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Canon Pixma iP4850 review

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Verdict

With a slight speed increase and some niche software extras, it's the king of the home inkjets by default

Review Date: 19 Aug 2010

Reviewed By: David Bayon

Price when reviewed: £84 (£99 inc VAT)

Buy it now for: £42
(see more store prices)

Overall Rating

Features & Design
4 stars out of 6

Value for Money
5 stars out of 6

Performance
6 stars out of 6

PCPRO Recommended

It's testament to just how good Canon's inkjets are that so little innovation continually keeps them at the top of the tree. The Pixma iP4850 is physically identical to the outgoing Pixma iP4700, with the same low profile and glossy finish, and in terms of printing there are only small changes under the hood.

The five-colour ink system is still in place, with both pigmented and dye-based blacks to ensure text and images both see the benefit. Any difference in print quality is therefore pretty much imperceptible, with the same perfect colour tones and sharp detail in photos and diagrams. Text is bold and blemish-free, and the iP4850 prints two-sided as well as directly onto optical discs with the supplied tray.

The only instantly noticeable upgrade is in document speed. Its predecessor's measured rates of 8.8ppm in mono and 5.8ppm in colour have been bumped up slightly, to 10.5ppm and 6.1ppm respectively. Other than that it's more of the same, with a top-quality 6 x 4in print still taking 46 seconds and our A4 photomontage falling into the tray in 1min 38secs.

Interestingly, where Canon has tried to break new ground is in the accompanying software and tools. The iP4850 uses new PGI-525 and CLI-526 inks, but the advantage isn't in extra capacity; instead the tanks are chipped, and owners using a full set of genuine Canon inks will find they have exclusive access to Creative Park Premium - an extension of Canon's existing art and creativity website.

It's filled with "photos and illustrations from world-renowned artists", including the likes of Norman Rockwell and Beatrix Potter. The images are yours to use freely, and the site lets you turn them into all sorts of cards, calendars and other creations. It's not must-have stuff, but it's a neat bonus.

If that doesn't excite, the other new addition is the Full HD Movie Print function. If you have a Canon EOS or PowerShot camera capable of recording HD video, this function grabs a still from any scene, enhances it and prints it as a high-quality photo. Hardly a mainstream feature, and it's a shame that more video types aren't supported, but we can see the appeal.

But that's it. Same USB interface and PictBridge port, same two paper trays and same above-average running costs. There's frankly nothing at all here to tempt owners of the iP4700 to upgrade, but you get the feeling Canon knows only too well how good its printers currently are.

With the Pixma it's a case of not messing with a winning formula: it's still the fastest all-round inkjet on the market and none can match the quality of its prints. So without doing an awful lot new or exciting the iP4850 steals onto the A List - for home printing there's simply no competition.

* The iP4850 will be in stock at retailers from September.

Author: David Bayon

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Comments

User comments

Best Printers by far

I have a i4500 and when it dies (and there will be many tears) I know what to head for. I've had Epsons in the past and found their quality to be much lower than Canons and as for the prices the other big brands charge for refills, you can tell they are only really interested in businesses. Would recommend a Canon to anyone. Not too sure about the "exclusive" content as I cant see that enticing people to buy genuine inks rather than compatable. Especially with Google Image Search!

By scooter91170 on 28 Aug 2010

Cartridges V Printer

Just priced up a set of cartridges for my Canon iP4700 purchased for £80 only about 13 months ago. Cartriges £46.28 i.e. 58% of purchase price. Option, chuck the thing away and pollute the enviroment and upgrade to the new iP4850 £69.00 making a set of cartridges 67% of the purchase price. Stupid, makes a mockery of the claims about being GREEN. Please, Please ask Canon, Epson, etc to justify to thier customers WHY!

By dobbo on 13 Sep 2010

@dobbo

Simple solution is to buy a CISS. My Canon i9950 uses 8 inks and at UK£8+ each replacing them that was a big expense. A CISS from Hong Kong cost me US$64 including 8x100cc bottles of ink. Never had any problems by using non-proprietry inks.

By jontym123 on 28 Sep 2010

Canon sucks

these printers suck your wallet.only use to print cds.
printed 2 this morning and it cleaned went to print another and it cleaned again,went to print another and guess what!!! it cleaned again. i have found out tho by cancelling the print job and restarting it didnt clean so therefore using less ink, will post on the forums costing canon a fortune in ink sales i hope

By godber4 on 10 Mar 2011

Good, but not that good.

I have had a 4700 for nearly a year now. Takes up to 5 minutes to start up, cleaning and priming the print head. The quality is undeniably excellent as far as photos are concerned, as long as you do large batches (head cleaning and priming are excessive to use it for small batches) but text quality is poor, and not really good enough for documents. A good but flawed system.

By a_caines on 7 Apr 2011

Cleaning Cycle Cost

Future printer reviews should account for the cost of cleaning cycles and the intervals at which they occur. This area requires investigation and should be reflected in the Value for Money score.

By acca1 on 28 Apr 2011

Cleaning Cycle Cost

Future printer reviews should account for the cost of cleaning cycles and the intervals at which they occur. This area requires investigation and should be reflected in the Value for Money score.

By acca1 on 28 Apr 2011

Upgrade or not an upgrade

I had ip4200 and it was good. I bought ip4850 for replacement, it's also good but it cost's more than ip4200 and it's slower overall. With ip4200 i could use original ink because it could last much more prints than ip4850 inks in which now i use only imitation inks.

By kostas on 20 Dec 2012

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