Labs

Canon's new PIXMA iP4500 is similar to the iP4300. It has the same ink system, with three colour cartridges and both pigment and dye-based black inks. Like the iP4300, it has an automatic duplex function and the ability to print on CDs. It's more sturdily built than the PIXMA iP1800 and has a glossy black finish rather than a matt grey exterior, but its styling and build quality are otherwise virtually identical to the iP4300's.

The iP4500 had almost exactly the same scores in our print tests as Canon's older printer, although

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it was slightly faster at printing photos and slightly slower at printing correspondence-quality letters. There was no visible difference between documents printed by the iP4500 and the iP4300. However, the photos produced by this printer were excellent and more accurately captured subtle shades of colour than those printed by the iP4300.

Its draft mode produced legible prints that weren't too pale, although some characters looked frayed around the edges. Normal-quality text printing quickly produced dark, clear documents with well-defined characters. Mixed-colour document prints were excellent, with accurate hues, clear lettering and very little speckling on large blocks of colour.

Printed photos looked great, with warm, accurate colours. Prints had smooth shading with minimal visible graininess, and skin tones looked realistic. The images weren't quite as sharp as the R285's photos, but their colouring was warmer. We were impressed by the contrast and clarity of images, which had deeply coloured dark areas and vivid light tones. There was none of the oversaturated effect we saw in prints from the iP4300.