Canon Pixma TS3100 Review- The Canon Pixma TS3100 Wireless Inkjet All-in-One ($79.99) is one among only a few inkjet printers with the excellence of a sub-$80 asking price (and its street price of $49.99 means you’ll actually pip out for fewer than $50, making it all the more unique). Not only is that this one among the least-expensive consumer-grade photo all-in-one (AIO) printers we’ve reviewed recently, it is also one among the littlest, slowest, and shortest on features.
A Minimalist altogether Ways
Measuring 5.8 by 12.5 by 17.2 inches (HWD) with its trays closed and weighing 8.5 pounds, only a few AIOs are as small because the TS3100, except the HP DeskJet 3755 (5.6 by 15.9 by 7 inches and 5.1 pounds), though the Epson Expression Home XP-440 Small-in-One comes very draw in size, and weighs only half a pound more. subsequent TS-series model up, the Canon TS5020, measures about four inches wider and is nearly twice as heavy. additionally, the Canon TS5020 uses five inks, whereas the TS3100 uses only four, making the previous a far better choice for printing photographs.
It’s important to notice that each one of those entry-level printers increases significantly thoroughly and height with their input and output trays deployed. The TS3100, as an example, increases from 12.5 inches long to 21.8 inches, and HP’s 3755 extends upward by about 5 inches and elongates by over 10 inches. Even so, most fit comfortably on the typical desktop, and therefore the TS3100 (and its competitors) are designed to shut up easily, taking over as little space as possible while not in commission.
Another blatant giveaway that the TS3100 may be a low-volume printer is that, rather than employing a separate print cartridge for every one of its four inks (cyan, magenta, yellow, and black, or CMYK), it uses only two. One tank holds the black ink, and therefore the other holds the opposite three colors. Not only do these sorts of ink cartridges hold less ink than separate cartridges do, but with the three-ink color ink tank, the cartridge must get replaced when any of the three reservoirs empty — regardless of what proportion ink is left within the other two reservoirs.
For a short time there, it seemed like printer manufacturers were getting faraway from this sort of two-cartridge ink system, but it appears to be returning. HP now has several, including the HP DeskJet 3755 and therefore the company’s recent Envy Photo 7855 All-in-One, a significantly costlier and full-featured TS3100 competitor.
Instead of a tablet-like touch screen with icons that act as shortcuts for fixing and executing various functions and workflow profiles. you employ the panel primarily for fixing and monitoring functions, making copies, setting paper size and sort, and so on. Most interactions are going to be through either your PC or mobile device. Printing or scanning to cloud sites, for instance, are found out and executed from your smartphone or tablet through one among Canon’s mobile apps.
Connections and Software
Since the TS3100 is at rock bottom of the Canon Pixma-TS-series hierarchy, it’s the fewest connectivity choices. Standard connectivity consists of Wi-Fi and connecting to one PC via USB. you furthermore may get Wireless PictBridge for printing from specific Canon cameras, including certain digital video cameras. All four of the opposite TS-series models also accompany Bluetooth, and therefore the Canon TS9120 supports Ethernet.
Additionally, to the drivers for the machine itself, you furthermore may get Canon’s Scan Utility, a fairly helpful scanning interface, given the worth and scope of this AIO; Master Setup, for configuring and monitoring the printer; My Printer Network Tool, for managing the TS3100 on your wireless network; My Image Garden, a set of enhancement and correction filters, like red-eye removal and image cropping; and a couple of others. and eventually , there’s Quick Menu, which resides within the lower-right corner of your monitor and consists of a group of shortcuts to most of the software and hardware features. to get set up, driver and software visit ij start canon ts3100.
Patience may be a Virtue
While the TS3100 isn’t the slowest printer I’ve seen recently, it isn’t far behind. Canon rates the TS3100 at 7.7 pages per minute (ppm); at 5.5ppm, only the HP 3755 features a slower rating. The TS3100 eked out 4.8ppm, compared with the HP 3755’s 4.3ppm. Otherwise, the TS3100 fell behind the Epson XP-440 by about 3.5ppm, and therefore the Canon TS5020 and TS6120 by around 8ppm. Canon’s own Pixma G2200 MegaTank All-in-One, one among that company’s super tank models that gets its ink from economical bottles, instead of cartridges, churned out our text document at 2.3ppm faster than the TS3100.
