The PIXMA iP5000 is, without a doubt, the highest specified inkjet to date. It has the smallest ink droplet volume of 1 picoliter as well as an impressive 9,600 x 2,400dpi effective resolution. In addition, the iP5000 comes with all the functional PIXMA extras of dual paper trays, auto-duplexing, CD/DVD printing, and a higher paper input capacity compared with the manufacturer's earlier offerings (300 sheets versus the i990's 150).
Design And Features
Like how bell bottoms came back into fashion after the 1970s, the boxy look makes its resurgence in the printer scene. In terms of design, the iP5000 is very much different from the usual breadbox design of recent inkjets. In fact, when packed, this PIXMA bears more resemblance to a projector rather than an ordinary ink box. That said, Canon tastefully decorates the boxy construction with stylish features. The iP5000 is clad in black with high-gloss sheen and buttons are carefully hidden away or--in the case of the power button--fused with the design.
To increase capacity and allow more flexibility in deployment, the iP5000 sports two input trays. Besides the run-of-the-mill back-loading paper receptacle, the PIXMA also sports a paper cassette that sits below the unit. This allows the inkjet to fit onto a bookshelf as easily as it sits on a desk.
Often an attribute found in office-oriented machines, the duplex function makes its way into the home with the new range of PIXMAs. We believe this should help a great deal with regard to paper management, allowing you to cut down on paper waste and the costs associated with it.
The iP5000 is a four-color unit that uses five ink cartridges. In other words, you get dye-based cyan, yellow, magenta and black inks with an additional pigment-based black for document prints. Like most of Canon's photo offerings, you can replace the cartridges individually, which may allow you to save more money because you replace only what you use.
In Use
Setting up the iP5000 was easier than most. Canon has integrated finer touches into its software installation utility, leading the user straight toward the printhead alignment process--a crucial step that newcomers do not know about. To make things even less painful, the iP5000 calibrates the printhead itself, so there is no annoying verification sheet with abstract lines and patterns to deal with.
If, on the off chance, you need help with the physical setup of the machine, a quickstart guide is also included. In it you will find detailed steps and instructions that are easy to follow.
The full software installation took an average amount of time on our HP Pavillion t488d test system. We timed 10 minutes for seven pieces of software suite, including the print alignment desktop process. There was also no requirement to reboot your PC before use--which is always a plus. The only minor nitpick we had was that in order to use the duplex function with photo prints, we needed to use Canon's in-house basic photo editor. Other photo editing/viewing software that we tested (Adobe Photoshop and ACDSee) were not aware of the printer's duplex capability.
With regard to performance, the iP5000 blitzed most photo inkjets to date. This printer finished our 10-page test in a mere 68 seconds or approximately 8.8 pages per minute. This impressive performance puts it in front of Canon's i series inkjets. For "borderless" A4-sized photo outputs, the iP5000 managed to impress again, churning out prints in 4.5 minutes for high-quality A4 photos and a very quick 2.5 minutes for normal-quality outputs. The only difference between the two was that shadow details were slightly better rendered.
With regard to quality, the results were also good. The 1-picoliter ink droplets in combination with Canon's excellent halftoning algorithms gave off very pleasing outputs. Although the unit sports only four different color inks, its photos rival the best of the six-ink units. We weren't able to notice any dithering with the naked eye on A4 prints. For text outputs, the iP5000's produced very clean documents with font sizes as small as 2pt legible. The only hiccup faced by the PIXMA lay with color documents. Unless you print with the slower high-quality mode, you'd be greeted with graphs that exhibit bleeding where the black ink meets the color regions.
Verdict
It's hard to find much to kvetch about the PIXMA iP5000. The reasonable price of S$0 (US$0) makes it almost a bargain. Remember that for this price, you'd also be gaining a duplex unit which--not too long ago--retailed for about S$200 (US$147.06), as well as a very fast and capable photo printer. In any case, it'll be interesting to pit this technically advanced four-color iP5000 against the eight-ink iP8500 when it arrives.
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