Canon Pixma iP2600 Photo Printer
Manufacturer: Canon USA Part number: 2435B002
- More product information:
- Editors' review
- User reviews
- Specifications
- Accessories
- Manufacturer info
- Bottom Line:
- The Canon Pixma iP2600 is an excellent option for buyers looking to print their personal photos and text documents. We wish it had external ports for direct image uploading (although we're not surprised it doesn't), but you'll be more than satisfied with this printer's ability to deliver quality photos at a low price.
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Where to buy
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CNET editors' review
Canon Pixma iP2600 Photo Printer price range: $47.98 - $49.00
- Reviewed by: Justin Yu
- Edited by: Rich Brown
- Reviewed on: 03/06/2008
- Released on: 01/28/2008
The good: Sleek design folds up for unobtrusive storage; portrait prints display evenly balanced colors; lines of text look sharp; low price for print quality.
The bad: Lacks PictBridge port and memory card slot; brighter colors had a slightly gray cast; USB cord not included; exterior is a magnet for fingerprints.
The bottom line: The Canon Pixma iP2600 is an excellent option for buyers looking to print their personal photos and text documents. We wish it had external ports for direct image uploading (although we're not surprised it doesn't), but you'll be more than satisfied with this printer's ability to deliver quality photos at a low price.
The Pixma iP2600 is Canon's inkjet photo printer for users on a budget. The retail price is $49.99, replacing the Pixma iP1800 as its entry-level, straightforward printer with limited features. As expected in a baseline product, the iP2600 lacks a PictBridge port and a memory card slot but makes up for it with a sleek design, competitive print speeds, and bold, crisp prints. The photos themselves are also incredibly easy to crop, repair, and alter using the included Easy-PhotoPrint EX software bundle. Overall, you'll find that this is a cost-effective printer for text documents and amateur-level photo printing.
Design
It's obvious that Canon put a lot of work into the design of the iP2600. The sleek exterior is 5.6x17.4x10 inches and has a glossy black, slightly mirrored finish that looks sleek on your desk--that is, until the dust settles, literally. The shiny body retains fingerprints, a lot like the display on the iPhone. Smudges aside, the iP2600 doesn't take up a lot of desk space, and it blended in nicely with the rest of our dark peripherals. The output and paper trays both fold into the unit when not in use, creating a tight box that could easily be mistaken for a stereo boom box. The output tray folds down from the face of the printer with a slightly flimsy rectangular arm that extends to corral loose paper. The arm doesn't have a cap at the end, which was counterproductive, and a few of our test sheets flew off the tray as a result. Annoying, but certainly not a deal-breaker.
The control panel is very minimalist, with only power and paper feed buttons on top of the printer. The power button also doubles as an alarm lamp that flashes orange when an error occurs. The power cord and the USB port are on the back. Potential buyers should be aware that you'll need a USB cord to connect the printer to a computer, but as is frustratingly common with printers, it's not included in the box. Appropriate for this price, there are no provisions for external bridge connectivity, so consumers looking to eliminate the middleman and plug a digital camera, a USB key, or a memory card directly into the IP2600 should look to a comparable, more fully featured (albeit higher priced) set like the HP Deskjet D4260 or the Epson Stylus Photo R260.
Performance
The Canon Pixma iP2600 performed admirably in our speed tests. The Pixma churned out 5.68 pages per minute (ppm) of black-and-white text, falling just short of the HP Deskjet 4260 ($75) at 6.03 ppm and the Lexmark Z845 ($50) at 6.85 ppm. The three printers are all within the same general sub-$100 price range, so the slight deficit is expected and acceptable compared with other budget inkjet printers.
(Longer bars indicate better performance)
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PPM (photo) | |
PPM (text) |
The Canon also performed surprisingly well in our quality tests. It printed text onto 20-pound generic office paper with dense, well-saturated ink. The characters formed precise, crisp edges with no visible blurriness and minimal misshapes in 8x loupe magnification. The color graphics test came out solid and evenly distributed, but there were certain portions of our graphics document that came out with a slightly neutral color, specifically in areas with gradual color gradients. We repeated our tests in three iterations, and these imperfections were consistent but will likely be unnoticeable unless you have a sharp eye for print quality. In all cases, the photos produced vivid colors and text that popped from the page. Most importantly, we found these results to be accurate over the cartridges' entire life cycle.
