Canon PIXMA TR150 Portable Printer Review: Your Office in a Backpack?

I remember it vividly. I was sitting in a hotel lobby, hours from home, with a client expecting a signed, hard-copy contract within the hour. My laptop had the finalised document, but the hotel’s “business centre” consisted of a single, ancient computer connected to a printer that had run out of ink sometime during the last decade. The front desk staff offered a shrug and a suggestion to try a print shop a few miles away. The panic was real. In today’s hyper-mobile world, whether you’re a consultant, a road warrior, an artist, or a student, the need for a physical document can strike anywhere, anytime. Relying on external services is a gamble—they’re expensive, unreliable, and often not available when you need them most. The freedom to work from anywhere is often limited by the one tether we can’t seem to break: the printer. This is the precise problem the niche category of portable printers aims to solve, promising liberation from the fixed office desk.

What to Consider Before Buying a Portable Ink Printer

An Ink Printer, especially a portable one, is more than just an item; it’s a key solution for maintaining productivity and professionalism outside a traditional office. It bridges the digital and physical worlds, allowing you to produce high-quality documents, invoices, contracts, or even photos on demand, wherever your work takes you. The main benefits are profound: immediate access to printing capabilities, enhanced client service, and the elimination of stressful searches for public printing facilities. It empowers mobile professionals to operate a fully functional office from a vehicle, a client’s site, a hotel room, or even a remote cabin.

The ideal customer for this type of product is someone whose work is inherently mobile. This includes field sales representatives, legal professionals who frequent courthouses, insurance adjusters, long-haul truckers managing paperwork, artists printing sketches on-site, and anyone living or working in a space-constrained environment like an RV or a small apartment. Conversely, it might not be suitable for those who require high-volume printing, scanning, and copying functionalities. If your printing needs exceed 100 pages a month or you frequently need to digitise documents, a traditional desktop all-in-one printer would be a more cost-effective and efficient solution.

Before investing, consider these crucial points in detail:

• Dimensions & Space: Portability is paramount. Look at the exact dimensions and weight. Can it genuinely fit in your existing laptop bag or backpack without causing strain? The Canon PIXMA TR150 Portable Printer measures a svelte 32.2 x 18.5 x 6.6 cm, making it one of the more compact options available, designed specifically to slide into a bag alongside a laptop.
• Capacity/Performance: Performance in a portable printer is a balance of speed, resolution, and battery life. Check the print speed (measured in ‘ipm’ or images per minute) for both monochrome and colour. High resolution (measured in ‘dpi’ or dots per inch) is critical for professional documents and photos. Most importantly, if you plan to be truly wireless, an optional battery is a must-have; evaluate its rated page yield per charge.
• Materials & Durability: A portable device will inevitably face more bumps and knocks than a desktop unit. The construction should be robust, with a solid plastic chassis that feels durable without being excessively heavy. Look for designs that protect sensitive parts when closed, ensuring it can withstand the rigours of travel.
• Ease of Use & Maintenance: Connectivity is king. Does it support Wi-Fi, Wi-Fi Direct, and mobile printing protocols like AirPrint (iOS) or Mopria (Android)? A simple setup process and an intuitive on-device interface, like an OLED screen, can save immense frustration on the road. Also, consider the ink system—are cartridges easy to find and replace?

Keeping these factors in mind, the Canon PIXMA TR150 Portable Printer stands out in several areas. You can explore its detailed specifications here.

While the Canon PIXMA TR150 Portable Printer is an excellent choice, it’s always wise to see how it stacks up against the competition. For a broader look at all the top models, we highly recommend checking out our complete, in-depth guide:

First Impressions: A Sleek, Purpose-Built Printing Powerhouse

Unboxing the **Canon PIXMA TR150 Portable Printer** is a satisfying experience. It immediately feels like a premium, purpose-built device. The packaging is compact and efficient, with the printer itself, a power cord, a USB-C cable, and a set of full-size PGI-35 Pigment Black and CLI-36 Colour ink cartridges all securely nested. Pulling the printer from its protective wrapping, the first thing we noticed was its solid construction and sleek, minimalist design. It’s surprisingly dense for its size, weighing just over 2 kg, which lends it a reassuringly durable feel.

The matte black finish is professional and resists fingerprints, a small but appreciated detail for a travel device. When closed, it forms a neat, robust rectangle that feels ready to be tossed into a backpack. Opening the top cover reveals the paper feed, which holds up to 50 sheets. The small 1.44-inch monochrome OLED screen is crisp and bright, a significant upgrade over printers that rely on blinking lights for status updates. As a successor to the legendary Canon iP100/iP110 series, the TR150 maintains a similar footprint but modernises the experience with improved connectivity and features like the on-board template storage. It feels less like a compromised desktop printer and more like a tool engineered from the ground up for mobility.

Performance Deep Dive: The Canon PIXMA TR150 Portable Printer in Action

A portable printer can look the part, but its true value is revealed in the field. Over several weeks, we put the **Canon PIXMA TR150 Portable Printer** through its paces in various scenarios—from a cramped home office to a car’s passenger seat—to see if its performance matches its promise.

