Compact and economical: the Canon Pixma G4570 multifunction printer takes up little space and saves a lot of ink. The review clarifies all the strengths and weaknesses.
Pros
- Meager printing costs
- High print quality
- Very high scan quality
Cons
- Loud when printing
- Photo printing slow
Economical
Ink tank printers are more expensive, and the Canon is no exception, it costs almost twice as much as a comparable model with ink cartridges. On the other hand, the printing costs are extremely low. This is due to the built-in ink tanks. They are not only larger than ink cartridges, but can also be refilled very cheaply by bottle.
With the Pixma, a complete refill set of four bottles is available – and the bottles are huge: 70 millilitres for the inks cyan, magenta and yellow (yellow) and even 135 millilitres for black. With this, for example, more than 10,000 pages of text can be printed – for less than a tenth of a cent per page. Or over 2,000 colour graphics pages for 1.4 cents ink cost each. Or almost 3,500 photos in standard 10×15 centimetre format for 0.86 cents each.
With a cartridge printer, the printing costs are many times higher. With the Canon Pixma TS-8350 (the best Canon model with cartridges), for example, a page of text costs 1.67 cents, 21 times as much, and a photo 23.66 cents, a whopping 28 times more expensive. Frequent printers may save a lot of money with the G4570. On the other hand, those who only print a little are often better off with an inexpensive cartridge printer. Ink tank printers only save on ink costs – but so much that money is left over for more expensive, higher-quality paper. Printing large quantities is still cheaper than with a cartridge model. The Pixma also saves on power: 12.5 watts are sufficient for printing. In standby mode, the device uses 1.0 watts and, when switched off, 0.1 watts.
Quality
The Pixma not only prints at a very low price, but it also prints really well – no matter whether it’s text, graphics or photos. There were big differences, especially in terms of speed: a black-and-white text page was in the output tray after only five seconds, six pages could be taken out after 35 seconds. Colour printing takes longer. With colour graphics only a little: here, as with text printing, the Pixma achieved a very good speed rating: it took 1:10 minutes for a corresponding page. With photos, on the other hand, the Canon takes much longer. A photo in the standard 10×15 centimetre format takes a good two minutes, in the 18×24 centimetre format almost five minutes. Great: the Pixma scans in very high quality, with exceptionally high colour fidelity and extremely accurate brightness reproduction. And the resolution of 646 dpi (dots per inch) is good enough for most originals. They should only be slightly larger than a postage stamp.
Technical Data
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Model
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Canon PIXMA G4570
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Print Resolution
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Up to 4800 x 1200 dpi
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Print Technology
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2 FINE Print Head (Black and Colour)
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Mono Print Speed
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approx. 11 ipm
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Colour Print Speed
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approx. 6.0 ipm
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Photo Print Speed
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Approx. 45 seconds
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Two Sided Printing
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Yes
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The Pixma G4570 is relatively small for a multifunction printer. The Canon fits easily on a standard bookshelf. But it doesn’t fit inside because it needs some space at the back for the small paper tray, which holds 100 sheets. Not so great: the operating display is tiny. This is enough to operate the menus, but the font is tiny. Like many multifunctional devices, the Pixma prints inaudibly: at 18.0 sone, it is one of the noisiest devices. After the initial set-up, moving it to a more remote location via USB on the computer is best. The device then connects via WLAN. And the loud printing is no longer annoying.
Conclusion
With the Canon Pixma G4570, frequent printers get a really good multifunctional printer that is super-affordable and works in high quality. What could be better? The operating display is really mini – and the Pixma is very noisy when printing.
