Canon PIXMA TS5150 All-in-One Printer Review: The Home Office Workhorse Under Scrutiny

In the modern household, the humble printer has become an unsung hero. One minute you’re printing a last-minute boarding pass, the next you’re helping with a school project on the Roman Empire, and an hour later you’re scanning important documents to send to your accountant. My own journey for a reliable home printer has been a long one, littered with devices that promised the world but delivered cryptic error codes, exorbitant ink costs, and connectivity that felt more like a game of chance. The need for a true all-in-one device that can seamlessly switch from printing crisp documents to vibrant photos, all while connecting effortlessly to a myriad of devices, is more critical than ever. Not having one means frustrating trips to the local print shop, missed deadlines, and a general sense of technological despair when all you want to do is get something from your screen onto a piece of paper.

Before You Click ‘Buy’: What to Consider in an All-in-One Printer

An All-in-One Printer is more than just an item; it’s a key solution for centralising your home or small office’s document management needs. It solves the problem of clutter by combining the functions of a printer, scanner, and copier into a single, compact footprint. The main benefits are convenience and cost-effectiveness; you save space by not needing three separate machines, and you often save money compared to buying them individually. It’s the bridge between your digital life—photos on your phone, documents in the cloud—and the physical world, enabling you to create, share, and archive with ease.

The ideal customer for this type of product is someone facing a variety of printing tasks: the student who needs to print essays and scan research papers, the remote worker who handles contracts and reports, or the creative family that enjoys printing photos and craft projects. It’s for the person who values versatility and convenience. However, it might not be suitable for those with highly specialised needs. For example, a professional photographer would be better served by a dedicated photo printer with a more advanced ink system, while an office with a massive daily print volume would find a high-capacity laser printer more economical in the long run.

Before investing, consider these crucial points in detail:

• Dimensions & Space: Your printer needs a home. Before purchasing, measure the intended space to ensure a good fit, leaving room for ventilation and access to paper trays and the scanner lid. The Canon PIXMA TS5150 All-in-One Printer boasts a compact design, but you still need to account for the front paper output tray being extended during operation.
• Capacity/Performance: Look beyond the initial price tag and consider performance metrics. Print speed, measured in pages per minute (PPM), tells you how quickly it handles jobs. Print resolution, measured in dots per inch (DPI), determines the sharpness of text and the detail in photos. Paper capacity is also vital; a larger tray means less frequent refilling.
• Materials & Durability: The build quality can dictate the lifespan of the device. While many modern home printers use lightweight plastics to keep costs down, pay attention to the sturdiness of key components like paper trays, hinges, and access panels. Some budget models can feel flimsy, which may be a concern in a busy household.
• Ease of Use & Maintenance: A printer should simplify your life, not complicate it. Consider the setup process—is it app-driven and straightforward, or does it require complex driver installations? Most importantly, investigate the long-term maintenance, which primarily revolves around ink. Research the cost and yield of replacement cartridges to understand the true total cost of ownership.

Keeping these factors in mind, the Canon PIXMA TS5150 All-in-One Printer stands out in several areas, particularly for its balance of features and compact size. You can explore its detailed specifications here.

While the Canon PIXMA TS5150 All-in-One 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:

Unboxing the Canon PIXMA TS5150: A Compact and Modern First Look

Upon arrival, the Canon PIXMA TS5150 All-in-One Printer was packaged securely, nestled in protective polystyrene as one would expect from a major brand like Canon. Inside the box, we found the printer itself, a power cord, a set of starter FINE cartridges (one black, one tri-colour), and the usual manuals and installation CD. The first thing we noted was the absence of a USB-B cable, a common cost-saving measure these days but an important one to be aware of. Canon is clearly pushing a wireless-first approach with this model.

Lifting the printer out, its compact and lightweight nature was immediately apparent. With dimensions of roughly 42.5 x 36 cm (with trays closed), it’s remarkably unobtrusive for a multifunction device, fitting neatly onto a small desk or shelf. The matte black finish is sleek and modern, resisting fingerprints better than glossy alternatives. While the overall construction is plastic, it feels well-assembled for its price point. However, as we explored the moving parts, we noticed what some users described as a slightly “rappelige” or flimsy feel to the paper trays and the manually tilting control panel. It’s a trade-off for its affordability, but something to handle with a gentle touch.

Putting the PIXMA TS5150 Through Its Paces: A Performance Deep-Dive

A printer’s true worth is revealed not on the spec sheet, but in the day-to-day grind of printing, scanning, and copying. We spent several weeks using the Canon PIXMA TS5150 All-in-One Printer as our primary home office device, tackling everything from multi-page reports and scanned receipts to full-colour photo prints. Our experience was a tale of impressive convenience punctuated by a few notable quirks that define who this printer is truly for.

