Canon PIXMA TR4520 Wireless All in One Photo Printer, White with CanonInk 1287C001 Canon PG-243 Black Cartridge

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Ive been a big fan of Canon printers for almost 20 years now, and most of them have been wonderful. This one... well, less so. Back in the long, long ago, one of Canons differentiating features was that they used separate color tanks. In fact, the only Canon printers that come to mind in recent history that dont work this way are their ultraportables, and now, this. So, you get a black cartridge and a tri-color cartridge. If you use up all of your cyan when your document prints links, for example, youre going to have to replace the color cartridge instead of just the blue one. And unlike most Canon printers with cheap single-color tanks, the tricolor tank is about 25% of this printers MSRP. (Also: at the time of this writing, Canon is selling this printer for 40% off MSRP.) Speaking of cartridges, while most Canon multifunction printers are clamshell-style (where the scanner pops up) to replace the cartridges, replacement in this model is through the front panel. Its kind of difficult to see, and inserting and removing the cartridges isnt very intuitive. The ancient LCD panel wont offer any help here, either. If you dont have the cartridge(s) in right, itll only spit out a cryptic error number for you to look up. Once you have the printer set up, it still manages to disappoint. Print output is "okay" at best. Honestly, Im surprised they called it a PIXMA, instead of giving it different branding. Its fine for small projects, but the quality isnt close to what Id use for a presentation, and youll burn through the tricolor ink so quickly, nobody who values time or money would ever use this for printing more than one or two photos a year. Connectivity is another major disappointment. Why, why, why, in 2018, does Canon refuse to acknowledge that 5GHz wireless networks exist? If you arent running dual-band, you can forget about using this printer on a wireless network. Scan quality is fine, but can anyone shopping this price point honestly say that theyve seen a bad scanner in the past decade or so? Build quality is horrendous, too. Since so many places are selling this for 40% off right now, I could say its a decent printer for that price. The kind of printer you get for your 4th grader to print out school reports, or that you get for Grandma to print out her e-mail. But for anyone else, I wouldnt recommend it.

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I followed the instructions to connect a printer to WiFi a few times, and it never worked. Not from the smart phone, not from the laptop ( I have MAC). Tried to connect manually, got an error too, however somehow printer got connected since I am able to print using default MAC driver. Scanner does not work. It is ok printer actually for $$ spent, but looks like Canon folks never tested their own instructions.

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First, while this printer CAN be registered with Google cloud print and used, it IS NOT CLOUD PRINT READY. It is cloud print compatible. It IS Apple Air Print ready. So, theres that. It is NOT easy getting it registered for Google Cloud Print. If you NEED Google Cloud Print, know that you will have to have access to a PC or a Mac to set it up. Since I have a Chromebook (which is why I needed a Cloud Ready Printer), I didnt have any way to register it and couldnt use it with anything but my phone for several weeks. That was irritating, but doesnt take away from the performance. The photos are beautiful. Theyve printed clear and bright. The colors are vibrant. As long as the quality of your photo is high, the quality of the product will be high. We had a little hiccup during the FIRST document print job. It just stopped printing with ink 2 pages before the end of the document. It kept "printing", but spit out 2 blank pages. I had to reprint those, and have had no issues since. Im a writer and print for comparative and editing purposes, so every job is a large print job and its printed perfectly with no other issues.

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Bought the white version which I like, but it’s a noisy machine when printing- sounds like it’s going to explode, and shakes and rattles. Just for home use so don’t mind the slowness. Giving 4,stars instead of 3 because it actually print from my phone which was awesome — since my older Apple Mac wouldn’t let me download the software completely. Had to hook it up thru my husbands newer Mac. Main issue is the control panel is not backlit so impossible to read without light directly above it. And it doesn’t fit well in a cabinet type desk so it’s out in the open. I’m not a tech-y but I’m not incapable of using electronics either, it just seemed confusing to get the WiFi set up and the phone printing ability to work. My husband tried to print today and I had to reconfigure the printer on his Mac- user error?!? Maybe but it’s a hassle!

