A Canon BJC 80 Portable Printer Is Capable Of Scanning
When it comes to portable printers, many models will fail in comparison to others in regards to stats and features. But those same models will have one special feature that will make it so appealing. This is the case with the infamous Canon BJC Portable Printer. The two popular models in this series – the Canon BJC-85 Portable Color Bubble Jet Printer and the Canon BJC-80 Portable Printer – don’t have the highest resolution and are slow. However, they have something that most portable printers do not. And that is the ability to scan. While prints are important while you’re on the road, scanning can be essential. If you forget to send a document ahead of a presentation or meeting, or if you need to send something back to your home office, a scanner can be a real career saver. The only bad thing about having scanning capabilities is that it jacks up the price of these machines. On top of that, you must purchase a separate IS-12 cartridge in order to transform the BJC printers to scanners.
The Canon BJC-85 sells for $530 on Amazon. This is a steep price, even for a portable printer. Your best route is to buy a refurbished model. They are often rebuilt to perform like new and you can cut the price by at least 50%, sometimes even 70%. At the current time, Amazon doesn’t have any refurbished BJC-85 models for sale, but that can change quickly. If you’re interested in this model and don’t want to pay full price, there are a few used models selling for around $100. Let’s go over some stats and features for the BJC-85 so you will know if this is a good choice for you.
The BJC-85 offers USB and parallel connectivity. It’s PC and Mac-compatible and contains IrDA technology, meaning you can print wirelessly. Resolution of prints can reach as high as 720 x 360 dots per inch, whether you’re printing black and white or color. Prints will be smudge-free. For speed, it can print up to 5 pages per minute. The BJC-85 weighs 4.5 lbs, which is average for a portable printer. It’s a machine best suited for someone who needs to produce reports, letters, memos, presentations, charts, graphs, brochures, and photos. Another great advantage of owning the BJC-85 is that it has a long battery life. Due to infrared technology, you can also print directly from a PC or cell phone as long as they’re nearby. There’s a 30-sheet paper feed, and as mentioned earlier, an option for an IS-12 cartridge for color scanning.
The BJC-80 is currently selling for $82 used on Amazon. At this time, there are no new models available. This is a good sign, as it shows there’s a lot of demand. New units will most likely be available again within days. The BJC-80 can also reach resolution up to 720 x 360 dots per inch. It can print up to 4.5 pages per minute black and 2 pages per minute color. It offers parallel and infrared connectivity. This machine can print a maximum size of 8.5 x 14 inches. It comes with a 1-year warranty and you will also have the option of purchasing the IS-12 cartridge for scanning purposes.
As you can see, there are only a few small differences between the two models. As far as customer satisfaction goes, 69% of customers were more than satisfied with the BJC-85, opposed to 67% for the BJC-80. If you’re looking for a printer/scanner combo, you really can’t go wrong with either option.