The TS3100’s average print time of 1 minute 4 seconds isn’t that great, but its higher-end siblings (the TS5020 and TS6120) managed to print equivalent pages in around 20 seconds in our tests. Typically, if the standard within the driver is about to High or Best, a print time of but 1 minute is pretty good.
Better-Than-Expected Output Quality
Let’s check out the TS3100’s text output first. Its text came out well-shaped, well-delineated, and highly legible right down to well under 10 points in our text document tests, making it quite suitable for many family, student, or headquarters tasks. the sole problem I saw was on a dark-green-flowing-to-black gradient designed specifically for testing a printer’s proclivity for banding. There was noticeable banding on this full-page background fill, but it wasn’t on the brink of unsightly or unusable.
The TS3100 printed good-looking photos, too. They were bright, brilliantly colored, and well detailed — images that the majority of folks, I think, would be quite satisfied with. However, once I examined the TS3100’s photo output side-by-side with equivalent images from Canon’s five-ink Pixma TS6120 or six-ink TS9120, also as Epson’s five-ink Expression Premium XP-640 Small-in-One, I saw a marked difference within the quality. Colors were notably brighter, better saturated, and well…prettier, and therefore the content itself was better detailed on the five- and six-ink AIOs.
Cost Per Photo
Like the Envy Photo 7855, most consumer-grade photo printers have high running costs, especially compared with their office-oriented counterparts. but, most printers during this price range — photo-centric or otherwise — have high per-page print costs.
The HP 3755’s color cost per page (CPP) is above the TS3100’s by 0.3 cent, and therefore the monochrome CPP is that the same. Even so, since you almost certainly won’t be printing much anyway, the Epson XP-440’s 6.2 cents for monochrome and 18.2 cents for color isn’t notably better, a minimum of for this class of printer. However, since the Epson XP-440 uses separate ink tanks for every color (with the TS3100’s three-well cartridges you’ll finish up tossing out unused ink), perhaps the XP-440’s running costs might even be a touch less.
As for the opposite TS-series Pixmas, i could not calculate accurate CPPs for five- and six-ink machines, primarily because there is no thanks to gauge when, where, and in what quantities the extra inks are used. Suffice it to mention that their running costs are presumably not significantly different, either — given that each one of those consumer-grade photo printers are low-volume AIOs.
Quality Output for fewer
The Canon Pixma TS3100 Wireless Inkjet All-in-One, the lowest-priced TS-series AIO. It prints at but half the speed of the opposite four TS-series models, which incorporates the Editors’ Choice Canon Pixma TS9120, and print quality, while better than acceptable, isn’t quite up thereto of the opposite four TS-series AIOs, either.
What the TS3100 does provide may be a very low price (but only about $20 but subsequent model up, the Canon TS5020). It also prints a touch better and faster than HP’s 3755 AIO. If you’re on a strict budget that will not allow you to settle on one among the opposite TS-series Pixmas, or the costlier Epson XP-440, the TS3100 certainly prints, copies, and scans tolerably to form it an honest choice for home offices and families.
Canon Pixma TR4522 Review
The entry-level Canon Pixma TR4522 Wireless Printer ($99.99) is meant for light-duty family and home-based-office use. As might be expected for an all-in-one at this price, it’s somewhat slow and expensive to use, but it comes with a robust feature set and prints exceptionally well, especially photos. Also, sort of a few other printers we have seen recently, it includes support for Amazon’s Alexa, allowing hands-free printing. it is a strong contender for headquarters users who need a cheap AIO for light-duty printing, copying, and scanning.
Room on the Desk
Entry-level home-based printers just like the TR4522 spend most of the time sitting idle until you turn them to churn out the occasional photo, a couple of document pages here, a replica or two there — you get the thought. Hence Canon and its competitors design them to require up as a little desk or counter-top land as possible.
