Comparisons of Canon I960 to HP 7960
Written: Dec 29 '03 (Updated Jan 05 '04)
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Pros: Fast printing, inexpensive, high quality prints
Cons: Fading not as good as the HP.
The Bottom Line: Chose Canon I960 because of high picture quality and fast photo printing as well as cost involved.
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| bd_lin's Full Review: Canon I-960 Photo Printer Ink-jet Printer |
We needed a printer for photo printing only. Based on reviews I read on the web of photo quality, the top two photo printer less than $300 was the Canon I960 and the HP 7960.
I own 3 printers and one thing I learned the hard way is that if it does not say photo printer, then probably it is not the best printer for making photos. Dots per inch or DPI is not a good indication of a good photo printer. I had an epson printer with very high Dpi, but it printed lousy photos.
Here are my comparisons
Quality of Picture: Based on reading several reviews, both the HP photosmart and Canon I960 have top quality prints. The HP has a photo gray ink that makes black and whites out better. From my experience with the Canon I960, using Canon Photo Pro paper, the prints look exactly like conventional photographs. You can't see any pixelization. The colors are rich. I suspect the HP is just as good and probably a bit better. However, my thinking was, unless you are doing a side by side comparison, you can't tell. Slight edge to HP.
Cost: The HP was $100 more than the Canon I960. However, estimated ink cost per 8x10 page slightly favors the HP. It is about $1.22 / page for the HP versus $1.30/page for the Canon. The Canon uses individual ink colors that can be replaced one at a time. The HP uses tricolor cartridges so that if one color of a cartridge goes out, you have to replace the whole thing. So the canon should come out cheaper in the end.
Edge to Canon
Fade Factor: On canon photo paper pro, the I960 lasts 38 years before fading begins. A traditional photograph lasts 22 years. The HP lasts 73 years on HP Premium Plus Photo Paper Glossy.
Edge to HP
Speed: We owned an old HP model and one of the things that always bothered us was how slow that thing was to print. Not just printing, but it would wait a few minutes before it started printing. The HP7960 continues the HP tradition of slow printing. It takes about 6 minutes to print an 8x10 with the HP7960 versus 2 minutes with the Canon I960.
Edge- Canon
Features: HP has more features that allow you to print without a computer. We typically always print with the computer, so these features are lost on us.
Edge- If you care, edge to HP.
Intangibles: OK, not really intangibles, but after reading other review sites, I could find nothing but high marks for the Canon I960. For the HP, there were a lot of high marks, but several low marks complaining about the picture or the alignment or tech support issues.
Edge to Canon
So it was a very close call. In the end I chose the canon because of speed and price and the intangibles. The biggest advantage of the HP was the fading. But I figured that 38 years was pretty long with the canon. From what I have read, you really can't go wrong with either. The other thing was I had a canon camera and thought that they might optimize the canon printer for canon cameras.
I also put a high emphasis of cost. I am thinking that this printer will probably be good for about 4 years. After that, I'm sure they will come up with something even better in picture quality which will make me buy another printer.
One annoying thing. The Canon does not include a USB cable. For me it did not matter because I took it off my old computer. It also has a port for USB 2.0 for those of you with the latest computers.
I bought the Canon and so far, nothing but good things to say. The printing is fast and the picture quality is excellent.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 180
Operating System: Windows
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Epinions.com ID:
bd_lin
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Location: San Jose, California
Reviews written: 29
Trusted by: 2 members
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