If you need a home printer that can scan, print, and fax but don’t have the room for one of the bulkier models out there, then look no further than the Canon PIXMA TR8520. This compact model does it all, but doesn’t take up tons of room on your desk or in your office. For our money, this is one of the best all-in-one printers you can buy today.
The Canon PIXMA TR8520 measures in at 17.3" x 13.8" x 7.5" and weighs just 17.5 lbs. Now while that’s nowhere near as small as some of the best compact printers out there like the HP OfficeJet All-in-One 250, it’s positively minute when stacked up alongside some of the other giants in our guide. This makes it ideal for the home office, where you might need the multifunctionality of an all in one printer, but not have the space to fit a larger model.
As a wireless printer, you can connect the Canon PIXMA TR8520 to your home computer or laptop via either WiFi or an Ethernet cable. You can also use the SD memory card slot to move your images from your camera or smartphone to the printer. It has simple and easy to use controls, with a 4.3” LCD touchscreen for inputting commands and changing settings.
Canon PIXMA TR8520 review: Print quality
The Canon PIXMA TR8520 offers great print quality, with a maximum print resolution of 4800 x 1200 dpi. It prints at a rate of around 15 pages per minute in black, or 10 pages per minute in color. If you’re looking to print photographs with it, then expect it to take around 37 seconds to print a single 4” x 6” photo.
Users have reported that the Canon PIXMA TR8520 prints flawlessly for the most part across both text and images. PCMag noted some slight banding in an image that had a solid black background, but otherwise had no issues. It’s also a phenomenal photo printer for the price, so if you’re looking to print off some holiday snaps, this is an excellent choice.
Canon PIXMA TR8520 review: Features
The Canon PIXMA TR8520 is an inkjet printer with a five-color individual ink system, which means you can buy refills for each individual color as and when they run out. It uses PGI-280 ink cartridges for the main four colors - black, cyan, yellow, and magenta, and the CLI-281 Pigment based ink cartridges for the fifth tank. This pigment based ink is used when printing photographs, and shouldn’t need replacing nearly as often as the others.
You can buy the ink cartridges in three sizes (standard, XL, and XXL) with prices for the standard cartridges starting at $10.99 per color - you can buy combo packs with multiple colors to save money though. Overall, the printer ink costs of the Canon PIXMA TR8520 shouldn’t be any more or less expensive than other printers of this size and quality.
The Canon PIXMA TR8520 has a 200 sheet capacity upright paper tray at the back, which can also be used to hold either 20 sheets of 4” x 6” photo paper, or 10 sheets of 5” x 7” photo paper. At the front there is a paper cassette with a capacity of 100 documents, so you shouldn’t need to worry about picking up printed sheets constantly if you’re printing a large job.
As an all-in-one, the Canon PIXMA TR8520 comes with a flatbed scanner/copier, complete with an automatic document feeder with a 20 page capacity. The scanner has an optical resolution of 2400 x 1200 dpi and can be configured to automatically attach your scans to an email or save to your PC/storage device if required. And while it’s not the office essential function that it once was, the Canon PIXMA TR8520 has a built-in fax machine so you can send important documents securely.
Finally, you can use the Canon PRINT app to print documents directly from your mobile device, such as a smartphone or tablet. The app is available on both iOS and Android devices.
Canon PIXMA TR8520 review: Price and warranty
The Canon PIXMA TR8520 has an MSRP of $149.99, which is cheap as all-in-one printers go. In fact it’s the cheapest model we reviewed. You can also sign up to Canon’s auto replenishment service when you buy the Canon PIXMA TR8520 direct from the Canon website.
With the auto replenishment service, your printer’s sensors automatically measure ink levels and it will call for a replacement cartridge to be delivered whenever you’re running low. You can cancel this service at any time, so you’re not locked into a lengthy deal. There is no fixed fee for this, you simply pay for the ink cartridges at their standard rate whenever your printer orders them for you (that feels weird to say, doesn’t it?). You do get free shipping though.
The Canon PIXMA TR8520 comes with a one-year limited warranty as standard, with the option to use the InstantExchange program to get a replacement shipped out to you if your printer breaks down.
Should you buy the Canon PIXMA TR8520?
If you’re looking for a high quality all-in-one printer, but don’t have a large home office to store it in then the Canon PIXMA TR8520 is ideal. Even ignoring its small form factor, the Canon PIXMA TR8520 is an excellent printer that can handle documents, images and even photos with ease. The scanner, copier, and fax capabilities round out this impressive little office workhorse, and the reasonable price is just the icing on the cake. This is easily our top pick for an all-in-one home printer.
