The Canon Pixma iP4500 is a moderately expensive single-function printer designed for general home use. Unlike Canon's more photo-oriented single functions like the Pixma iP6700d, the iP4500 lacks memory card slots and a preview LCD. The iP4500 is a step up from the recently reviewed iP3500; it offers faster print speed, slightly better print quality, and more features, including an auto duplexer. If your printing needs are minimal, however, we think you should save your money and stick to a less expensive model like the iP3500, but if you print enough to justify the price, the iP4500 is a great option for general printing.
Design
The Pixma iP4500's design is simple and straightforward -- the body is mainly black, with silver accents. It measures 44.5cm wide, 30.3cm deep, and 16cm tall, and weighs 6.9 kilograms. The only features in the printer's control panel are a PictBridge USB port, power and cancel/feed buttons, and an input source button that switches between paper trays.
You get two paper input options on this model: the rear input folds open from the top/back edge of the printer, and the cassette pulls out from the bottom/front. Both can hold up to 150 pages of plain paper. Canon recommends putting stiffer media such as photo paper in the rear input, as paper in the cassette is forced to bend around a roller. Both inputs have adjustable paper guides, so both can handle a wide range of paper sizes. A panel in the front of the printer folds out to serve as the output tray.
The iP4500 uses a five-ink system: pigment black for better text prints, and dye-based black, yellow, cyan, and magenta for better graphics and colour blending.
Features
The Pixma iP4500 offers a fairly basic feature set. The only connection option is USB, though you can network the printer using a print server. It offers up a built-in duplexer for automatic double-sided prints, though the print driver gives you the option of manual duplex print jobs. The iP4500 lacks memory card slots, but it does offer a PictBridge USB port for printing directly from PictBridge cameras and devices. The driver offers the same options as the driver for the iP3500: namely, the ability to create print profiles for common print jobs; photo manipulations options; and paper and source options.
Performance
The Pixma iP4500 is a bit on the expensive side for a general-purpose, single-function printer, so we had limited models on hand for comparison. It stood up well to the competition overall. It printed black text at a rate of 8.25 pages per minute, slower than the office-oriented HP Officejet Pro K5400, but faster than the home-oriented HP Deskjet 6940. It was much slower with graphics, scoring just 2.47ppm, a far cry from the HP Pro K5400's 6.21ppm. But the Canon excelled at fast 4x6 photo prints, clocking 2.66ppm, over a full page faster than the Pro K5400 and more than five times faster than the Deskjet 6940. The iP4500 was also faster than the less expensive iP3500 at all print tasks.
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The Canon Pixma iP4500 is an all-around good printer. The text prints were nicely dark, though close inspection revealed some jagged edges that could be cleaned up. The colour graphics print showed pleasing saturation and sharp details in the photo elements, though the colour gradients looked a bit faded and the same issue with slightly jagged edges cropped up. The 4x6 print was good overall. We liked the sharp details and general quality of the image, but the flesh tones were a bit washed out and could use a bump of warmth. Overall, the printer's quality is great for everyday home printing -- we found it to be slightly better than the print quality offered by the iP3500.
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Canon offers a standard one-year warranty for the Pixma iP4500. E-mail support is available 24-7 via a Web-based form. Canon's standard online support options include downloadable drivers and software, manuals, and FAQs.
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daviddth
04/07/2008, 08:30 AM
rating
8/10
Excellent printer & good value for money. The printer is worth the money in my opinion.
Pros: Print quality, price to run, you can refill the ink tanks, 2 paper bins & no annoying CD or 6*4 printing trays needed
Cons: A little dearer than other similar printers
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Djubba
01/07/2008, 09:56 PM
rating
9/10
excellent all rounder for quality home user
Pros: individual ink tanks x5!
Cons: no memory card slots
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MH
07/03/2008, 05:00 PM
rating
9/10
I have finally found an excellent all-rounder printer for home. It has been hard to find a printer that has a a balance of image-printing quality and ink . It does have great features and the best thing is the 5 ink tank system which are dye-based and one black pigment based.
I decided not to stay with Canon originally opting to go for the "preferred" Photographers' printer Epson but they did not have the same range.
Cost of original inks when needing to refill is actually less than what you pay for the other printers. If you buy online or search at your Post Office, they are about $18 - $20.00.
Best of all it is also a photo-printer and your not going to run out of ink so quickly with one of Canon's all-in-one's which only has two ink tanks!
Pros: As stated above.
Cons: USB cable placement?
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Robin
11/11/2007, 06:07 PM
rating
9/10
Very good printer for hoem use.
Pros: Good printing
Cons: Price of ink
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Early_Grayce
22/10/2007, 01:08 AM
rating
9/10
with $110 to $150 of ink in the box it is a very inexpensive printer add in separate ink cartridges and you have low ongoing costs as well.
Get a cheap printer you still pay a minimum of $15 for the printer, get a lexmark and you get half full inktanks to start with.
Pros: Individual inktanks
low cost of unit when comparing what comes in the box.
High quality prints that are great for photos or printing on CD's
Cons: Not a MFC so no scanner
costs a little more($30 to $70) for printer compared to cheaper $15 plus ink printers.
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