Today, I am going to review the Canon TR-703 (also known as the TS-702 in other regions), a single-function inkjet printer. How does it fair in regards to print quality, ease of use and installation?
Main Specifications
- Single Function Inkjet Printer
- 5-Ink Setup – 4 dye-based inks (CMYK) and 1 pigment-based ink (PGBK)
- Supports up to A4/Letter size paper
- CD printing
- Auto-duplex (double sided)
- 15 ppm for black and white
- 10 ppm for colour
- 4 x 6 borderless photos in approx. 21 seconds
The TR-703 is a single-function 5-ink inkjet printer, so copy/scanning features are not included. It is one of the few single-function machines available from Canon – most of their printers, especially the lower end models are all-in-ones. Other, more high-end printers exist, for larger format printing however.
This printer features two ways to feed paper – either using the front paper cassette which can hold 250 sheets of paper up to A4 size, or the rear paper tray which goes up to 100 sheets for regular paper or 10 sheets of photo paper.
On the front, it is fairly bare-bones with a 2-line monochrome display, in addition to the various buttons. It would have been nice if it could tilt, as it can be hard to read unless you are looking at it straight ahead.
Other than regular document printing and photos, a CD slot is also included for printing to inkjet-compatible CDs.
Another thing I was surprised about was the small footprint – it takes up a lot less room that you would think.
Installation
This printer supports Wi-Fi, with support for WPS for one-button connectivity. You can also of course put in the password manually, but the limited buttons makes this fiddly. Printing from your smartphone is as simple as installing the Canon print app and selecting the printer from there. In addition, it works with AirPrint for Apple devices and Google Cloud Print for Android, so even without installing the app you can get things up and running pretty quickly.
As for the Windows driver software, I was able to install it without any problems. It’s nice that you can choose to show a print preview before actually printing, just to make sure you’ve selected the right paper and scaling settings.
Print Quality
As a fairly inexpensive printer, the print quality is quite impressive, especially with photos.
The main reason I bought this printer was for making a paper portfolio. And of course for printing photos. Getting my work done at a print shop using a copier didn’t do my work much justice, plus I couldn’t print borderless unless I went with a larger size then cut the margins off afterwards.
With regular copy paper, performance is about what I expected at this price point. However, once you start using quality paper, this printer can really hold its ground. I wanted my portfolio pieces to stand out, so I chose inkjet paper with a matte finish. The colours really do pop, and the edges are nice and sharp too.
One of the great features of this printer is that it supports printing onto business cards individually – have a look how it performs in the article below.
Ink Cost
The ink costs for this device are fairly average for an inkjet due to the 5-ink setup. Cheaper than the lowest-end printers, but definitely not cheap. I could see many people resorting to refilling their cartridges or using third-party compatible ones. If you aren’t too picky with image quality, go for it, but if you want your prints to last and/or don’t want to compromise on quality, stick with the OEM cartridges.
Conclusion
A good printer overall, although slightly expensive to run. If you aren’t printing out hundreds of photos a month, this is definitely worth it. For someone looking for something more high-volume however, one of Canon’s Gigatank models might suit you better. Their recent models have definitely upped their game in the print quality department, making them suitable for more than just business use.
Advantages
- Lots of features like auto-duplex
- Fast pages-per-minute
- CD printing is a nice touch
- Excellent photo prints
- Low footprint
Disadvantages
- Relatively expensive ink costs
- Barebones screen that doesn’t tilt
If you are interested in purchasing this printer, you can buy it from the following websites.