Canon Office and Business MB5120 All-in-One Printer, Scanner, Copier and Fax, with Mobile and Duplex Printing

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I set up the new MB5120 printer yesterday and so far I like it pretty well. There were a couple things I had to unravel a bit, but all is pretty good now. I also spent a couple hours experimenting to find the sweet spots for all the settings, especially for ADF scanning. That was my primary reason for buying a new all-in-one. I don’t have a CD/DVD drive on my laptop, so I had to download the driver stuff. The IP address noted in the instructions didn’t work. Grrrr. So I went to canon.com and just looked around for the downloads. Eventually I was able to do it that way. Then it was a matter getting everything configured the way I wanted. That took a little time to sort out. It connected no problem to my Wi-Fi and laptop. I expected that to be a bit of a hassle, but it wasn’t even a tiny bit. The print quality is pretty good. I’m really happy with it. I printed generic black docs, some color docs, duplex docs, and even a photo on matte photo paper. The speed is more than acceptable for a low volume home office printer. Zero complaints on the printing function. Once I run out of ink, I will be able to test the cheap refill cartridges I bought. But I don’t really print or copy much, so I suspect that might be a while.  I also spent too much time trying figure out the Canon Quick Utility Toolbox on my computer. It’s a lot different than my previous Canon. There was a bit of a learning curve there. But the sorting out the Toolbox is necessary for the initial setup stuff, especially for scanning. So in the long run, it was worth the effort. Once it’s all setup, the printer’s on-screen scan and copy functions work really well for documents. Much easier and quicker to use than the Toolbox on the computer. I doubt I will even use the Toolbox much anymore. On the printer’s screen, I suggest setting up custom profiles. It took me some playing around to figure out that the custom profiles are the way to go. I suspect that will be my go-to method for nearly everything. I have four custom profiles set up so far: two for scans (simplex and duplex) and two for copies (simplex and duplex). Once those profiles are setup, it is really easy to scan or copy. Basically, I only press three buttons from the Home screen: (1) Custom Profiles, (2) chose one of my four profiles, then (3) press Black or Color. And the scan speed is pretty fast, even in duplex. Much faster than the other two printers I have. I have not tried to scan a photo on the platen yet. I suspect I will set profiles for photo scans too. And I have zero use for the fax function since I have no land line in the house. I can’t tell you how that is. And I don’t care. Bottom line, I’m quite pleased with it. Overall I’d give it four stars. Mainly due to the effort I spent trying to understand and use the Toolbox. There was some trial and error involved. Not well explained anywhere that I found. But, to be honest, going forward now it is going to work really well for my needs, which will be predominantly simplex and duplex ADF scanning. For that, I’ll give it five stars. Really easy and fast to do now. Ding ding ding we have a winner.

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Prints a few pages beautifully. Then begins to skip lines and smear, for a few pages, then just produces blank sheets. Also, the after-market YoYo ink often leaks, blotches, and even puddles ink onto the paper. BTW, I print on top-quality 24# high-brightness paper. I WASTE SO MUCH PAPER WITH THE CANON MB5120. I have found FREQUENTLY using the "deep cleaning" function on my Canon MB5120 will briefly restore proper print function. Anywhere from 20 to 50 pages will print correctly after a "deep cleaning". Uses a lot of ink! Also, I must use the verrry slooooow, "high quality" setting on the printer all the time, for every job. Very, very slow!!! After selecting "deep cleaning" under the printer maintenance menu, the printer warns: "deep cleaning requires a lot of ink. Continue?" This frequent waste nullifies some of the benefit of the cheaper ink. A medium-size print job, say 150 copies, requires hours of time, and a lot of attention. When working well (rather rare), the MB5120 plus after market ink will produce good looking print and photographs. I do not know how much of this issue to blame on the Canon MB5120 printer. I have used bargain after-market ink in my many HP printers, and it nearly always worked well. I am aware that all printer companies sell their printers at a discount, and then make their profit on the ink. Maybe Canon is just really good at this! Conceivably, Canon has found a way to "encourage" customers to purchase the insanely, prohibitively expensive Canon ink. Who knows? I like my Canon MB5120 printer well enough. It has fully automatic DUPLEX SCANNING, which I use all the time. The duplex scanning feature is very rare and hard to find in a multi-use all-in-one printer. The Canon has duplex scanning, and it works reasonably well, only cutting off the top of every-other-page. But if the MB5120 will not work well with after market ink, that presents a dilemma. This printer rarely actually runs correctly. Too often "not connected", or ink conflict, or clogged or some other problem. 90% of time when I try to print, getting the printer to connecct and print takes hours or days. I run Windows 7 Pro on a Dell desktop computer. Long, slow confusing set-up. Again and again did not find printer on network. Eventually worked with lengthly phone support. *** Randomly interrupts land-line phone calls with FAX signal ***. Not yet corrected. Often veerrryyyy slooow to begin printing. If not for the Duplex Scanning, which I love, this would be in the running for worst printer ever.

