Canon Pixma Wireless Printer Review

We purchased Canon's Pixma iP110 so our expert reviewer could thoroughly test and assess it. Keep reading for our full product review.

Technology is increasingly wireless, and printers are no exception. The Canon Pixma iP110 is now several years old, which means practically that it’s a cheaper but still effective option for wireless printing. The optional, bundled computer software is outdated and even a bit obnoxious, but the printer itself is compact and efficient, and offers exceptional photo printing.

Design: Simple and solid

While fully closed the Canon Pixma iP110 more closely resembles a gigantic exterior hard drive than a printer, measuring just over a foot long and weighing 4.3 lbs. It’s too bulky to comfortably carry around, but still small enough to be considered portable, whether in a suitcase for work or to a friend’s house. The all-black, buttonless exterior features rubber feet on the bottom and two ports on either side, one for the 16v power cord, and the other for a USB 2.0 A to B cable (not included).

The tray cover is easily opened from the front, dropping the paper outlet slot as the tray is raised. The tray can be slightly extended to accommodate up to 14” legal paper, as well as more common 11” standard letter size, up to 50 pages. A simple sliding paper guide can be adjusted for width. The inside reveals the only three buttons on the Pixma: power, resume/cancel, and Wi-Fi, with different colored lights above each button to indicate status. It’s a simplistic design with minimal features befitting a budget wireless printer.

Setup Process: Initial wireless connection is a hassle

The only physical setup the Pixma requires is plugging in the power cable, and installing the ink cartridges. With the printer tray open, the print head cover can be opened, which automatically moves the ink to the middle, giving easy access to the cartridges. Installing ink cartridges is as easy as slotting them in, back first, and gently pushing on the front of the cartridge, which is clearly labeled ‘push.’ Removing them is almost as easy, with a push-button for release. Both color and black ink cartridge slots feature warning lights that blink if low ink is detected.

A purely wireless printer can be tricky to set up, and the Pixma does not include a USB cable. The box does include a CD with the install files, or they can be downloaded from the official Canon website. Installation via a Windows 10 PC proved challenging and frustrating, resulting in error messages when we tried to connect the printer via the standard cable-less setup with our standard home Wi-Fi network. 

We were only able to connect the printer with the alternate WPS method, which proved far simpler and more effective, but also requires a router with a WPS button. Connecting via WPS is a similar process involving the Wi-Fi button, and our PC was able to instantly make the connection and complete the install. After that initial installation, we never had any further issues with connectivity or printing, and were able to instantly print over Wi-Fi from our PC and mobile devices, using a downloaded Canon Print app.

We found the Getting Started documentation, which is little more than a series of pictures, to be wholly lacking for troubleshooting, and the digital-only manual suggested turning the printer and computer off and on, which is almost insulting.

Printing Quality: Excellent photo quality

Canon advertises the Canon Pixma printing speed (black and white) at nine pages per minute. Our own tests clocked the printing speed slightly slower. A 5-page, 1,500 word black and white text document took about 40 seconds, as did a single full-page, heavily highlighted and colored spreadsheet. When printing text-only documents we tested a variety of font styles, sizes, and formatting. The quality of printed and color text was crystal clear. We never saw any issues with ink smudging or legibility. Heavily colored and highlighted documents and spreadsheets did have a tendency to curl the edges of the paper, which is common.

For photo printing, the Pixma iP110 features an impressive color resolution up to 9600 x 2400 dots per inch (dpi). We printed a variety of borderless color pictures on 5” x 7” glossy photo paper. Our test pictures took a little over a minute per picture, and we were very satisfied with the quality in both personal and landscape photos. Colors were bright, striking, and beautiful. 

Software: Outdated

The Canon Pixma has aged very well with one major exception: the software. The included Canon software bundle, which is entirely optional, is hopelessly outdated. The Canon QuickMenu installs an awkward L-shaped bar onto the lower corner of the desktop, along with an image display slideshow in the upper corner. The QuickMenu features nearly a dozen buttons, half of which open printer status settings or the internet browser, for things like ordering more ink. One of the buttons opens a web page that no longer exists. None of these are helpful for anyone who knows how to navigate their own computer, and we disliked pinning buttons to our desktop.

The other major PC software component is My Image Garden, which pulls all detected pictures into a calendar for easy browsing. In theory this makes it easy to find pictures from years ago, though the software takes a long time to load pictures when scrolling, and we’re guessing we’re not the only ones with hundreds of saved pictures on a hard drive. The software does include photo correction, enhancement, and filters, as well as creating collages - useful features if you don’t have any dedicated photo-editing software.

Price: Relatively cheap, but battery not included

Provided you’re not looking for an all-in-one printer, the Canon Pixma iP110 offers fantastic bang for your buck. As a compact, wireless printer with outstanding photo quality for $150, it remains an extremely popular choice for home use for good reason. It’s a different matter if you’re looking for a truly mobile printer, however, as the Canon Pixma does not include a battery (though a rechargeable battery is sold separately for around $90). At that price point we recommend a printer that includes a battery out of the box, such as the Epson Workforce WF-100.

Canon Pixma iP110 vs. Epson Workforce WF-100

The biggest advantage to the Canon Pixma iP110 is that it’s one of the most affordable wireless printers at $150. Cheaper sub-$50 printers are available, but they lack wireless connectivity. More expensive wireless printers, such as the Epson Workforce WF-100 ($200), include more features like LCD screens that can make troubleshooting easier. That said, the Workforce has issues with color accuracy and overall print quality, with a resolution almost half of the Pixma’s, which makes justifying the additional $50 in price difficult unless you really value an LCD display.

Similar Products We've Reviewed:

• HP OfficeJet 250 All-In-One Printer
• Canon Selphy CP1300
• HP OfficeJet 3830