We were also impressed with the 4x6 photos we printed on Canon's semigloss paper. They're definitely far from perfect, but the colors were balanced evenly and our subjects' faces appeared to contain an even amount of cyan and magenta, a task that's difficult for most lower-end photo printers to achieve. The solid printing performance and relatively quick output speeds make this printer an affordable choice for printing text, light graphics documents, and digital pictures.
Service and support
Canon ensures support for the iP2600 for a limited 90 days after the purchase date, a meager amount compared with Epson's guaranteed one-year warranty. However, if you do encounter an issue that can't be solved over the phone, you'll still be protected by Canon's "InstaExchange" service: a new printer will be sent out with instructions inside on how to use the RMA number to send your defective unit back to Canon. The highlight of this service is that your new printer will be shipped out the same day, as long as you call in before 3 p.m. ET Monday through Friday.
User reviews
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Literally "bangs for your bucks"
by 1Judge on May 6, 2009
Pros: Very good reviews, not expensive
Cons: The unusually profound sound effects (easily duplicated by lifting one end of your keyboard 1-2 inches off the desk and letting it free fall back down 3-4 times). This sequencing occurs at the beginning and sometimes, end, of each print job!
Summary: Like my father before me, I research a product to death before I purchase it. Call it overkill if you may. Days, weeks... even months if I must. Confident I ...
Summary: Like my father before me, I research a product to death before I purchase it. Call it overkill if you may. Days, weeks... even months if I must. Confident I had a gem of a purchase in my possession, I found myself dumbfounded asking, "Were there NO editorials written about this thing banging, clicking and even jumping? Maybe it's the norm? Maybe this one is defective?" Over the past 10 years, I've only purchased 2 other printers (both HP's). Both worked brilliantly (both given to charity). Neither produced the horrific sound effects this one is producing, at such a time when technological advancements are so bountiful! In fairness, I haven't yet printed a photo of any sort (kind of scared to, to tell the truth). I use it mainly for documents. And each time I push "print", I am reminded over, and over and over again, "You've got yourself a real BANG for your BUCK! Haven't you?" Wouldn't it be wise if certain products. such as printers, copiers, etc., had a standardized NOISE QUOTIENT assigned to them? Something more identifiable than decibel levels? Wouldn't that be useful? For this review, for instance, I stood in another room and imagined, while the machine was hopping, oops, I mean printing, what it sounded like. The best descript I could come up with was, "sounds like someone is deliberately trying to annoy the daylights out of everyone in the room by repeatedly lifting up one end of their keyboard and dropping it back down on their desk. Sounds like the thing can't take much more abuse. Sounds like it's going to break." Had someone written THAT in a review, I wouldn't have had to! ((-: But who am I to complain? Others have had to suffer many things so that I would steer clear of faulty products, or, nuances in good products that may turn me off, as well. So, for $50, I don't mind being the one to do the shepherding!
MY FAULT! Dear consumer, it is 1 week since I posted the "Bang for your Bucks" comment, which, unfortunately for my ego, was today discovered to be my fault. Unbeknownst at the time, one "leg" of the printer was set ever-so-slightly off the edge of the desktop in a space-saving effort.
Updated on May 13, 2009
AFTER OBSERVING MY ERROR + re-setting the printer FIRMLY ON THE DESK, I am happy to report that NONE of the banging characteristics I earlier reported were observed. NONE! Although this may not be the most quiet printer on the market, my earlier report about its audibly offensive nature was UNWARRANTED and UNJUSTIFIED. Thus, I ask for forgiveness if any were steered clear of purchasing this product + for any harm CANON may have suffered accordingly!
From a photo-printing standpoint (nature-internet), I found the results to be a mixture of rich, yet a bit faded + slightly off-color (regular paper, all settings). Thus, after apologizing for my PREVIOUS JUDGMENT, I'd newly rate the 2600 3.5-4 stars.3 out of 3 users found this user opinion helpful.
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Absolutely eats ink!
by joanplotnick on April 19, 2009
Pros: Good print quality
Cons: You can buy a new printer every 2-2 months given the amount you spend on ink. It is also very noisy
Summary: I think CNET gave this a good review only because it tried the product a few times and it printed well. If it used this product daily for 2-months CNET ...
Summary: I think CNET gave this a good review only because it tried the product a few times and it printed well. If it used this product daily for 2-months CNET would hate it, just as I do.
