Canon Pixma G1000: First impressions

Foreword

I will try not to compare with its Epson counterpart because first of all, I do not own any L Series, which is the direct competition of this product. However, I own a T60 and an ME-10, and if those have the same printing/print head technology, which I assume it does, then it may be fair game. Plus the fact that I did own a bunch of T10s and T13s some time ago, I do have an idea of the advantages and quirks of Epson printers.

What I can confidently do is compare it with other Canon printers mainly because I have used and I am currently using several.


General Information

Canon Pixma G1000
Php 5,995 retail price
I was able to get this for Php 5,700 in PC Chain Superstore, Festival Mall, Alabang
6,000 Pages - Black
7,000 Pages - Colored
Warranty: 1 year + bonus 1 year when registered via canon.com.ph/rewards
warranty covers Ink Waste counter resetting, head replacement and feeder & roller replacement.
Free: 1 pack 4R Canon photo paper, 2 bottles of Black ink when registered via canon.com.ph/rewards
Ink Price: P295 per bottle of 75ml

For technical specifications and more information: http://www.canon.com.ph/PRODUCTS/PRINTERSFACSIMILES/INKJET/SINGLEFUNCTIONINKJET/PixmaG1000.aspx

Unboxing

Here we go with the Canon Pixma G1000. One of Canon's version of printers with built-in CISS.
On the first look, it's visually impressive. Ink levels are visible in front, the hose is positioned and organized nicely. It's also noticeable that the hose is bigger than its third party CISS counterparts.

The tanks are easy to access yet secured from spilling and protected from foreign objects that may get inside them. Take note that the hose positions are Black, Cyan, Magenta and then Yellow.

As usual, you can jam a small piece of paper in the cover sensor to trick it so that it will allow you to see some printing action or perhaps troubleshoot some paper jam, roller smudges and things that may require you to open it while printing. Otherwise, I strongly advise you keep this closed.


Test print

So far, so good. Now time to do some printing.

It's good, that's how I can simply put it. But I did notice it's slower that what I'm used to. Usually with IP7270 and iX6770, the test page is very fast. 1 second maybe, I dunno, I usually don't feel it - it's that fast. This one, well, I waited. So, yea, it's fast but not that fast.

For some real testing, we printed some photos. 4R Cuyi RC Satin Photo Paper, full color, borderless. High settings took 96 seconds to finish. Standard settings is about 56 seconds to finish. That's ok. Later, we're going to test A4 borderless. I'll put it in another post... I have an axe to grind with Epson on this one.

The result:

 4R Borderless High Quality

4R Borderless, Standard Quality

As you can see, there's no noticeable difference between high quality and standard quality. Nice!


The Verdict

For now, I can say that this is looking good so far. Other than the fact that this is a lot slower in terms of printing speed when compared to IP7270 and iX6770, the print quality is very impressive - on both plain paper and photo paper.

I will continue to do some more testing and update this entry. We'll see the "true colors" of this printer once we do our "normal" usage. Yung walang pa-cute, yung harabas talaga. Kasi designed daw to for mass printing para sa ating mga heavy users eh. Eh di gamitin sa "tamang gamit". Di ba, mga ka-hardcore? ;-)
Tingnan natin ang tigas mo, G1000. :evil laugh: