Canon BJC-55
If size is something that really matters to you, you can't go past the BJC-55 -- it's the printing size champ by a sizeable margin. Weighing in at 900 grams, we've seen notebook port replicators bigger than the BJC-55.
Installation of the BJC-55 was quite simple, and as the unit supports IR printing, there's even a good setup procedure for verification of IR signal. Your other option for connectivity is USB, and like every other printer in this roundup, there's no sign of a cable in the package. It's the fundamental equivalent of selling a car without a steering wheel; sure, maybe everyone else does it, but it doesn't make it less annoying.
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Introduction |
One way that the BJC-55 maintains its small profile is by not shipping with a sheet feeder, which is an AU$116 optional extra. Without that, you're stuck with manually feeding in each page as needed, which was how we tested the printer. Here the printer drew our ire quite often in testing; it would often just feed a sheet straight through without printing anything. It never actually dropped printing a page this way; it just seemed to reject the perfectly flat, uncreased paper for some mysterious reason.
Like other printers in our roundup, the BJC-55 maintains its portability through the use of a battery. The battery inserts just above the paper-in slot, and must be inserted for the printer to work at all, even if the power adapter is plugged in. Canon rates the battery pack as good for up to 100 A4 prints. If your needs are likely to run to more than 100 A4 prints when you're nowhere near a power source, you could opt for a second battery.
The BJC-55 uses Canon's drop modulation technology to deliver prints of up to 720 dpi. Match that in with the capability to swap out the black or colour cartridge for a photo cartridge, and the flexibility of the BJC-55 (and the fairly high entry price) becomes apparent. One extra we quite liked was the puck-shaped carrying container for whichever cartridge you're not using at a given time.
In our tests, the BJC-55 managed a black text page with simple graphics in 29 seconds. Bear in mind that we tested without the sheet feeder; as such we couldn't determine a ppm count for the printer as we continually had to manually feed paper into the printer. Canon rates the BJC-55 as capable of up to 5ppm with the sheet feeder; our figures would seem to suggest just under 2ppm with a manual feed.
The other trick that the BJC-55 can pull out is single sheet scanning with the optional scanner head. Again, this didn't fit our existing test pattern, so it was not tested here, but it's a decent theoretical addon for the the traveller who may need to not only print but scan documents as well.
You'll pay a premium for the BJC-55's small profile, but if you're particularly stretched for space it has no competition.
Canon BJC-55
Company: Canon Australia
Price: AU$649
Distributor: Selected resellers
Phone: 1800 021 167
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my BJC-55 just can't print in color with my Nokia 9210. I'm using Canon Bubblejet (BJ mode) driver.