Customer Reviews
Good basic printer 
2007-06-22
If you don't have a high printing demand, this one will do fine. Had no problem with installation. I suggest buying extra ink. I printed 4 photos, and the color ink ran out.
good deal 2007-05-15
Good price, high quality prints, affordable ink make this a goodd deal to have for your home office. It is compact in size and can be squeezed into tight places. Light weight makes it easy to move.
Great for the price 
2007-02-01
We have had this printer (actually two of them) for several months now, and they perform well. The photo printing is good, but not the best, but it's a fast b & w printer with good quality and replacement cartridges are reasonable. The main drawback is no output tray. These don't get heavy use, so I can't say they have been put to the test.
Not happy with the quality 
2007-01-31
When it was time to buy a new printer, I used to buy a bit higher quality than I really needed - and then I never used those extra features, I didn't make color pics nearly as often as I imagined I would, and b&w text didn't look any better just cause I spent an extra two hundred bucks on the printer.
So when I went to buy a few months ago, money was tight and I figured I'd try out my new theory. I purchased the very cheapest printer I could find: the Pixma ip1600. Yes it goes through ink quickly, but since the ink is cheaper than some other brands I didn't worry about it. What has bothered me is the relatively poor quality of the printer itself. Paper feed is clumsy - sometimes it takes a couple of minutes to grab a sheet, or it grabs more than one, or feeds it through crooked. The finised printed sheet exits from the bottom front of the printer. If there is the *slightest* resistance against the exiting paper (eg. you take hold of the paper as it is going through) the print quality is flawed. I've had pages ruined simply because the top edge of the paper hit the desk, rather than sliding smoothly over it. I'm a college professor, so my students don't complain if my exams have a stripe at the top, or what-not, but I can imagine the frustration trying to use this printer for an important proposal where perfection mattered.
So I think I went too far the other way. This is a printer that is too cheap even for my simple needs.
good for home use 2007-01-17
Great little printer, if you don't mind paying for the ink cartridges. Compare the PIXMA1500 ink prices to the PIXMA1600. Same basic print quality, but robbery for 1600 ink cartridges.
Great printer- expensive ink. 
2008-04-01
I bought my Pixma ip 1600 after throwing out yet another Epson that dred up and became useless if not babied and used every day. The reviews looked good, the Pixma was cheap, so I bought it.
A year later it still prints perfectly, even if I don't use it for two weeks. But as many others note, there's a catch: This is a very expensive printer to operate. The cheapest deal I've found on cartridges is $50 for two B&Ws and one color, and that doesn't seem to last very long. Doing graphics or photos empties a cartridge very fast. Maybe the next generation will be better.
Great printer but there's a catch... 2008-01-12
So this printer is pretty awesome. Reviews are favorable, it's small, pretty quiet, print quality and speed are great and it ridiculously cheap... the catch is the cartridges. They're very expensive and recycled carts are very hard to come by. I could get recycled carts for my old Epson (I forget the model but it was _very_ popular) for like 8 bucks for black and 10 for color or something like that. Carts for the IP1600 are about $25 for black and $30 for color for Canon brand and $17-20 for third party. 2 cartridges cost more than the printer itself. In the long run it ends up being NO bargain.
I'm very pleased with the printer and its performance, just not with the cost of ownership.
Works great 2007-12-31
This printer works great. Photo quality is okay, but if you print a lot of photos, I'd look for a higher-end printer than this one. The occasional photo is fine, however.
Functional and Acceptable. 2007-08-03
I got this for about fifty bucks a few months ago and have had no problems with it. It definitely produces good, usable copies for a cheap price. Also, the replacement cartridges are cheaper and hold more fluid than do HPs. They definitely last longer which is a big improvement. I tried doing those syringe replacement jobs that I got from the drug store for the HP but all I ever got were smeared hands, a smeared printer, and low quality printouts.
This is certainly bare bones though. The lack of a paper tray is annoying, and, if you're someone like me who really doesn't use page numbering, you'll have to make sure that the pages are in the right order before you show them to anyone. Furthermore, it seems to send a "low ink" message to the computer far before it actually needs ink. Mine was doing it for over a month before it ran out! If you have a replacement cartridge on hand, believe me, you'll see that I'm right. I guess we must expect to have some minor headaches with a low budget printer, but I have no complaints about the final product.
Adequate Printer 2007-07-25
I stopped buying very expensive printers that I just use to print text and very few pictures. I have 2 dedicated photo (expensive) printers for that. This printer is great! I read the negative reviews and don't understand what those people expected from this printer. It is fast, and my ink lasted a while. This is not a business printer. It is a low budget, but good printer for a home user. Don't let the negative reviews fool ya, This printer is fine, the ink is cheap, and the printer does cost a lot. But if you need a heavy duty printer or a photo printer, this is not the printer for you.