The Setup Saga: From Frustration to Flawless Connectivity

The setup experience for the Canon PIXMA TS5150 All-in-One Printer can be one of two stories, and our testing confirmed the mixed feedback we saw from users. The traditional method, using the included CD or downloading drivers from the website, can be a minefield. We initially attempted a manual Wi-Fi connection and, like some users, found the printer stubbornly refused to find our network router, despite detecting others nearby. The on-screen instructions can be a bit clunky, and the lack of a bundled USB cable means you can’t easily fall back on a wired connection to configure the wireless settings.

However, the moment we abandoned that path and downloaded the Canon PRINT app to a smartphone, the narrative changed completely. The app-based setup is nothing short of brilliant. It walks you through the process step-by-step, from unwrapping the printer and installing the ink cartridges to connecting to your Wi-Fi network. The app uses a Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) connection to find the printer and securely pass your Wi-Fi credentials to it. Within minutes, we were fully connected and ready to print. One user perfectly captured this, saying “I downloaded the app… and one two three I was done.” For anyone considering this printer, we cannot stress this enough: ignore the CD and start with the app. It transforms a potentially frustrating experience into an absolute breeze.

Print Quality vs. Print Speed: Finding the Sweet Spot

For a printer in this price bracket, the Canon PIXMA TS5150 All-in-One Printer delivers impressive results, particularly with text documents. Leveraging its 4800 x 1200 dpi resolution, black text on plain paper is sharp, crisp, and easily legible, even at smaller font sizes. It’s more than adequate for school reports, business letters, and everyday administrative tasks. The specified print speed is 13 ppm for black and white, and in our tests with standard documents, it came close to that mark after the initial page was out. It’s not a speed demon, but it won’t leave you waiting impatiently for a few pages.

Colour and photo printing is where the nuance comes in. For charts, graphs, and presentations, colours are vibrant and well-saturated. When we switched to glossy photo paper, the initial results were pleasing. Using Canon’s ChromaLife100 ink system, photos had good detail and accurate colours, perfect for family albums or casual framing. However, this is not a dedicated photo printer. Some users reported that over time, prints can become “milky” or “streaky,” suggesting the print heads may be prone to clogging if not used regularly. We didn’t experience this in our short-term test, but it’s a valid concern for those who primarily want to print high-quality photos. For everyday mixed use, however, the quality is a significant step up from basic entry-level printers, making the document and photo output a real strength for its cost.

The Elephant in the Room: Ink Consumption and Running Costs

This is arguably the most critical aspect of owning the Canon PIXMA TS5150 All-in-One Printer and the source of the most user frustration. While the initial purchase price is highly attractive, the long-term running costs can be substantial, especially for those who print regularly. The primary culprit is the printer’s aggressive and frequent automatic cleaning cycles. We observed the printer whirring to life to perform a clean when turned on, before a print job, and even a few minutes after a job was completed. While this is intended to keep the print nozzles clear and maintain quality, it consumes a startling amount of ink.

Our findings mirrored those of a particularly detailed user review: after printing just 20-25 pages of mostly black-and-white text, the included starter cartridges were already showing close to 50% depletion. The tri-colour cartridge depletes even if you primarily print in black, as small amounts of colour ink are used during the cleaning process. The replacement FINE cartridges are not cheap, and while higher-yield XL versions are available, they still represent a significant ongoing investment. This business model—a low-cost device subsidized by expensive consumables—is common in the industry, but it feels particularly pronounced here. For the occasional user who prints a few pages a week, this might be an acceptable trade-off for the low entry price. But for anyone with moderate to heavy printing needs, the total cost of ownership will quickly eclipse that of a more expensive printer with a more efficient ink system.

Everyday Usability: Scanning, Copying, and Paper Handling

Beyond printing, the all-in-one features perform admirably. The flatbed scanner is straightforward to use, capturing documents and photos with good colour depth and detail, sufficient for digital archiving or sharing. The copy function is equally simple, operated directly from the tiltable front panel and its small but clear OLED display. You can make up to 99 copies at a time and resize from 25-400%.

Paper handling is a standout feature, thanks to the dual-input system. You get a 100-sheet front cassette for plain paper and a rear tray that can also hold up to 100 sheets, which is ideal for specialty media like photo paper or envelopes without having to swap out your main paper supply. The most celebrated feature, however, is the automatic 2-sided (duplex) printing. It works flawlessly, saving paper, time, and the manual effort of flipping pages. This is a premium feature often missing on printers at this price point. The only minor drawback in its physical design is the output tray; it feels a bit fragile and, as one user noted, you cannot easily load paper into the front cassette while the output tray is extended, which is a small but annoying design quirk.

