Inkjet printers have been around for decades with limited technological breakthrough. It can be a feat to develop new features to entice consumers purchase a premium model. Canon’s latest PIXMA TS9170 might just have achieved that.
This flagship PIXMA offers a touch of elegance with its champagne gold lid and black chassis over strong edges that exude modern clean form, which is a welcome departure from the rounded design of its other printer range. As a premium printer model, the PIXMA TS9170 supports printing, flatbed scanning and copying. Connectivity over Wi-Fi and Bluetooth offers freedom of placing anywhere in the house instead of being wired next to a computer. Through the 5-inch touch screen, I can log in to popular cloud accounts and social media platforms to print images directly.
The TS9170 can be completely autonomous in its operation, allowing you to set a timer to auto power off. It also can be configured to power up automatically when it receives incoming print jobs. It supports Google Cloud Print, allowing user to send a print job remotely – talk about instant prints from your holiday destination. The printer comes with 2 paper input trays to support different paper types, and a CD print tray to print CDs, for those who still use the media.
Print quality is stunning, thanks to the new Photo Blue ink to add to the 6-ink system. I can never tell it is printed by inkjet technology. Prints are fast too: 4R borderless prints are done within 17 seconds, and full A4 borderless prints are out in just over a minute.
And here’s how Canon makes the new PIXMA relevant to the current mobile generation: using Message in Print app (available from November on selected iPhone devices) to scan the printout, the device will show an embedded animation to surprise the recipient.
Verdict
Rating: 4.5/5
Canon looks to innovate on inkjet printing experience for consumers to upgrade their aged printers. The PIXMA TS9170 looks right at home in an urban residential setting.
S$329
http://www.canon.com.sg/
