Review of the Canon Pixma iP5200

www.canon.co.uk The rather large Canon Pixma iP5200 is detectably more robust than the cheaper iP4200 and if you go for the iP5200R version, the £40 extra buys you wired and wireless LAN connectivity, though the iP5200 doesn’t provide direct print card slots, nor Bluetooth. Only three coloured inks, plus photo black for photo printing are used but the lack of lighter ‘photo’ inks didn’t impede the production of impressive photo prints. With its FINE print head capable of laying down droplets as small as one Picolitre there was no evidence of graininess, though a touch of banding was noted. With best quality settings, an A4 borderless print was produced in only 133 seconds, well over a minute faster than the best of the rest. Canon says it has made improvements to the fade-resistance performance of its dye-based ChromaLife 100 inks, though there is no independent test data to support this claim yet.