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So I purchased the Canon Maxify MB5120 for a few reasons. Backstory: My previous printer from canon, the Canon Pixma MX892 had lasted me about 5 and a half years, and treated me very well, showing how well these printers last. I had to replace it since it stopped working through the USB cable and since I am away at college, I cant connect this printer over the WiFi like I could back at home. As a result, I was in the market for another printer, that wouldnt be too expensive, and had all the capabilities like a Duplex ADF Scanner, print quickly like my old printer, and connect through USB and Ethernet and more. Since I needed a printer desperately, I needed to get it local, and I was too lazy to do some research. I found the Epson WorkForce Pro WF-3733, that fit all the things I wanted it to do, and It seemed like a great printer. Then I realized how small the ink cartridges were and how short they would last. I had printed only 50 something pages and black ink was half gone. All of the things I printed were text documents, so I didnt understand what the whole deal was. Looking online for refillable ink cartridge solutions, I came across inkowl.com that sells everything regarding ink refilling, including the cartridges, had ones for the WF-3733. But the problem was that Epson had this proprietary thing, where once an ink cartridge ran out, you couldnt reuse it. So inkowl had a solution to that, and that was replacing the chipset on the cartridges, but those alone costed 40 odd dollars, and that would be each time the cartridge ran out. I didnt want the big expense so I returned that printer and purchased this wonderful beast. Deciding: I was torn between the less frequent-to-fill with paper MB2720 and the duplex scanner of the MB5120, and ended up chosing the MB5120. I chose the MB5120 because it truly could replace my old printer, with Faxing Capabilities, and duplex printing, to duplex scanning and Ethernet connectivity. (Duplex means 2-sided. Just wanted to make that clear for those who dont always talk printers with others heh.) I liked that the ink cartridges are much larger than that of the Epson, and they last longer than other starter ink cartridges. To add on, I could get the ink cartridges from inkowl and save a lot of money down the future when it comes towards that. That said, lets talk about the printer. The Printer itself: The printer itself is heavy for sure, but Its like a tank. The printer prints out pages very quickly when youre in a rush. (As any normal college student is in a rush.) The starter ink is beefy and will definitely last you a while. I say this, because I share this printer with my friends and with my roommate and we print a lot for a Pharmacy school. So its very nice to see that we can trust this printer so far. I have had this for about a week or so, and weve printed a lot of pages, erring on the side of 200-300 pages already, and I havent come across any of the problems people have mentioned previously. This printer feels and seems like an updated Tank. I hope this printer lasts a good while, and I feel like it will do great. Ill update if anything changes between now and the end of the life of the printer. But I truly love this printer.

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Im afraid I have to disagree with other reviewers. Ive had this printer since last Nov and Ive been disappointed. First-out speed is remarkably slow, and print speed is also disappointingly slow. The printer is noisy. And the color quality is very bad, not true at all. Im using Canon ink. This printer is definitely not worth $250. I regret buying it.

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This printer has all the features - duplex scan, duplex print, built in fax, wifi, direct print from phone, touch screen.... you get the idea! The printer arrives in a beautiful full color printed box. It is safely packed in foam, not cardboard (useless). The printer is fairly big. So, how to get it out of the box? Will the bag withstand lifting? Wait. The printer arrives in a heavy plastic bag WITH HANDLES made for lifting it out of the box!!!! This small touch represents the attention to detail I noticed in many other aspects of this printer. The software is intuitive and easy to use. It found my network on the first try. Only had two troubles with printing, and they were caused by my windows 10 desktop. No paper jams, yet! The print quality is very good. The scan quality blows away my old HP 1310. Scans are fast! I would give this 10/10! Highly recommended if you are looking for this type of all in one printer. I paid for this printer with my own money and received nothing for this endorsement. Ive just had a string of crappy low-end printers, and this printer seems like a winner. I recommend buying the 4 year extended warranty. Seems like good insurance for a device with many mechanical parts.

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Very impressed with the quality of print, with very crisp black text. The blacks are truly black and the color is very good. Be sure to use decent quality paper as we found that the cheapest copy/print paper causes the ink to bleed a little. Very easy setup, wireless function works well. Spits the pages out fast -- almost too fast, as they almost shoot off the paper tray. Custom profiles help save time. The auto feeder is very good. The only negatives is that there appears to be no sleep mode; you have to hit the start button usually once or twice a day (not a big deal). And the tray holding the printed pages will only hold about 15-20 pages before they start landing on the floor. If you want to print 30 pages at once from a computer at the other end of the house or office, and expect to find the printed pages all neatly ordered, resting on the tray when you return, you will be disappointed. The printer is also a little large. Overall though, this is a very good printer for our needs.

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I am currently a doctoral student and do a lot of work from home for my job. So this printer gets a lot of use. So far so good! I have been very impressed with it. The printing quality for documents is near perfect. No smearing, no lines, just crystal clear print. Colors are vibrant. I have printed a few images/pictures on regular printer paper and it performs as expected. I have not tried photo paper yet. The wireless functions are intuitive and easy to use. My wife loves to print from her ipad! I print and scan wirelessly and wired (only because my laptop sometimes has problems with my router. nothing to do with the printer). The scanner works equally as effectively as the printer. The document feeder is a wonderful feature...throw a multi page doc in there, hit scan and move on to something else while the printer does its thing. Some reviews I read complained about it being noisy. My experience is that it creates the same amount of sound of any other inkjet I have owned. So no complaints here. Another criticism I read was the size. The footprint is slightly bigger than my previous HP and the printer is a bit taller. But I think it looks rather streamlined. Again, no complaints. About the only negative thing I have to say about this printer would go for many ink jet printers at this price point - the paper tray could be bigger. It holds about 1/3 of a ream. I love to be able to throw a whole ream in and forget about it. Other than that, I am very impressed with this printer and I would absolutely buy it again. If you are looking for a workhorse for a home office, you wont be disappointed.

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The Canon performs all the tasks I need but it is slow and it is fragile. I have spent more on ink than the printer cost me in its first year. I would not buy again or recommend it.

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Im pretty sure that I just hate all inkjet printers, but all things considered, this one isnt awful. I like the look of the unit, and it really does a nice job of printing fine details. My reason for giving 4 stars is that printing on envelopes is a nightmare and I spent around 3 hours with your product support team getting it to work. Also, even though its plugged in to my computer via network cable, it takes about a minute to start printing a job.

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The automatic feed gets jammed a lot.

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