What Other Users Are Saying

Synthesizing feedback from a wide range of users, a clear picture of the Canon PIXMA TS5150 All-in-One Printer emerges. On the positive side, many users are thrilled with the value proposition. One happy customer stated, “I really did not expect to be this good for a £60 printer… It’s everything I was looking for.” This sentiment is echoed by others who praise the easy mobile printing and straightforward installation, especially when using the app. A French user confirmed this, exclaiming she had it installed “in 15 min chrono and all by myself!” The convenience of printing directly from a smartphone is consistently highlighted as a major benefit.

However, the praise is balanced by significant criticism, centered almost entirely on ink consumption. One German user provided a detailed account, complaining that the printer “doesn’t miss an opportunity to perform an excessive cleaning for no reason.” They noted that after just two weeks and about 25 pages, both ink cartridges were nearly 50% empty, a finding that aligns perfectly with our own testing. Another recurring issue is the initial Wi-Fi setup, with one person describing it as “catastrophic,” costing them “hours of my life and a lot of nerves” before they finally found a solution. These reviews paint a portrait of a great-value printer for light use, but a potentially costly and frustrating one for more demanding users.

How Does the Canon PIXMA TS5150 Compare? Top Alternatives

No printer exists in a vacuum. To understand its place in the market, it’s essential to see how the Canon PIXMA TS5150 All-in-One Printer stacks up against key competitors, each serving a slightly different user need.

1. Canon PIXMA TS3451 White All-in-One Printer

As a sibling from the same PIXMA family, the TS3451 is best viewed as the ultra-budget, entry-level alternative. It offers the core functions of printing, scanning, and copying, also with wireless connectivity. However, it makes several compromises to achieve its lower price point. It typically lacks the automatic duplex printing found on the TS5150, has a more basic control panel, and may have slightly slower print speeds. Someone who prints very infrequently—perhaps only a few times a month—and is looking for the absolute lowest initial cost might prefer the TS3451. For anyone else, the added convenience of the TS5150’s duplex feature and dual paper trays is well worth the modest step up in price.

2. Brother MFC-L2835DW All-in-One Mono Laser Printer

This Brother model represents a completely different philosophy. As a monochrome laser printer, it forgoes colour printing entirely to focus on what it does best: churning out black-and-white documents quickly and cheaply. It’s built for the high-volume home office or small business that deals primarily with text. Its key advantages are significantly faster print speeds, a much lower cost-per-page thanks to high-yield toner cartridges, and robust business features like an Automatic Document Feeder (ADF) and fax capability. If your printing needs are 99% text-based and you print hundreds of pages a month, the Brother is a far more economical and efficient choice. If you ever need to print in colour, even occasionally, it’s not the right tool for the job.

3. Epson WorkForce Pro WF-4830 4-in-1 Printer Duplex ADF

The Epson WorkForce Pro WF-4830 is a direct step-up from the Canon PIXMA TS5150, aimed at a more serious home office or small business user. While still an inkjet, it’s built for higher productivity. It boasts much faster print speeds (25 ppm black, 12 ppm colour), a large 50-page Automatic Document Feeder for effortless multi-page scanning and copying, and a larger paper capacity. It uses individual ink cartridges, which can be more cost-effective as you only replace the colour that runs out. The person who finds the TS5150 a bit too slow or limited would be the ideal customer for the WF-4830. It carries a higher initial cost but delivers the performance and features to justify it for a more demanding workload.

Our Final Verdict: Is the Canon PIXMA TS5150 the Right Printer for You?

After extensive testing and analysis, our verdict on the Canon PIXMA TS5150 All-in-One Printer is clear: it is an excellent printer for a specific type of user. If you are a student, a small family, or a home user who prints occasionally and values convenience, connectivity, and a compact design above all else, this printer is a fantastic choice. The ability to print high-quality documents and decent photos effortlessly from your phone, combined with the paper-saving automatic duplex feature, offers incredible value at its low initial price point. It successfully bridges the gap between digital convenience and physical media for the modern, light-use household.

However, we must strongly caution anyone with moderate to heavy printing needs against it. The aggressive cleaning cycles lead to high ink consumption, and the resulting cost of proprietary cartridges will quickly negate the initial savings. For a busy home office or anyone printing dozens of pages per week, the total cost of ownership will be unpleasantly high. For that user, investing more upfront in a laser printer or an inkjet with an eco-tank system would be a far wiser financial decision. It’s a classic case of knowing your needs before you buy.

If you’ve decided the Canon PIXMA TS5150 All-in-One Printer is the right fit for your occasional printing needs, you can check its current price and purchase it here.