Canon PIXMA TR8520 Wireless Home Office All-In-One Printer with PGI-280XXL, CLI-281 4 Pack and Sqaure Paper (5x5)

I had been putting off getting rid of my PIXMA MX870 for a while as I did not like the thought of a new all-in-one printer not having a rear tray which the newer PIXMAs did not seem to have until this one came along. I am no network expert but had no problem getting this printer set up and installed on my home network and it now can be seen by any device on the network and they can print wirelessly to it. I have always been a fan of Canon for their photo quality and have been hesitant to stray because of that. Im glad to report that this one does have the photo quality I need but it also has a lot of features that make it an excellent home printer. I just finished printing over 100 Christmas cards and had it address the (smallish) envelopes. No jams, excellent color, and very fast printing. The size of the unit is deceptive. It has a small footprint but still does everything an all-in-one should be able to do. Ive done a fair amount of scanning using both the feeder and the flatbed and both worked well. The touch screen is much easier to navigate than my old MX870 which was quite confusing. Have not tried to fax yet but I did hook up a phone line.

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This printer is a tale of three firmware versions. Out of the box, it had a largely non-functional firmware release. I spent an hour trying to get the printer to show up on my wireless network, including multiple reboots of the printer and my computer. Even firmware update was a hassle out of the box. But finally the firmware update succeeded and the printer got better (it would appear on my WIFI) but was still not great. For that first week, the printer frequently disconnected from my network and rarely worked when I wanted to use it over WIFI. The only solution was to power cycle it and then it would appear on the network and work again for a day or two. Then the third firmware release came out and now it works like a dream! Hopefully if you’re reading this now, the printer will work great for you from day 1. This printer prints great text. The text is dark and crisp and looks terrific. I love that it has a paper tray that can hold about 30 sheets of heavy paper. Rather than having the paper drooping over an upright support beam (and inevitably bending), it stores flat in the paper tray. The printer has a color touch screen that makes it very convenient to program. Double sided printing works great with no intervention: it prints on one side and then pulls the page back in and prints to the other side. Photo printing worked well too. I printed the same photo on this and my trusty Canon 9000 MarkII photo printer. The Canon 9000 printout was visibly better to my eye but most people wouldn’t notice a difference. In fact, my wife preferred the printout from the TR8520 until I showed her how the colors in the shadows were kind of blotchy. The camera supports WIFI and printed without problem from both my Windows 10 laptop and my MacOS X High Sierra laptop. Thanks to AirPrint, you can even print directly from an iPhone. It’s pretty convenient to find a web page or recipe online on your phone and quickly get a full page printout! One thing you can’t do from your iPhone is print photos directly from the Apple Photos app. The app will insist on trying to print the picture on “letter” sized paper. To work around this, you use the Canon “PRINT” app. Within this app, you can see all of your photo albums and do things like filter on date to reduce the list. Unfortunately, when you filter on date, the app still shows folders that have zero pictures within that date range, now with a (0) next to each of them. But at least everything is in alphabetical order so if you know what you’re looking for, you can find it. Within Canon PRINT, you can rescale your photo, select the paper type and size and scale your image to get the perfect outcome. Once I got over the annoyance of having to use a separate app, I came to appreciate the added flexibility that it gave me in getting my picture “just right”. The app has worked great so far. Other than the bad out-of-box experience, I have nothing but good things to say about this printer. Scanning and photo copying work well, printouts are fast and quiet and look really good, and it doesn’t take up much space. I’ve tried Epson printers in this price-point and they have more features but do not print at the same level of quality as the Canon. I’ll choose quality over features almost every time.

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Great printer. Easy to set up, including the wireless options. Have been using it for weeks and love it. Copies are crisp, colors are true. Speed is fine for a home printer for single copies of most things. Ink is no more expensive than for HP printers, maybe even cheaper. My only complaints are minor ones - 1) you have to turn it on manually if it shuts itself off after a certain period of time (its supposed to turn itself on when a copy is demanded by your computer, but this feature doesnt seem to work) and 2) The paper tray only holds about 40-50 sheets of paper. Scanner works great. Havent used the fax option.

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I havent put this thing through the card stock/ shipping label rigors yet, but Im already impressed with it. The size is perfect. The old PIXMA MX922 took up an entire end table, this little jewel fits on a shelf in my bookcase/ closet. With plenty of room leftover for spare paper. The look of it is splendid, I leave the control panel out at an angle that you can read from above, it just looks great, even with the paper support tongue sticking out at you. The MX922 looked like a crash landed spaceship, flashing little tiny messages that you have to squint to read. Not anymore, I can stand back and easily see what it is demanding of me. The laptop setup was super easy, load the CD (or download the files) and just follow the prompts. The phone, with the Canon app and bluetooth, was even easier. Dont be intimidated! I even entered the Eco menu from the touch screen while I was waiting for the files to set up on the laptop, and cured the "I have to turn it on every time I use it!!" problem. Real simple, choose between "auto power on" or "auto power off." (Yes, I read every review I could find, I dont just up and buy something that I rely on in my business and personal life as much as I do a good printer. Nothing is more frustrating than desperately needing something the printer refuses to spit out.) Another common complaint I immediately got over is the flimsy plastic construction. Im actually glad Canon didnt load up on the extras to turn this into a battle implement and it shows in the price. If you want something you can jump up and down on, then come off your hip with it. Open your purse wide. (Griping about an $89 all in one, really.) Yes, this bad boy probably drinks ink but dont they all? Would you prefer going back in time to the pharmacy, dropping off a roll of film and waiting a couple of days? There are probably more ink efficient printers but there is also trade offs, such as photo quality. Ive owned every brand and nothing compares to the exquisite photos that most Canons can produce, especially coming from an all in one. Now, if I had only gotten this free in exchange for my honest review, I would be totally enraptured. I guess we can settle with completely satisfied.

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I like the printer. I appreciate the smaller size. I replaced a MX922 that died with an error B200. While the 922 was easier to install and use, it overpowered the small space I have. Like others, I had a very difficult time installing this printer on Windows 7. It installed without any difficulty on my Windows XP machine. Directions are basically useless for the novice installer. Installing the drivers was the problem. Consistent errors when the driver zip file tried to unpack using the install CD. I tried manually downloading them and still received errors. Finally I used Win Zip to manually unpack the file. After the files were unpacked everything installed ok. Even the CD now ran without error. I have not tried to connect wireless yet. I have one printer connected via Ethernet cable and one connected via USB. Both are working good. Print quality is great. This one moves at the same speed the 922 did. I havent done photos yet and will comment later when I do. I am at a loss on how to print envelopes, there is no directions anywhere on how to do this although the tray has an image of an envelope - so I assumed it can do them. No mention online or in the manual about it. So, while I would give the install one star, I give the printer 5 stars. Also-do not expect Ink Jet printers to last more than two years, especially if you use aftermarket ink.

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