Ultimate Portability and Design: Your Office in a Bag

The core promise of the **Canon PIXMA TR150 Portable Printer** is freedom, and its physical design delivers this in spades. At just 32.2cm wide, it’s narrower than many 15-inch laptops, and its slim 6.6cm height allows it to slide effortlessly into a backpack or briefcase. We found this to be true in practice; it fit perfectly into the main compartment of a standard Targus laptop bag with room to spare. This was echoed by numerous users, including one who runs their entire office—printer, scanner, laptop, and travel monitor—from a single overnight bag. Another user, a paralegal, lauded it for being small enough for their home space while being ready to grab for work at the courthouse on a moment’s notice.

A brilliant, often overlooked design choice is that all connections—USB-C for power/data and the power adapter port—are located on the left side. This is incredibly practical for tight spaces, like a small hotel desk or an RV countertop, as you don’t have to worry about leaving clearance on both sides for cables. The build quality feels sturdy enough to handle the rigours of travel. While it’s plastic, it’s a high-grade, dense material that doesn’t flex or creak. To truly unlock its potential, however, the optional LK-72 battery pack is non-negotiable. It attaches seamlessly to the back of the printer, adding minimal bulk, and transforms the device into a completely untethered workhorse. One user called the addition of the battery “life-changing,” and we wholeheartedly agree. It’s the key component that lets you print invoices in a parking lot or contracts at a coffee shop without hunting for a power outlet.

Print Quality and Speed: Punching Far Above Its Weight

Ordinarily, you expect to sacrifice print quality for portability. With the **Canon PIXMA TR150 Portable Printer**, that trade-off is surprisingly minimal, especially for its primary purpose: documents. Leveraging Canon’s hybrid ink system, it uses a dedicated pigment black ink tank (PGI-35) that produces exceptionally sharp, dark, and laser-quality text. We printed several multi-page contracts and invoices, and the text was consistently crisp and legible, with no smudging, even on standard copy paper. The resolution of 4800 x 1200 dpi ensures that fine details in logos or letterheads are rendered clearly.

The print speed is rated at 9 images per minute (ipm) for mono and 5.5 ipm for colour. In our real-world tests, a 10-page text document printed in just over a minute, which is impressively fast for a mobile unit. This speed was a pleasant surprise for many users, with one noting, “Surprisingly the printing speed is fast and texture is clear.” This is a crucial factor when you need a document printed quickly before a client meeting. Colour printing, which uses the dye-based CLI-36 cartridge, is more of a mixed bag. For business graphics like charts and coloured text, the results are vibrant and professional. We found photo printing on the included sample photo paper to be decent, though not quite on par with a dedicated photo printer. This aligns with some user feedback; one noted that colour printing was “somewhat sloppy,” while another mentioned seeing crooked pixels on detailed images. For its intended use case—printing business documents with occasional colour graphics—the quality is more than sufficient. For professional photo proofs, you might look elsewhere.

Connectivity Conundrum: Wireless Freedom with Caveats

The **Canon PIXMA TR150 Portable Printer** offers a suite of modern connectivity options designed for mobile workflows. It supports standard 2.4GHz Wi-Fi, allowing it to join a home or office network. More importantly for travellers, it features Wi-Fi Direct (which Canon calls Wireless Direct). This mode allows the printer to create its own network, enabling you to connect your phone, tablet, or laptop directly to it without needing a router. This is a lifesaver in hotels with complex captive portal Wi-Fi or when you’re completely off-grid. We tested this with an iPad via AirPrint, and as one artist user suggested, using the direct connection was the easiest and most reliable method. The connection was stable, and printing from Procreate was seamless.

However, this is also the area where we encountered the most friction, a sentiment strongly reflected in user reviews. The most significant annoyance is the printer’s aggressive power management. If left idle for a few hours, it shuts down completely, not just enters a sleep state. This means you cannot wake it by sending a print job; you must physically walk over and press the power button. One user’s frustration was palpable, updating their review to say, “I kinda hate this printer more and more each day” because after turning it on, they had to wait “longer than 10 minutes” for it to reconnect to the network. While our reconnection times weren’t that extreme, the delay and the need for physical intervention are undeniable design flaws in an otherwise excellent product. Furthermore, some users reported issues connecting it to modern 5Ghz or mesh Wi-Fi networks, a valid complaint in 2024. As one long-haul car hauler discovered, the key to a stable wireless setup is often to follow a video tutorial online, as the included documentation can be unclear, and to set a specific password on the printer for its direct network.

On-the-Go Functionality: Smart Features for Mobile Professionals

Beyond the core functions, the **Canon PIXMA TR150 Portable Printer** packs in several smart features that underscore its focus on the mobile professional. The 1.44-inch OLED screen is a small but vital component. It clearly displays connection status, ink levels, and battery life, taking the guesswork out of printer management. Navigating the menus using the physical buttons is straightforward and intuitive.

