August 18, 2016

Canon MG2520

I rarely need a printer or scanner these days, but when I do, I really do. And it's hard to fret about a 28 dollar investment in a Canon MG2520 when I'd just spent almost that much at the FedEx copy center printing out a bunch of stuff that I suddenly needed yesterday.

I ordered it from Walmart online and picked it up a week later. The out-of-box instructions were actually readable (or lookable, as they contained little text) and fairly useful.

The telescoping paper tray slides neatly out of the way. But I wouldn't trust it with more than a dozen sheets. My old HP could hold at least a quarter of a ream. Then again, I don't play on printing more than a few dozen sheets a year.

The power brick is cleverly built into the chassis. It looks like it's snapped in during the assembly process. The power cord feeds out flush with the back of the case rather than jutting straight out. That means no extraneous dongles and dangling cables to deal with.

This is an ingenious design that I wish more electronics manufacturers would adopt. It makes it possible to source the power supply from an OEM without turning it into the annoying encumbrance that is the power brick (the bane of consumer gadget market).

Otherwise, my only gripe is that, instead of mounted flush like the power cord, the USB cable pokes straight out the back at the widest point. It's impossible to push the printer against the wall without unplugging it.

The USB port (upper right) should be oriented 90 degrees down.

The verdict: the printer prints and the scanner scans. Good enough.

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Comments
# posted by Blogger Katherine Woodbury
8/19/2016 8:12 AM   
I think this is the one I bought when my HP literally broke after many years (it made this awful grinding sound, a plastic part snapped off, and it stopped completely). I bought it for the same reason: price! As you noted in your other post, the downside is the cartridges; they are slightly more expensive than the HP cartridges. Good news! I've now become *far* more discerning about what I actually print. In fact, although I would LOVE to buy a LaserJet (and probably will one of these days), I have a bad feeling that all that fast, easy printing might tempt me into printing WAY too much. After all, I still prefer print when I edit.