Canon Pixma TS305: an inkjet printer that misses out on photos

Ergonomics

Whether in its operation or its handling, the Pixma TS305 ultimately has very few advantages. Its small size in appearance should not make us forget that it must be used with the flaps open (including the one that guides the paper inserted at the back), which will not facilitate its installation. The banality of its control panel puts it within the reach of all user profiles, but we had to do it several times to pair our smartphone with Wi-Fi Direct. And devoid of a scanner, it offers an impractical document duplication function, which must be positioned on its cover before taking a photo with its smartphone. We cannot therefore qualify this as a "copy" function.

In reality, this entry-level printer offers the bare minimum. It does not have a touch screen, USB port, card reader or automatic duplex function, and no USB cable delivered in the box. Classic in short for an entry-level product, but despite a serious construction, the Pixma TS305 can not claim a better note in ergonomics given its shortcomings and weaknesses.

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Consumption

The Pixma TS305's power consumption is one of its strong points, since it does not exceed 8 W in operation and 0.6 W in standby.

Rather silent in use, the printer suffers like the Pixma TS3150 from annoying noises at each sheet loading. Positioned at 1 m, our sound level meter records a noise level of around 57 dB in peak, and 47 dB in photo printing.

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Cost per page

No good surprise regarding the cost per page of this printer, calculated not on the basis of the price of the basic cartridges (the PG-545 and CL-546), but on that of their more economical XL versions. A set of two cartridges identical to that used by the Pixma TS3150, for a similar cost per page of 5 euro cents in black and white (0.05 €) and 11.7 euro cents (0.117 €) in color. It is a bit more than the 10 cents generally found on inkjet printers of this type.

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Photo

1 min and 10 s to print at 10 x 15 cm photo, 1 min and 45 s to print an A4 photo. The Canon Pixma TS305 is pretty quick in this exercise. To the naked eye, the rendering of the photos seems quite correct, but a measurement with the colorimetric probe reveals a pronounced color drift: the average delta E stands at 9.1, which is really bad (remember that the delta E is considered excellent below 3 ; above 3, the human eye is able to perceive a difference in hue between the colors obtained and the actual colors).

In absolute terms, it is a sub-note of 3 that the Pixma TS305 should have received in photo, but like its big sister the TS3150, it curbs the borderless photo print at 13 x 18 cm. Never mind, we would have liked to be able to print in photo mode in A4 format while accommodating the borders. But no, as soon as you select A4 paper, you cannot activate the photo mode. You have to be satisfied with the "superior" print quality on "plain paper", by sliding a sheet of photo paper, for a passable result. In other words, the Pixma TS305 can only be considered in photos for sporadic prints in small format.

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Office

Same cartridges, same engine as TS3150; we therefore expected that the performance of the Pixma TS305 would be identical in office automation, and it is indeed the case. Presented as being able to reach bit rates of around 7.7 pages per minute (ppm) in black and white and 4 ppm in color, the Pixma TS305 does better in our practical tests with bit rates measured at 13.3 and 6, 8 ppm. Figures very close to those found on the 3-in-1 multifunction model, rather good given the product range and expectations that we are entitled to have.

We see it moreover on the quality of rendering in office automation, more than honest. This is not worth what the best printers of its kind are capable of (in laser as in inkjet), but the rendering is clean, precise, without overhang, for documents perfectly readable in black and white as in color.

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Conclusion

Given its price and its limits, everything prompts us to direct users interested in this Pixma TS305 to the Pixma TS3105 multifunction. Even better, we invite them to take a look at the HP DeskJet 3639, which surpasses it in almost all areas.

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