As for paper handling, the TR4522 comes with one 100-sheet paper tray, and its manual-duplexing automatic document feeder (ADF) holds up to twenty letter-size sheets. Its sibling, the Pixma TR7520, on the opposite hand, holds up to 200 sheets, split between 100-sheet front and rear trays.
Software and Smart Home Features
In addition to the quality AIO printer driver, the TR4522’s software bundle consists of the subsequent convenience and productivity software: Scan Utility for both Windows and Mac platforms, Scan Utility Lite for Mac, Easy-PhotoPrint Editor, Master Setup, My Printer, and Quick Menu for straightforward access to printer apps and settings. visit ij start canon tr4522 to get more support and set up.
Canon has also begun to incorporate smart home functionality via built-in support for Amazon’s Alexa, also as support for Google Assistant and other automation services via IFTTT (If-Then That) technology. HP and Epson, too, have recently come onboard with IFTTT voice activation — HP with its Tango X and Epson with all of its machines that support the company’s Epson Connect service.
With IFTTT voice activation, you’ll tell your machine to print through an app on your smartphone, or via Smart Echo speaker and other IFTTT listening devices. So far, I’ve seen IFTTT technology built into three Pixmas, the TS9520, the TS9521C, and therefore the TR4522.
Not Built for Speed
Canon rates the TR4522 at 8.8 pages per minute (ppm) for monochrome pages and 5ppm for color pages, which are, aside from the HP 3830 (8.5ppm), rock bottom print speed ratings i do know of.
Next, I printed a group of highly complex color Acrobat, Excel, and PowerPoint business documents comprised primarily of embedded graphics and embedded photos, then combined those results with those from printing the 12-page text document within the previous test, to return up with a score of 4.5ppm for printing our entire suite.
Finally, the TR4522 printed our test 4-by-6-inch snapshots at a mean of 58 seconds, which was about middle-of-the-road (and tied with the G4520) for this group of entry-level AIOs.
Output Worth expecting
While Canon’s TR printer line isn’t a part of the company’s TS consumer-grade photo printer series, the TR4522 proves once more that when it involves imaging, Canon is tough to beat. Not only does the TR4522 print colorful and vibrant photos, but it also supports borderless prints on media starting from 4 by 6 inches up to eight .5 by 11 inches. you’ll also design and print polished and professional borderless flyers and brochures.
Photo output isn’t the sole thing this tiny AIO does well, though. The text in our test documents came out well-shaped and highly legible, even at smaller sizes right down to about 6 points.
High Running Costs
Granted, most entry-level models cost tons to use, but at 8.7 cents for monochrome pages and 18.7 cents for color pages, the TR4522 is one among the foremost expensive I’ve seen. The Brother MFC-J497DW’s running costs are, for instance, 2.7 cents less per monochrome page and a couple of .2 cents lower for color prints, and therefore the Epson WF-2860 is, at 3.2 cents less for black prints and a couple of .4 cents cheaper for color, slightly better.
For real relief, once you subscribe to HP’s Instant Ink program, the OfficeJet 3830 can deliver both black and color pages, even photos, for as low as 3.5 each. Those are terrific savings, but, while the 3830 prints well enough; its photo output quality can’t touch the TR4522's.
Home-Printing Companion
The Canon Pixma TR4522 may be a low-volume printer, period. Nothing makes that clearer than its sky-high running costs, and in fact, its small paper-input tray and slow print speeds. What’s going for it, though, is outstanding print quality, voice automation, the power to edit photos from your mobile device, and automatic two-sided printing, which isn’t a given during this price range.
If you’re printing but a few hundred pages monthly, the high running costs should not be that big of a deal. If you do not require the superb photo quality or automatic duplexing you get with the TR4522 and need to save lots of touch on consumables, the Brother MFC-J497DW and therefore the Epson WF-2860 are both good alternatives that will not hit your wallet as hard within the future. (If you’re printing thousands of pages per month, you ought to spend more upfront for a model just like the Pixma G4210 which will find yourself costing you much less down the road.) Otherwise, the TR4522 may be a great little printer for light-duty use reception.
