cannot believe how good this thing prints.
It was more than i expected for the price and it outperforms my HP B9180 pro photoprinter which is £500.

I'm a professional photographer and i'd say these prints were as good as a pro lab.

Fantastic!! well done canon