This product absolutely drinks ink. With moderate use, you have to buy two new cartridges (color and B/W) every 2 months. Each cartridge is $25-$30. Within 2-3 months, you spend the same amount on ink as you did on the printer. Within 6 months you spent enough on ink that you could have purchsed a much better printer.
We finally go so frustrated we recycled the printer at Staples and bought a $150 multi-functional printer (scan, print, copy, fax). We saved enough not buying ink for the Canon to pay for the new machine.
The Canon is also very noisy. Every time it warms up (or shuts down) it is like a major manufacturing machine is going online. This makes it a poor choice for any location where more than one person works.3 out of 3 users found this user opinion helpful.
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Good basic and Inexpensive printer
by alf12 on July 4, 2009
Pros: VG text print quality and graphics quality. Fairly speedy printing once it gets going. Print quality can be adjusted a ton of different ways. Ink prices aren't all that bad if you get them on sale. Standard and higher capacity ones are made.
Cons: Color accuracy was a little off to me. Had to adjust it and it still seems a little off.
Summary: Outside of the color accuracy problem (to me) it's a nice basic printer if you're not needing or expecting top level quality printing and you can control how ...
Summary: Outside of the color accuracy problem (to me) it's a nice basic printer if you're not needing or expecting top level quality printing and you can control how much you spend on ink by buying the standard cartridges instead of the high capacity ones. For only $30 at WM the price is right and mine came with a USB cable. It's not as noisy as some suggest and it has a quiet mode.
1 out of 1 users found this user opinion helpful.
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You get what you pay for
Pros: Simple to install
Software was pretty easy to use and had a bunch of useful optionsCons: Color prints way too dark, even on the best Canon paper.
Very little detail in B&W prints, and again too dark.Summary: I'll start out by saying, it's a $49 printer. I wasn't expecting industry leading photo quality performance, but at least get somewhere in the ballpark. After setting ...
Summary: I'll start out by saying, it's a $49 printer. I wasn't expecting industry leading photo quality performance, but at least get somewhere in the ballpark. After setting up ICM profiles and adjusting photos almost to the point of the highlights being blown out, prints still came out too dark. Maybe it's lemon unit, who knows, but it's getting returned. If you're a photo enthusiast and looking for a cheap printer, look elsewhere.
1 out of 1 users found this user opinion helpful.
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A great little gadget
by coolbean75 on April 22, 2009
Pros: Speed, ease of use/ set up, perfect size, nice appearance (matches perfectly), price ($30), does a decent job at text, graphics and photos.
Cons: None. it was $30 dollars..noise? I'm not asleep when I'm using it. It's not gonna wake the neighbors. Build quality?...it just sits there....I put paper in it, open a tray and what I printed comes out. Ink? what printer doesn't use it, buy wholesale.
Summary: It's a great basic little printer if that is all you want. Print some essays, photos, emails, or whatever. $30 bucks, come on. Ink? well it uses ink so ...
Summary: It's a great basic little printer if that is all you want. Print some essays, photos, emails, or whatever. $30 bucks, come on. Ink? well it uses ink so I am gonna give it a low rating? NOT! Doesn't spray any more than some others I have used. Seems like the cartridges are getting smaller and the price is going up, though. There is a way to disable the auto low ink indicator so you can use it till it really runs out. Keep an extra one on hand. How easy is that. Build quality is not that important to me at $30. It has a nice piano black finish and silver accents. Not gonna be tossing it to my buddy across the room. Oh, and it makes noise.....so does my car, my washer, my dryer, my A/C.....you get the idea. It's not gonna wake the dead and since it sounds like a printer printing, I'm not too worried. So, it's a wonderful little printer for basic needs and can even impress me sometimes, (mainly photos). So don't hate the little guy because it's not the high end model....go buy the high end model. I personaly did not need fax, copy, scan, LCD preview, Wi-fi, etc. I got, you guessed it, a $30 dollar printer that does exactly what I need it to do. And I got it at Wal-Mart, so taking it back or exchanging it is not even an issue. Anyway, hope I have helped shed a little light on things and perhaps if you buy this printer, you will set your expectations in the right spot. They say you get what you pay for, I believe I got more. Take care.
1 out of 1 users found this user opinion helpful.
