subject: Canon PIXMA iP2702 Ink Review [print this page] At a price of just 45 the Canon PIXMA iP2702 is one of the cheapest single-function inkjet printers on the market. Clearly this is intended for people who only do a small amount of printing.
The iP2702 proved to be easy to get up and running. The build quality did not feel that great but it looks OK in an unfussy sort of way. On top is a plastic flap which folds back to form the paper rest which holds up to 100 sheets of A4 paper. You will have to be careful where you put the printer as there is no tray for completed work. There are two control buttons with LEDs set into the right-hand end of the top panel, one for power and the other for paper feed and error conditions.
The back of the printer has sockets to connect the mains lead and a USB cable, you cannot use this machine in a wireless network.
The Canon PIXMA iP2702 ink cartridges are accessed by raising it's hinged cover. When you do so the head carrier slides into a convenient position. You get a 9ml PG-510 black cartridge and 9ml CL-511 with the printer but the better value PG-512 (15ml) and CL-513 (13ml) can also be used.
Software for the iP2702 includes Canon's Easy-PhotoPrint EX and Easy-WebPrint EX as well as a PDF version of the user manual. Easy-PhotoPrint EX gives you the opportunity to make changes to images such as face-smoothing and sharpening, cropping, etc. You can use Easy-WebPrint EX to print excerpts from Web pages according to your own specifications.
When it comes to printing the Canon PIXMA iP2702 will not win any awards for speed but it is comparable with other printers of a similar price. It took 3 minutes 37 seconds to print a 20 page document of single line text and 4 minutes for a 10 page document including graphics.
The Canon PIXMA iP2702 proved to be very uneven when it came to print quality. Text prints proved to be very good with sharp characters. Graphics were easy to read but the colour was disappointingly washed out and dull. Photos were very disappointing with dim colours and a lack of definition.
The Canon PIXMA iP2702 may be worth considering depending on what you are looking for. At 45 it is undeniably cheap, it is simple to work with, is not very large, produces very good mono prints and has some decent software. However it is also expensive to run because of the colour cartridge, is not very good at colour printing and gives the impression of not being that well built.
