Canon Pixma IP4700 inkjet printer

The Canon Pixma IP4700 is Canon's latest inkjet printer that retains the glossy black casing of its predecessor, the Canon Pixma IP4600, and also features stylish gunmetal highlights.

The Canon Pixma IP4700 also retains some of the features we loved most about the IP4600, including two paper trays, the fact users are warned on their PC screen if the print output tray is closed and the ability to print on to DVDs and CDs using the included dedicated tray.

The device also offers a number of improvements over the IP4600. These include the addition of Auto Photo Fix II to the bundled Easy-PhotoPrint EX software. One of the chief advantages of this software is that it can be set to automatically correct colour, contrast and brightness without making the resulting prints either too dark or to light - something that's particularly tricky to adjust for with under-exposed images. The Canon Pixma IP4700 also has a built-in duplexing capability.

We found the Canon Pixma IP4700 very easy to set up and install. Once we'd inserted the five single inks (cyan, yellow, magenta and two blacks), in the same way as with the IP4600, we were able to install the bundled software and then connect the printer to our PC using USB. Then the software then took us step-by-step through aligning the printheads before we were able to start printing.

As well as USB connectivity, the Canon Pixma IP4700 offers PictBridge connectivity which allows you to print photos direct from a digital camera without first having to download them to a PC.

Canon says the Canon Pixma IP4700's biggest improvement is that it's faster than its predecessor and can print 9.2 images per minute in black and approximately 8.1ppm in colour. In our tests, the Canon Pixma IP4700 printed a mixed colour and graphics document in 21 seconds, while our nine-page text document took 51 seconds, equating to an output rate of 10.5ppm.

In Draft mode black text looked clear and sharp and images featured clear detailing. Colours looked slightly faded in draft mode but looked vivid and bright in Normal and Best modes. Photographs looked clear and sharp with god detailing and flesh tones depicted realistically.