Review: Canon Selphy CP910 Compact Photo Printer
If you need a printer to print out 4″ x 6″ photos from your digital camera, Canon is the name that tends come to mind first. Their latest is the Selphy CP910 which is very small and doesn’t take up a whole lot of space. It shares its feature set with the CP900 which I reviewed a while back. But it has one significant feature that justifies a whole new printer.
Setting it up is dead easy:
- Slide the dye roll into the side of the printer.
- Load paper in the paper tray and insert the tray in the front. You should note that the tray adds about 7 inches to the printer’s depth. Plus you should leave some space behind the printer for reasons I will explain in a moment.
- Pug in the power adaptor.
- Flip up the 2.7-inch colour screen to make the display easier to read.
From here, you need to connect it to your WiFi network. This is where the significant feature comes in. The CP910 unlike the CP900 includes what Canon calls Access Point mode, which is the company’s proprietary equivalent to Wi-Fi Direct. You can print from your smartphone or tablet simply by turning the printer on, launching Canon’s Easy-PhotoPrint app on your Android, iOS, or Windows RT device, picking a picture, and giving the print command. You also don’t need a network with a Wi-Fi access point or a connection between the printer and a network. On top of that, the CP910 supports AirPrint which meant I could print directly from my iPhone 5S. If none of that appeals to you, no problem. You can connect it to your WiFi network so that any computer can share the printer or you can connect it via USB. Other options for printing include memory cards, USB memory keys, and PictBridge cameras.
I set it up on my WiFi network and I was able to add it to my MacBook Pro without having to use the CD that came with the printer. That was different than the CP900 which didn’t have drivers for Mavericks at the time I tested it. From there, I was able to print from iPhoto or from whatever else I wanted to. Like the CP900, it took about 60 seconds to print a photo and it was nearly silent while printing. The quality was easily as good as you’d get with the photo printing machines you get in your local drugstore. Also just like the CP900 is that when it prints, it pulls the 4×6 paper from the paper tray in the front, through the printer, out the back, and then reverses the paper back through the printer. Then it repeats that process a few more times before depositing the photo on the tray at the front of the printer. Thus you have to make sure there’s space at the back of the printer so that the photo doesn’t get crushed.
Now, just like the CP900, the CP910 has some options to make this printer more versatile. You can get an optional battery pack which allows you to print anywhere and that is $169.99. When it comes to supplies like ink or paper, a 108 sheet pack of 4″ x 6″ paper with ink is $44.99. The printer itself is $109.99 which isn’t any more expensive than the CP900. That’s a win as you get more functionality for the same price. If you need a printer to print 4″ x 6″ pictures, look no further than the Canon CP910 Compact Photo Printer.
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