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Inexpensive printer, expensive ink cartridges
by sammyd-cat on March 6, 2009
Pros: I purchased this printer in Nov 2008 on sale for $30. For the amount I spent, I was quite satisfied with the quality of the photos I printed. For personal use of occasional photo printing, it serves its purpose adequately.
Cons: I find the 2 ink cartridge printers unsuitable for frequent photo/colored document printing. Colored ink ran out quite quickly. Canon color cartridges for IP2600 can be hard to find and quite expensive.
Summary: For occasional use, this printer can provide relatively cheap, quite good quality photo printing. However, my personal opinion is that if you are planning on doing quite a bit of ...
Summary: For occasional use, this printer can provide relatively cheap, quite good quality photo printing. However, my personal opinion is that if you are planning on doing quite a bit of color printing, this is not the printer to get. It's strictly a bare-bones printer with no extra features. I only paid $20 more for an IP4500 which has a 5 cartridge system, is able to print cd/dvd labels directly onto the disk, has 2 paper feed sources and can print directly from your camera. Since the price of a new color cartridge for the IP2600 is as much as I paid for the printer, the 2600 is now just a paper weight.
1 out of 1 users found this user opinion helpful.
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Cheap, inexpensive printer that's fast & looks good
by MrLittleStar on January 7, 2009
Pros: The canon prints very fast when configured to print at Draft, and very good still when printing at normal. Color printing are not too shabby as well. This printer is good for a default, print-everything printer. Not the best for photos but simple.
Cons: The cost per page in printing. You can run out of black ink fairly quickly which you'd have to setup the printer to print "Color Only" and use only the color cartridge. Those are costly. It tends to be a bit loud & configured for night print is SLOW!
Summary: If your looking to print documents quickly, with color and with a very simple setup/configuration, this Canon IP2600 is great for that. It's a very cheap printer (cost-wise) ...
Summary: If your looking to print documents quickly, with color and with a very simple setup/configuration, this Canon IP2600 is great for that. It's a very cheap printer (cost-wise) however, as with the majority of ink-jet printers, the cartridges are pretty high. If they can come down on the price of the cartridge, it would rank higher. I've actually brought 3 because of the price but always configure it to print documents as "Draft". For higher print quality that you would be printing volumes of documents, I'd purchase another printer
1 out of 1 users found this user opinion helpful.
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Awesome printer for the price
by EFHATCH1990 on December 25, 2008
Pros: Low Cost. Ink is affordable. makes great 4x6 prints. very simple design. looks great!
Cons: Kind of cheap feeling. had issues loading paper that was curled up.
Summary: For the price I dont think you can beat this printer. Yes it may feel cheap but... it was and it still prints great looking photos. Using good quality paper ...
Summary: For the price I dont think you can beat this printer. Yes it may feel cheap but... it was and it still prints great looking photos. Using good quality paper is also a key to getting great looking photos from this printer. This printer does everything I need at an affordable price and it still looks great and doesnt take up a ton of space. Bottom-Line: This is a great printer for the money
1 out of 1 users found this user opinion helpful.
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Good Quality Documents and Photos
by ecotony on October 19, 2009
Pros: Clean Documents.
Good, clear photo printing.
Print speed is fast, but takes a bit of time to spool up.Cons: Ink: Uses lots of ink and cartridges are not cheap.
Summary: This was a free after rebate printer for us. Works very well and takes up very little space on the desk.
Summary: This was a free after rebate printer for us. Works very well and takes up very little space on the desk.
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Great Product at such a great price.
by the6uard1an on September 20, 2009
Pros: The price; At walmart, $32.00. Great deal, compared to other brands such as HP or Lexmark. The printing quality is excellent and gets most of my tasks done.
Cons: buying new cartridges.
Summary: This is a great product for basic home users. As far as pricing ($30 at walmart), this printer will save you time to getting your work done.
Looking for ink ...Summary: This is a great product for basic home users. As far as pricing ($30 at walmart), this printer will save you time to getting your work done.
Looking for ink cartridges? Tough luck. My advice, try not to buy them seperately ( seriously $34 for black and $35 for color...hell no. ) Look for bundles. I heard Costco sells 3 in one package ( 1/C 2/B) for about $50.
