Overview and features
Canon's Pixma line of all-in-one inkjet printers is the Murderer's Row of photography printers. In addition to this year's 7150 model, and last year's iX6850 model, Canon has historically produced quality print/scan devices at affordable prices. Whether you're a photo enthusiast, a small business owner, or someone who just likes to print iPhone and GoPro stills, you'll likely enjoy most aspects of the Pixma printing experience.
The new Canon Pixma MG7520 is no exception.
Priced at $199 (about £170/AU$219) the Pixma MG7520 is eerily similar to the MG7150. Both print documents at a maximum color dpi of 9600 X 2400 with 1pl technology, and both scan documents and photos at 2400 x 4800 dpi.
Features
Like the 7150, the 7520 features six ink tanks, including a tank that holds gray ink, to offer more color accuracy and balance. Most printers feature only one cartridge that creates ink of all colors from the same pool, which means you're forced to throw the cartridge away when the ink runs out regardless of which colors you use most often. If you typically run through a ton of ink, you'll appreciate the six separate tanks: you'll only need to replace the ink cartridges for colors you often use, and you won't need to replace the ones you seldom use.
The 7150 is a small, lightweight model, which is ideal for home users and small businesses with cramped spaces. The 17.4 pound printer is only 17.2" wide and 5.9" tall, so it isn't exactly compact, but it is pound-for-pound a solid device. It's housed in a sleek, black plastic chassis that easily collects dust and fingerprint smudges. You'll want to wipe this machine down often in order to help it maintain its attractive appearance.
You'll mostly interact with the unit's 3.5" LCD touchscreen (same as the MG7150) when you're not printing directly from the Canon Pixma Maxify Inkjet Print app. From the touchscreen, you'll be able to print from the cloud via services like Facebook, Twitter, Dropbox, OneDrive, and Google Drive. The touchscreen is awesome if you're able to tap something that immediately appears on the screen. However, if you have to scroll up and down, you'll want to take a hammer to the MG7520 - scrolling is inaccurate and moves the screen too fast, too slow or doesn't move it at all.
One update Google fans will enjoy is MG7520's Google Cloud print compatibility, which lets you take a document from any app, open it in Google Cloud Print, and then print it to your MG7520. Google Cloud was incredibly easy to install and use.
iPhone users will be disappointed to hear that the MG7520, like the MG7150, is still only NFC compatible with certain Android devices. So if you don't have an Android device you'll need wi-fi or an ethernet cord to print documents.
Like the MG7150, the MG7520 features Auto Duplex Printing, which allows you to house two different paper sizes on two separate trays within the printer. This feature makes it so that you can easily switch between printing off of larger format paper, such as Letter, and smaller formats, such as A5, without having to open and reload the tray every time you start a new task. Similar to office printers, the MG7520 lets you pick which tray to print from before the task starts and then feeds the paper from the pre-selected cassette. The lower tray, which holds larger format paper, can hold 125 sheets of Plain Paper, and the upper tray, which holds smaller paper sizes can hold 20 sheets of 4" X 6" of photo paper.
I also enjoyed the Auto Power On feature, which allows the MG7520 to sleep between tasks and then start up immediately. This feature not only helps you save money, but you don't have to waste time booting up the device when you launch a print job from across the home or office - the print will be waiting for you when you arrive.
Setup and speed
Installation is incredibly easy. You're walked through a few minutes of your typical time-zone and wi-fi setup instructions and then you're ready to begin printing. However, if you've never used a Pixma before you'll need to download the apps you'll use to print from your mobile devices.
You're even provided with step-by-step instructions for inserting your ink cartridges, which is important given that you're using six of them, and one misplacement could entirely ruin your final print.
If something fails during your set-up it takes about five minutes of waiting while the screen tells you that the machine is "Processing" and that you should "please wait." This was pretty frustrating, but it only happened once and it was entirely my fault (I loaded the paper into the wrong tray). However, I would have appreciated a faster bounceback.
Speed
Canon says the MG7520 can print documents and web pages at 15 images per minute for black ink and 10 images per minute for color ink. However, it took 18 seconds for me to print one full-color print on plain Letter paper. It took nine seconds to print the same image in black&white on Letter.
When I loaded the tasks to print 20 copies, I was able to print the image in black & white 14 times in one minute on Letter-sized pages, but it took 85 seconds for the image to print once in 300 dpi on Canon Semi-Gloss photo paper.
The printer output tray automatically opens for print and copy jobs. So you'll never have to worry about sending a print job to a closed tray and finding a crumpled mess instead of a gorgeous print.
Specs
The Pixma MG7520 features 5,632 color nozzles and 1,024 black nozzles. Your paper types are somewhat limited compared to more higher-end office printers. You can load 4" x 6", 5" x 7", 8" x 10", Letter, and US #10 Envelope paper into the device. However, it is compatible with most forms of office and photo paper.
Photographers will love being able to load their memory cards directly into the 7520. No more downloading the images and then sending specific jobs to the printer. With the 7520, you can stick the following cards into the machine and immediately begin printing:
SD Card14
SDHC Card14
miniSD Card14
miniSDHC Card14
microSD Card14
microSDHC Card14
Memory Stick Duo 14
Memory Stick PRO Duo 14
Memory Stick Micro14
Prints and verdict
We found on-screen images and their reflective prints were slightly off when we reviewed the previous model of this printer. Colors appeared a bit darker in the final print, despite accurately reflecting skin tone and producing smooth gradations.
The MG7520 has resolved this issue, as images on-screen are nearly identical to the ones the printer produced.
Images on plain Letter paper are definitely more washed out than they appear in digital formats, but when the same images are reproduced on photo paper they are exact replicas to what you would see on your retina display or on your iPhone screen.
One thing amateur photographers will be frustrated by is how poor prints are replicated when filters are applied to camera phone photos. This isn't necessarily a Canon issue, as all manipulated photos are degraded compared to original files. However, your Instagram selfie won't look crisp if you throw a filter onto it and send it to the MG7520 for a print job.
Ink depletion
Unlike the MG7150, which required you to manually check in levels, the MG7520 automatically alerts you to print cartridge depletion. Each cartridge features its own sensor, so you'll know when each one requires a refill.
You're given an excellent head start before the tank is completely depleted. After my first warning, I was able to print 10 additional full-color Letter images on Semi-Gloss Photo Paper before the cartridge was entirely drained.
The cartridges don't hold much ink, so be prepared to spend $95 (around £60, $110AU) to replace all six tanks when they run dry. However, Canon seems to have improved the prints-to-ink ratio on the MG7520, compared with the previous model. My colleague who tested the MG7150 was able to print 50 full-color A4 prints before she received an ink depletion warning. I was able to get through 75.
We liked
This printer is going to make photographers very happy, especially if they produce just a few prints at a time and aren't worried about fast, mass-production. Small businesses will enjoy the quality of their prints, but they might regret how few they can create at one time. But if your ultimate goal is high-quality photo printing at an affordable cost, and you'd enjoy a ton of wireless printing functionality, then you can't go wrong with this model.
We disliked
Those of you who need to mass-produce prints, and are required to print documents larger than standard paper sizes, are going to want to upgrade to Canon's Pro line of inkjet printers. This machine is slower and holds less paper than you'll likely need.
Final verdict
Decide what it is you're ultimately trying to do with your printer. Don't be swayed by the price or the style. If you want to create the best prints possible and you don't need to do it en masse, then I don't see why you'd need to upgrade to the Canon Pro line. But if you require speed, abundance and large-format prints, then go with the more expensive, more versatile Pro line.
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