The vast majority of Canon’s Pixma inkjet printers are geared towards printing nice images, just like the spectacular six-ink Canon PIXMA TS8050, however the Canon Pixma TR8550 is aimed squarely on the house workplace. As such, it has solely 5 (fairly than six) ink cartridges and provides a doc feeder and duplex printing. The inclusion of a fax facility, places this machine within the aggressive class of compact four-in-one MFPs. At round £199 (about US$265,AU$355) it’s fairly keenly priced.
And this mannequin actually is compact. Canon reckons it’s 38% smaller than the MX920 it replaces, whereas retaining two separate paper trays entrance and rear and a 20-sheet ADF on prime. What Canon affords that the common MFD doesn’t, is a big four.Three-inch touchscreen interface, Bluetooth connectivity along with Wi-Fi and a fifth ink cartridge to boost the print high quality.
Design
Printers for the house workplace have been getting progressively smaller and the Canon Pixma TR8550 is a primary instance. With the entire flaps and lengthening trays folded away, it’s little larger than Canon’s household oriented picture printers and but it incorporates a 100-sheet important paper tray, a 20-sheet rear paper tray for picture paper and envelopes and a 20-sheet automated doc feeder (ADF) on prime.
It appears to be like good and complex with the extra-large touchscreen taking on many of the entrance panel and also you most likely wouldn’t begrudge this unobtrusive printer sharing your desk.
Spec Sheet
Listed below are the complete specs of the Canon Pixma TR8550:
Kind: Multifunction color inkjet printer
Features: Print, copy, scan, fax
Ink: 5 cartridges (C, M, Y, BK, PGBK)
Paper dimension: A4
Connectivity: Ethernet, Wi-Fi, USB, Bluetooth
Knowledge storage slot: SD Card slot
Print velocity: 15ppm (mono), 10ppm (color)
Important paper tray capability: 100 sheets
Print high quality: four,800 x 1,200 dpi
Duplex: Sure
Scan high quality: 1,200 x 2,400 dpi
Apple AirPrint: Sure
Google Cloud Print: Sure
App assist: iOS/Android
Consumables included: 5 ink cartridges
Dimension/weight: 190 x 438 x 351mm (HxWxD)/8kg
Options
The Canon Pixma TR8550 is a four-in-one, which suggests the print, scan, copy and fax containers are all ticked, it is a feature-rich machine and Canon has accomplished effectively to incorporate luxuries like a four.Three-inch touchscreen and Bluetooth connectivity for the cash.
Bluetooth compliments the inbuilt Wi-Fi and makes it even simpler to make sure a steady wi-fi reference to a smartphone to be able to use the useful Canon Print companion app, whereas the touchscreen makes it straightforward to make use of and monitor at a look.
As an alternative of 4 ink cartridges, there’s an additional pigment black to enhance textual content and picture high quality. You possibly can inform this printer was made by a Digital camera model as a result of it additionally has an SD Card enter and may hook up with Canon cameras wirelessly by way of PictBridge.
Important options reminiscent of duplex printing and connectivity with cloud companies like Dropbox are current too, which suggests the one gadgets lacking are NFC connectivity (though Bluetooth makes up for this) and a entrance USB port.
Setup and operation
The 10.8cm color touchscreen might sound an pointless extravagance for a printer, however the asking worth for this mannequin remains to be low and it actually makes set up and operation simpler than it could have been with out it. Getting began is solely a case of following the directions and printing out the check sheets when prompted. You could have 5 cartridges to suit as an alternative of 4.
The touchscreen proves its value when you must kind within the password to your Wi-Fi community. It’s not a delicate as your smartphone’s display screen, or course, however it’s faster than the fiddly arduous buttons you normally need to cope with. The display screen can also be nice for switching between paper inventory and monitoring the standing of your present print job at a look.
The Canon Print app can also be very useful in terms of scanning and printing. Canon makes use of the app to supply its personal cloud printing service, though this takes a while to arrange.
How we check printers
Every printer we supply for testing is measured on our check bench and the outcomes are critically in contrast with each different mannequin we’ve reviewed. Somewhat than counting on the producer’s quoted figures, we time the primary web page out and print speeds in single sheet and duplex mode utilizing a typical ten-page doc and a stopwatch app. To match print high quality, we print out the identical set of check paperwork on each machine. These twelve check pages embrace textual content of various font sizes and colors, blended picture and textual content pages, a set of images and a sequence of check patterns designed to evaluate sharpness, color constancy, distinction and gray scale.
We additionally calculate working prices, examine performance and contemplate every product’s versatility, design and construct high quality. The general rating displays all of those parameters and total worth for cash.
Efficiency
We discovered the Canon Pixma TR8550 to be fairly gradual when it got here to printing mono duplex pages of textual content, however the pages had been value ready for. The extra cartridge delivers black pigment ink along with the 4 dyes, which provides printed phrases a wealthy darkness, whereas sustaining a fragile contact. Very small level sizes are simply as clearly outlined as giant letters.
The additional ink additionally befits color paperwork, with colors showing vivid and effectively contained and blacks, evenly crammed in all through. Images on picture paper are notably effectively shaded, correct and vibrant. Properly what did you anticipate from a digicam producer. Presumably it’s as a result of the print decision is barely half the DPI of the Canon PIXMA TS8050 that images look noticeably softer. It additionally lacks the extra gray cartridge of that mannequin’s six-ink system.
By including a fax and ADF and retaining the price low, some sacrifices in print high quality have been made. Regardless of this, the Canon Pixma TR8550 seems mono, color and picture prints that may impress.
Closing verdict
The scale and elegance of this surprisingly compact printer will endear it to anybody who works in a cramped workplace, whereas that big four.Three-inch touchscreen makes every part from setup to checking your workflow at a look, just a bit bit simpler.
The Pixma TR8550 ticks off the entire includes a house workplace would possibly want together with duplex printing, separate paper feeds for plain and picture paper and an ADF. Bluetooth, along with Wi-Fi, ensures a simple reference to the useful Canon Print app and that further ink cartridge offers each textual content doc a crisp and daring end, whereas images seem wealthy and vivid.
By including a fax and ADF to what appears to be like very very like the Pixma TS8050 picture printer, the Pixma TR8550 positive aspects some bulk whereas compromising its print high quality. Additionally it is fairly costly to run, with that extra black pigment cartridge that means that you must purchase 5, fairly than the standard 4 replacements.
For the cash, and we’ve seen some important reductions on this mannequin already, the Pixma TR8550 has lots to supply. To start with, the compact dimension is an achievement on condition that it has three separate paper feeds, 5 ink cartridges and an enormous four.Three-inch touchscreen show. It additionally affords the necessities reminiscent of duplex printing and sending high-resolution scans to the cloud by way of a companion app. It additionally prints mono, color and images in nice high quality. Like many cartridge-based inkjets, nonetheless, alternative ink is dear.