Specifications
- Manufacturer: Canon USA
- Part number: 2435B002
- Description: This compact photo printer delivers true ease of use and amazing results. Its patented print head technology lets you produce beautiful, long-lasting photos with borderless edges, from credit- card size, up to 8.5" x 11", and with resolution up to 4800 x 1200 color dpi. It is fast, too: a superb 4" x 6" borderless print takes only about 55 seconds. For better results, the Auto Image Fix feature automatically corrects images for the best possible exposure, color, brightness and contrast. Also, the specially formulated pigment black ink delivers clear, laser-quality text with better readability and a higher resistance to smudging.
General
- Printer Type Photo printer - Ink-jet - Color
- Width 17.4 in
- Depth 10 in
- Height 5.6 in
- Weight 8.2 lbs
Printer
- Inkjet Technology Canon FINE (Full-lithography inkjet Nozzle Engineering)
- Ink Palette (Colors) 4-ink
- Minimum Ink Droplet Size 2 pl
- Print Speed up to 22 pages/min - B/W - A4 (8.25 in x 11.7 in), up to 17 pages/min - Color - A4 (8.25 in x 11.7 in)
- Connectivity Technology Wired
- Interface USB
- Max Resolution ( B&W ) 600 dpi x 600 dpi
- Max Resolution ( Color ) 4800 dpi x 1200 dpi
- Printer Features Borderless printing
Media Handling
- Media Type Cards, Envelopes, Photo paper, Plain paper, Matte photo paper, Glossy photo paper, High resolution paper, Two-sided photo paper, Semi-gloss photo paper
- Max Media Size (Custom) 8.5 in x 14 in
- Media Sizes 3.9 in x 7 in, 2.1 in x 3.4 in, 3.95 in x 5.9 in, A4 (8.25 in x 11.7 in), A5 (5.83 in x 8.25 in), B5 (6.93 in x 9.83 in), Legal (8.5 in x 14 in), Letter A Size (8.5 in x 11 in)
- Envelope Sizes International DL (4.33 in x 8.66 in)
- Card / Label Sizes 2.13 in x 3.4 in
- Total Media Capacity 100 sheets
- Media Feeder(s) 1 x Autoload - 100 sheets
Telecom
- Modem None
Networking
- Networking None
Scanner
- Type None
Copier
- Copier Type None
Expansion / Connectivity
- Expansion Bays Total (Free) None
- Expansion Slots Total (Free) None
- Connections 1 x USB - 4 pin USB Type B
- Compatible Slots None
Miscellaneous
- Consumables Included 1 x Ink tank ( Black ) - Canon PG-37, 1 x Ink tank ( Color ) - Canon CL-38
- Microsoft Certifications Certified for Windows Vista
Power
- Power Device Power supply
- Power Consumption Operational 7 Watt
- Power Consumption Stand by / Sleep 0.1 Watt
Battery
- Type None
Software / System Requirements
- Software Included Drivers & Utilities, Canon Easy-PhotoPrint
- OS Required Microsoft Windows XP, Microsoft Windows 2000, Microsoft Windows Vista, Apple MacOS X 10.3.9 or later
Environmental Standards
- EPA Energy Star Compliant Yes
Manufacturer Warranty
- Service & Support 3 months warranty
- Service & Support Details Technical support - Phone consulting, Limited warranty - 3 months
Environmental Parameters
- Sound Emission (Operating) 43 dBA
CNET Labs' Benchmarks
- CNET Labs Photo Speed Test (pages per minute) 0.89
- CNET Labs Presentation Speed Test (pages per minute) 1.99
- CNET Labs Printer Graphics Speed Test (pages per minute) 1.79
- CNET Labs Text Speed Test (pages per minute) 5.68
Accessories
- Silex Pricom C-6700WG - print server (33722386)98.73 - 204.47
- Canon Photo Paper Plus II - glossy photo paper - 100 sheet(s) (33003970)12.99 - 21.60
- Canon PG 40 Black Twin Pack - ink tank (32335113)29.99 - 42.99
- Canon CL 41 - ink tank (32143326)16.99 - 36.96
- CL-41 Color Ink Tank for Select Canon PIXMA Printers (31482133)18.75 - 29.83
Manufacturer info
- Canon USA
- Manufacturer profile
- Browse Canon USA products on Shopper.com
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- Website: http://estore.usa.canon.com/
- Address:
One Canon Plaza, Lake Success, NY 11042 - Phone: 516-328-5000
- Email: mediacontact@cusa.canon.com
