Canon Pixma MG5220 All-in-One Printer Review

Conclusions

The Canon Pixma MG5220 is a substantial color inkjet all-in-on that prints, scans, and copies well. It offers excellent printing on text and very good printing on photos. Not only are photos vibrant, but their archival life is quite long. The controls are intuitive and easy to use. The software is excellent and the auto-scanning features work seamlessly.

We love some of the features including the Stop button and the paper tray that opens automatically if it is closed when printing starts. We liked the wide variety of memory cards that the printer accepts. We also liked the fact that you could scan several images and the software was smart e
nough to separate them to be saved individually.

The retail price of the Pixma MG5220 is USD 149.99, but it can be found for under USD 100 and at that price offers a lot for the money. The printer is energy start compliant. The automatic duplexer works well and can save on paper costs. Unfortunately, the ink cost is the biggest negative for this printer. Replacing all five cartridges costs USD 72 which, depending on use, will have to be purchased every four or five hundred pages. These costs are not astronomical compared to others, but we longed for a printer that could accomplish all that this Pixma can with lower ink costs. We were stymied as to why Canon does not offer high-capacity ink cartridges for this printer, which could bring the ink consumption costs down. If you print everyday documents in draft mode, you can, of course, save on ink.

That said, this is an all-in-one that really is a jack of all trades. It does everything well and if you are willing to print in draft mode or don’t mind the cost of ink, it is a real winner!

Strong Points

• Excellent print quality
• Very good image quality
• Excellent software
• Good photo archival qualities
• Stop button
• Automatic duplexer
• Excellent auto scanning
• Easy-to-use interface
• Paper tray opens automatically when printing starts
• Low energy consumption

Weak Points

• Poor to average ink consumption
• No automatic document feeder