Canon i990

Print

Email

Bookmark

Share

Canon's latest photo printer may not look one generation ahead, but its innards do show the firm's attitude towards staying one step ahead of the competition. On the surface, the i990 shares the same chassis that has graced the company's recent i865 and i905D. However, under the hood, you'll realize this new machine sports an industry-high 5,376-nozzle printhead. We have also noticed that this exceeds HP's soon-to-be-released new printhead by more than 1,000 nozzles. With the increased nozzle quantity comes faster speeds, and we're pleased to say the i990 doesn't disappoint.

Same Old, Same Old
This sleek-looking, two-tone, silvery-black inkjet sports the same shape and form of the firm's recent photo units such as the Canon i865. Like the latter, the i990 achieves those dimensions by having curved paper trays tuck snugly into the body. Likewise, apart from the exposed USB port for PictBridge connections on the front, the rest of the unit appears almost featureless: Two buttons for power and paper feed and a green power light at the corner. The USB ports, power connector and optional duplex unit (retails S$109 or US$63.50) occupy the back panel.

The same customized photo paper tray that ships with the i865 is also bundled together with the i990. The tray performs the same role as the one found on HP's Photosmart 7960, allowing users to keep 4R media loaded at all times even when you need A4 or letter-size outputs. The Japanese manufacturer has included a large knob--so that with a flick, the 4R media gets out of the way for normal media to be fed into the printer.

Installation And Software

Color space improvements

The i990 is easy and straightforward to set up. There's the almost mandatory handy quickstart guide along with the installation CD which provide clear instructions. The inkjet supports Windows 95 and up, and Macintosh OS 8.6 or later. The CD also comes with a detailed HTML user guide, so you'll need a browser installed on your machine to read this. The Japanese manufacturer also addresses out pet peeve by including a USB cable, sparing you from having to interrupt your installation workflow.

As with most units, the brushed aluminum cover opens like a music box giving you ample room for the replacement or installation of ink cartridges. Unlike previous Canon inkjets, the i990 makes use of seven inks (cyan, magenta, yellow, light cyan, light magenta, red and black) in individual cartridges, otherwise called Think Tanks. According to the manufacturer, this expands the color gamut by about 60 percent.

Excellent Performer
The i990 excelled in just about everything in our lab tests. The only letdown was due to the driver's default "vivid" setting. We found the warm colors a little overbearing in some of our test prints. Otherwise, the i990 impressed us with its reproductions. In terms of speed, the unit finished our 10-page test in about 83 seconds or 7.2ppm. This even beats the i865 albeit by a small amount--a commendable feat when you consider the i865 is at the forefront of speedy inkjets. With regard to photo printing, similar improvements followed and the i990 clocked in at 3.1 minutes and 74 seconds for A4 and 4R-sized prints, respectively.

For text, outputs were good, staying very clean and legible even down to a 2.5-point font size. While the i865's color graphics showed visible dithering, the i990 does much better and without compromising on photo prints. Although this young Canon sports an industry-leading resolution of 4,800 x 2,400dpi, we didn't find the prints offering much more over its predecessors.

Verdict
With a sticker price of S$599 (US$350), the i990 is not overly expensive. Its quick and quiet performance will also appeal to most. However, if you do not have a penchant for warm colors, we think your needs are better served with Canon's i905D for a full S$100 (US$59) less. Additionally, the latter comes complete with card slots and a preview monitor for direct printing.