Canon PIXMA MG5150 review-EastChinaMachineryNetwork

Canon's PIXMA MG5150 is one of the cheaper multifunction printers (MFPs) around. You'd be hard-pressed to tell, though – it's built with the same glossy, expensive-looking plastics as the other two PIXMAs here, and it's one of the best-looking devices overall. Although it's a new model, the basic design is fairly familiar, being similar to previous models.

At this price, you'd expect some compromises, but this MFP is remarkably well-equipped. It prints with five inks, has the same high print resolution as the most highly specified devices, two paper trays and a built-in duplexer for automatic two-sided printing. The scanner's 1,200x2,400dpi resolution is plenty for most creative jobs, there's a PictBridge port, and the card reader supports most common formats. Even the small 6cm colour screen is big enough to be practical.

In fact, the MG5150's only clear disadvantage is the lack of built-in network connectivity – there's just a USB port. This isn't a problem if you intend to use it with only one computer, but it presents problems otherwise: although Windows computers and many network-attached storage devices will let you share a printer across a network, they won't support an MFP's card-reader or scanner.

Setting the MG5150 up is painless, though as with many other printers here it does involve inserting the print heads before fitting the ink tanks. There are five of these; a large pigment black tank for text printing, and black, cyan, magenta and yellow dye inks for photo prints. While the black contributes a considerable 3p to the cost of an A4 page, competitive colour ink pricing helps to keep the overall price to a reasonable 8.6p.

The pigment-based black ink helps the MG5150 deliver good quality text on plain paper, although at 9.9 pages per minute (ppm) in draft mode it's fairly unhurried. Fortunately, the normal mode is barely any slower, meaning that high-quality letter printing is actually rather quick for an inkjet. More expensive devices are quicker when it comes to colour and photo printing, however.

Surprisingly, perhaps, the MG5150's print quality holds its own against even the best printers here. Plain paper copies are very good, with well-judged exposure settings and very few imperfections or artefacts. Colour prints have little banding in the solid fills or gradients of business graphics, although the dye ink does mean that they lack a little impact. Photo prints are also among the best. While there's a slight softness to the details, it's impossible to spot any grain and most shades are reproduced faithfully. Whether printing from a PC or directly from a card, colours are given a slight boost in saturation that, in most cases, lifts the results without making them garish.

The MG5150's scanner is a match for its competent printer. It's quick, taking just six seconds to preview an A4 page and only three times as long to capture it at 300 dots per inch (dpi), and the results are great. While the focus wasn't as sharp as we'd like, the full range of colours are captured very accurately, with only the very darkest shades of black tending to merge together somewhat.

The stylish MG5150 comprises a high-quality printer and scanner that work together to produce excellent results that embarrasses some of its pricier competition. It's great value to buy and run and lacks only network connectivity, making it a clear Budget Buy winner.

Basic Specifications

Rating

*****

Maximum native print resolution

9,600x2,400dpi

Max optical resolution

1,200x2,400dpi

Output bit depth

24-bit

Quoted Speeds

Quoted speed, mono A4

9.7ipm

Quoted speed, colour A4

6.1ipm

Tested Print Speeds

Time for two 10x8in photos 1.0

6m 37s

Time for six 6x4in photos 1.0

10m 1s

Physical and Environmental

Standard printer interfaces

USB

Optional printer interfaces

Bluetooth

Size	455x368x160mm

Weight

7.8kg

Noise (in normal use)

44.5dB(A)

Paper Handling

Maximum paper size

A4/legal

Maximum paper weight

300gsm

Standard paper inputs

Standard paper input capacity

300

Maximum paper inputs

Maximum paper input capacity

300

Duplex (code, cost if option)

Yes

General

Printer technology

thermal inkjet

Supported operating systems

Windows XP/Vista/Vista-64/7/7-64, Mac OS X 10.4.11+

Other inkjet features

6.0cm colour screen, automatic print head alignment, replaceable print head

Other inkjet options

None

Buying Information

Price

£72

Consumable parts and prices

£10

Price per colour A4 page

5.6p

Quoted life of supplied black cartridge

323 pages (ISO/IEC 24712)

Quoted life of supplied colour cartridge(s)

4,335 dye black pages (estimate), 520 cyan, 500 magenta, 515 yellow pages (ISO/IEC 24712)

Quoted life of supplied photo cartridge(s)

N/A

Warranty

one year RTB

Supplier

http://uk.insight.com

Details

www.canon.co.uk

Print Quality

Number of ink colours

Number of ink cartridges

Maximum number of ink colours

Maximum number of cartridges

Quoted photo durability

30 years

Quoted photo durability source

Canon

Tested Scan Speeds

Full scan area preview

A4 document at 150dpi

17s

A4 document at 300dpi

18s

6x4in photo at 600dpi

27s

6x4in photo at 1200dpi

1m 27s

Tested Copy Speeds

Time for single A4 mono copy 1.0

17s

Time for single A4 colour copy 1.0

30s

Time for 10 A4 copies using feeder 2.0

N/A

Photo Features

PictBridge support

Yes

Borderless printing

Direct (PC-less) printing

Yes

Supported memory cards

USB, CF, SD, SDHC, MMC, Memory Stick Pro, MicroDrive

CD printing

Copy Features

Maximum number of copies

Fax Features

Max mono fax resolution

N/A

Fax memory (maximum mono pages)

N/A