If you are researching a new Color Inkjet Printer , we hope that our Canon i550 Review, Rating & Buyers Guide will help you.For years, Canon has been trailing the other inkjet printer vendors in the resolution wars. Until the latest generation of printers, the resolution specs on most Canon inkjet printers have been substantially lower than those of its competitors. Fortunately for Canon, resolution by itself is not the only factor that affects print quality. So while a particular Canon printer might not have boasted a spectacularly high resolution, Canon rarely left anything to complain about insofar as print quality is concerned.

With the i550, Canon has achieved parity, at least in the area of specs. The i550 can print at up to 4,800x1,200 dpi. More important, however, is the use of Advanced MicroFine Droplet Technology. This uses very small ink droplets to produce terrific photo quality without the need for a six-color ink system. The i550 uses the standard four colors of ink, cyan, magenta, yellow, and black. Each color of ink is contained in its own ink cartridge, an approach that lets you replace only a cartridge that is empty, so you never throw away a cartridge that might still contain one or two colors of ink.

The i550 also employs the Exif (Exchangeable Image Format File) Print technology that lets some of the more advanced digital cameras encode camera settings as well as color information into the digital print for more accurate color rendition when printing. This capability is contained in the Easy PhotoPrint application that's included with the printer. Also included on the CD are PhotoRecord, ZoomBrowser EX, and PhotoStitch for Windows users, and ImageBrowser, and PhotoStitch for Mac users. Printer drivers for both the Windows and Macintosh operating systems are also supplied.

Setting up the printer takes only a few minutes. You need to insert the print head into the printer, then install the four ink cartridges. The i550 connects to the PC only through a USB interface. This interface is USB 2.0 for faster data transfers, but is backward compatible with USB 1.1. Canon rates the i550's speed at up to 18 ppm (pages per minute) in black and 11 ppm in color. As with most printer vendors, these ratings are highly inflated and were achieved using draft mode. We did find the i550 to be very fast for an inkjet printer, averaging close to 8 ppm using single spaced type in Word, and up to 2 ppm for pretty dense color graphics in Microsoft Publisher. Using the included photo application, 4x6-inch photos printed in less than a minute. Image quality in all cases was excellent.

Pro: Fast, great print quality, individual ink tanks

Con: None significant