The standout feature, however, is the ability to store up to five custom templates directly on the printer’s memory. This is a game-changer for anyone who repeatedly prints the same forms—think invoices, service contracts, consent forms, or shipping labels. You can create a template on your computer and save it to the printer. From then on, you can select and print that form directly from the printer’s OLED screen, without needing to connect a PC or phone at all. For a field technician who needs to print a work order at every job site, this feature alone could justify the purchase. While it doesn’t have a built-in scanner, it supports a “Smartphone Copy” function via the Canon PRINT app. This allows you to take a photo of a document with your phone, have the app automatically correct the perspective, and then send it directly to the printer—a clever and effective workaround for occasional copying needs on the go. These thoughtful additions elevate the TR150 from just a portable printer to a comprehensive mobile document solution. Its impressive feature set makes it a compelling choice, and you can see the full list of capabilities on its product page.

What Other Users Are Saying

Across the board, user sentiment for the **Canon PIXMA TR150 Portable Printer** is largely positive, focusing on its core strengths of portability and convenience. A user who travels for work 330 days a year praised it as a “very good purchase,” highlighting how it saves them from the exorbitant per-page printing fees at hotels and truck stops. Another reviewer, who needed a compact solution for an RV, loved that it was “easy to store away” and appreciated the flexibility of connecting via Wi-Fi or directly with a phone. Many, like the paralegal we mentioned, celebrate its dual role as a space-saving home printer and a grab-and-go workhorse.

However, the criticism is just as consistent and focuses on specific usability quirks. The most common complaint by far is the auto-shutoff feature and the subsequent slow reconnection process, which one user found “very annoying.” The lack of an output tray is another frequent gripe. As one owner put it, “When paper is printing you have to keep an eye out since there is no catch tray.” While most users are satisfied with the print quality for documents, a few have noted that colour and photo quality don’t match desktop counterparts, which is a reasonable expectation for a portable device. These reviews paint a clear picture: users love what the printer enables them to do, but wish the day-to-day wireless experience were a little smoother.

How Does the Canon PIXMA TR150 Portable Printer Compare to the Alternatives?

The **Canon PIXMA TR150 Portable Printer** operates in a specialized market, but it’s crucial to understand how it stacks up against other options, both portable and stationary.

1. Canon PIXMA TS205 Inkjet Printer

The Canon PIXMA TS205 represents the complete opposite end of the spectrum. This is an ultra-basic, compact desktop printer designed for one thing: simple, low-volume printing at a very low purchase price. It offers no wireless connectivity, relying solely on a USB connection. It lacks a battery option, an OLED screen, and any of the advanced mobile features of the TR150. However, if your primary need is a printer for a dorm room or a home office where space is tight and you only print occasionally directly from a computer, the TS205 offers Canon’s reliable print quality for a fraction of the cost. It’s for the user who values price above all and has no need for portability.

2. HP OfficeJet 200 Mobile Printer

The HP OfficeJet 200 is the most direct competitor to the **Canon PIXMA TR150 Portable Printer**. It is also a wireless, battery-powered portable printer aimed at the same mobile professional audience. The HP often boasts slightly faster print speeds and includes a long-lasting battery in the box, whereas it’s an optional extra for the Canon. Both offer similar connectivity options and excellent text quality. The choice between them often comes down to brand preference, current pricing, and subtle design differences. The Canon is slightly more compact and features the unique on-board template storage, while the HP might offer a more streamlined out-of-the-box battery experience. If you are committed to the portable printer concept, the OfficeJet 200 is the main alternative worth cross-shopping.

3. HP DeskJet 2710 Multifunction Printer Wi-Fi

The HP DeskJet 2710 is a compelling alternative for those who need more than just printing. For a significantly lower price than the TR150, this compact desktop unit offers print, scan, and copy functions. While it is not portable and lacks a battery option, it provides wireless connectivity and the versatility of an all-in-one. This is the perfect choice for a user in a small apartment or home office who needs to occasionally digitise documents or make copies but doesn’t require the ability to take their printer on the road. You trade the TR150’s absolute mobility for the added functionality of scanning and copying at a budget-friendly price point.

The Final Verdict: Is the Canon PIXMA TR150 Portable Printer Right for You?

After extensive testing and analysis, our verdict is clear: the **Canon PIXMA TR150 Portable Printer** is a superb, highly specialised tool that brilliantly serves its target audience. It is, without a doubt, one of the best portable printers on the market for professionals on the move. Its combination of a truly compact and durable design, excellent document print quality, and versatile connectivity options (especially Wireless Direct) provides genuine freedom from the fixed office. The ability to add a battery and store templates on-board are killer features that elevate it above simple convenience to a serious productivity machine.

However, it is not without its flaws. The lack of a paper output tray is a strange oversight, and the aggressive power-off function can be a source of real frustration. This is not a printer for high-volume work or for someone who primarily needs a scanner. But if you are a road warrior, a field agent, an RVer, or anyone who has ever felt the panic of needing a hard copy far from home, the TR150 isn’t just a good product; it’s an essential piece of kit. It delivers on its core promise of quality printing, anytime, anywhere.

If you’ve decided the Canon PIXMA TR150 Portable Printer is the right fit for your mobile workflow, you can check its current price and purchase it here.