More than I needed.....
Written: Feb 01 '02 (Updated Sep 16 '03)
|
Product Rating:
|
|
| Ease of Use: |
 |
|
| Paper Handling: |
 |
|
|
Pros: Blazingly fast.
Cons: Dodgy batch of print heads.
The Bottom Line: Fast and quiet. Sure the paper trays are an annoyance but don't let them put you off. 10/10 for tech support. Separate colour ink tanks make 100% sense.
|
|
|
| chrisell's Full Review: Canon S 630 InkJet Printer |
I purchased my Canon on January 21st 2002 - this will become relevant later on.
Having read all the other reviews, I know that if you read them too, you'll be well familiar with this printer. I like the indigo-blue shade of the cover - it makes a nice difference to not have IBM-grey or Imac-(pick-your-colour).
I plugged it into my USB hub and the drivers whipped off the CD quickly and I was ready to go. Problem : it only printed black! I checked the ink tanks and they were all seated correctly, then did all the cleaning and re-aligning of the printheads and still it only printed black. Being entirely unable to believe that this printer was broken out-of-the-box, I hesitantly called Canon's tech support number (not a 1-800 number - why not?). I spent about 20 seconds in their phonemail system then a real person came on the line. She walked me through the various cleaning procedures again and then informed me that Canon had a bad batch of print heads in circulation and that it looked like I had one of them. She took all my details and passed them on and the next morning, a Fedex box turned up from Canon USA with a new print head in it. I swapped it out and everything worked fine first time around!
For your information then, Canon S630s in the shops around this time (Jan/Feb 2002) with serial numbers that start with FATM... are likely to have bad print heads in them. Fortunately, the serial number is on the outside of the box so you can tell before you buy it and make your own judgement. 10 out of 10 for Canon's technical support though - overnight Fedex of the new print head was more than I was expecting. So just think for a moment - if you'd bought an Epson with a dodgy print head - that would have been the whole printer dead........
Honestly, I can say I've actually bought a printer that is far too good for what I use it for. However, this has worked in favour of the people who sell the consumables, because now I have such a good printer, I've had to go and buy photo paper for it. And CD labels. And CD box labels. And stickers........ you get the picture.
The black printing might be 12pages / minute but honestly does it really matter? I mean by the time you've clicked "Print", accepted the print box in your software, taken your hand off the mouse and reached over to the printer - it's done. That's how I like to see speed ratings.
For colour it's naturally slower but even then it merrily whips along. My old HP used to take 8 minutes to do a highest-quality print at 8x10 on photo paper. The Canon seems to take less than a minute.
The Canon uses separate ink tanks too. Why nobody else does this is a mystery. Well - it's not - of course Epson and HP would like you to buy their 3-colour and 5-colour ink tanks when only one has run out. But for the Canon it's a much better deal - you run out of cyan? Then only change the Cyan tank.
+++++++++++++++++
June 2002 Update.
=================
Just a quick update 4 months down the line. I had to replace the black ink tank yesterday. I popped down to CompUSA and picked one up for 11 bucks. Whilst there, I happened to notice the price of some other brands combined tanks - 50 bucks minimum. Once again, I am a firm supporter of separate ink tanks.
How's the printer working out? Fine - it did my tax return forms blisteringly quick. My wife is printing out colour images left right and centre, and it rattled off 140 pages of a document I'm working on a couple of nights ago without any problem. (That's probably why I need new ink :-)
It's still quiet, it's still quick, and it's still the best printer I've ever owned.
=========================================================
Further update:
OEM ink tanks - don't do it. They're terrible. I blew 8 bucks on each of the colour tanks from an internet supplier (PacificInks.com). It's not clear from their site that not only are the inks non-Canon, they're not even OEM. As soon as I opened the first tank, it started leaking everywhere. The other two were the same. I installed them and the printer prints okay, but a good 50% of the blue tank had leaked out when I opened it so I don't expect it to last too long. I'll be going original Canon equipment all the way next time.
Update September 2003
The printer is still working perfectly, but I've got to re-iterate the problem with OEM ink tanks. This printer simply will not work unless you put proper Canon ink tanks in it. I tried some BestBuy own-brand inks and the tanks just about fit, but it wouldn't print. Took them out and put Canon ones back in and all was fine.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 199
Operating System: Windows
|
|
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.