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Update: I spoke with Canon Support who informs me that draft printing is only available for computers with Windows operating systems. [I dont know about Linux] Draft printing is not possible on Mac operating systems (which I have) Sierra, High Sierra, and Mojave. Canon says this is a Mac problem. Mac says this is a Canon problem. Also, I was told that the ink tanks that are shipped with the printer are at about half capacity which explains why the black one ran out so soon....but by this reckoning, I still will have to replace them more often than Id like. My 5 year-old Canon Pixma workhorse was showing too many signs of age. I needed a new printer and I knew I wanted a Canon. Ive had good luck with Amazon Choices in the past. The price was right so on impulse I bought this one. I should have known better. Right off the bat, there was a huge issue. My other Canon allowed for draft printing which helps to conserve ink. This printer doesn’t. Apparently Canon has re-engineered its newer models and has abandoned not only separate ink tanks for color and black but draft mode as well. This printer has standard or best modes period. That’s a huge waste of ink. As I write this, I’ve only had this printer for 11 days, printed maybe 30 pages and the black tank is already empty. Replacement cartridges are not cheap either. Another issue is the LED panel controls located at the top of the machine. The panel is so poorly lit and positioned in such an awkward location, it is invisible when seated next to it. The only way to make adjustments is to stand right over it with a flashlight. Each time you change something, the printer doesn’t. Unless you remember to switch “last used settings” to “default settings,” whatever you printed last waste even more paper and ink. My old Canon got cues from the document itself.

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I love this printer. I needed something I could use to print from my iPad. This has exceeded my expectations. Easy enough to set up. As others have stated, the ink alert comes in after just a few prints, BUT if you ignore it and wait for it to run completely out, you will be amazed at how much ink it still has after the low ink light first appears. I’m still running off the cartridges that it come with in October. My first low ink alert appeared after just a few weeks. So I hurriedly purchased ink refills but decided to wait until the original cartridges ran out. They’re still printing as if new ink. So, despite the reviews on the ink, I would still say it’s the best for the price. I would’ve gave 5* except setting the fax is a bit confusing and I’m still unsure if I have it set properly. If I see that fax is working properly I will most likely change to 5*.

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Decided on this printer for a few reasons, the ability to print via wifi from a laptop or tablet and also from your phone. I have not tried the phone printing yet only from the laptop. It is though a nice option. Other bonus is the ability to print on both sides of a sheet of paper, this is in the paper saving mode called duplex printing. Only 4 stars because getting the printer linked to the router was a bit of a challenge. The manual online was little help. I figured it out and manged to get it connected using the screen on the printer and entering the wifi password directly on the printer. It took a bit to figure how to advance the screen to change from Capital letters to small, to numbers to symbols because I use a difficult password and not just a few letters. Pressing I believe it was the return button (or something else) on the key pad that changed the display from Capital to small letters, numbers, symbols each time you pressed. That was the only hiccup I had with install. The printer has a lot of features for the price, however its case is lightweight plastic and doesnt feel substantial. While I dont plan on dropping or bumping it I will use extra caution around it. With no kids in the house I am sure it will be fine.

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This printer is SOOOO ANNOYING! Everytime I try to print something it makes a grinding click click click noise, like its resetting itself. I hit print, and its at least 3 minutes before it starts printing a page! Every single page! I hate this printer!!!

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Tried everything every way and this thing would not work with windows. After two days and nights of trying to get it to work on two different computers decided to move on to a better product. It is not worth the stress!! DO NOT BUY!!

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We bought this printer for our son who is attending school about 60 miles away. The printer arrived on time and he was able to set it up without any questions or concerns. The only concern we had is that he went through one ink cartridge already as he had to print over 200 pages of notes for his science class; so it isnt very economical from a mass printing standpoint. However, I dont think this is the fault of the printer, and we probably should have researched it more on our end. Overall though my son is impressed my the quality of the print job. Would recommend this printer.

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