Last week Canon released the PIXMA iP90v portable photo printer. It is an updated version of the iP90, which, since its release two years ago has been a very popular and well-reviewed printer. Canon advertises the iP90v as a truly portable printer that you can carry around in your laptop bag or one that you can use at home. Based on its performance, I would say that the iP90 is more meant for being used as a portable printer, since there are plently of other photo printers you can buy for home use that cost less and print faster/better.

The iP90v is rated at 16 ppm in black and 12 in color and it will print a 4 x 6 picture in about 81 seconds. The resolution for it is 4800 x 1200 dpi. When you compare that with the speeds of standard photo printers, you can see that this one is built more for portability than performance. The iP90v has the usually connectivity options like PictBridge and Bluetooth capabilities, which are a must for a portable printer like this. It’s built for people who want to take pictures of something and then print them out right away wherever they are, so they need to be able to use this printer without a computer.

The iP90v will retail for $250, which is about $40 more than the iP90 is currently selling for. Other than some new software, there doesn’t seem to be anything different about the iP90v so the price tag doesn’t seem justified. The iP90 was already pretty expensive to begin with, so $250 for this one seems really expensive. Since this model is coming out, they might be phasing out the regular iP90, so if you are interested in a portable printer, you might want to look at the iP90 while you have a chance.

Canon Introduces the PIXMA iP90v Photo Printer for a Growing Base of on-the-go Professionals [Press Release]