Canon Maxify MB2155 Printer Review

This month we asked Mick Woods, Manager of our Harrogate branch, to review a printer for us. Here Mick takes an in-depth look at one of the new Canon Maxify range of inkjet printers, the MB2155.

Mick’s Review

I have chosen the MB2155 as it is an excellent colour printer ideally suited for a busy home, or small office. It has low running costs, loads of functions, it's great for families with kids printing lots of homework (like mine), and would be right at home in any small business looking to minimise print costs without compromising on quality. Overall this is a fantastic all-round printer.

The Good

• Good print quality
• Low cost
• Two-sided printing
• Wireless & AirPrint
• Free 3 Year Warranty with Canon if you buy before December 2017

The Bad

• Single side scanning only
• Does not print borderless

Features

Like all printers in the Maxify range, the MB2155 has all the important functionality you would expect from a printer of this calibre. I found it incredibly easy to setup, and the wireless and Airprint features were particularly useful for the kids when printing homework sheets from the school iPad:

• Wireless
• AirPrint, Google Cloud Print & Canon Print
• Ethernet & USB Connectivity
• 50-sheet Automatic Document Feeder
• Duplex (two-sided printing)
• 250-sheet paper tray
• 2.5" colour screen

Quality and Usability

Once set up, I printed several family photos and found it produced impressive colour print with colours looking rich and deep across the spectrum. This is better than most inkjet printers of a similar size, but then Canon printers have always stood out in this area.

The Canon print app is free, and I found it easy to use. The kids had zero problems, and even had it up and running quicker than me. The app offers a good range of print and scan options which make a nice touch.

Even on plain paper, the MB2155 prints colour in excellent quality using the Cartridge World cartridges that we tested it with. The colours were vivid, bright and clear. I also found that the colour copy quality is particularly good, with very little difference from the original I printed to use as a test.

This printer isn't the fastest in the world, inkjet printers generally aren't quite as fast as their laser counterparts, but this doesn't mean it's a slow-coach, far from it. The MB2155 spits out around 13 pages per-minute on short print jobs (up to 8 pages). If you typically print in larger batches, say a 25-page document, you'll be getting closer to 19 pages per-minute. It's also worth noting that the duplex functionality didn't slow the printer down by very much, averaging between 10-11 pages per-minute on duplex printing; pretty good going.

As an office machine the print quality is superb. I found text printing was more than good enough, although not quite as crisp as a laser printer using smaller font sizes, but aside from that everything looks sharp and clear; no complaints from the eldest printing her English essay.

Colour prints are where the MB2155 really stands out. With excellent graphic reproduction, it’s an ideal printer for promotional leaflets and handout printing. A key benefit that this printer has over laser colour printers is that handouts typically tend to appear faded when laser-printed. Fading is no issue here though, the MB2155 can print page after page of bold and vibrant graphics.

Running costs

The Canon MB2155 printer takes a mix of four coloured cartridges; one each of black, cyan, magenta and yellow. 1,200 pages on the black and between 900-1,000 pages for each of the three colours. The cartridges are very easy to install in the printer.

Using the Canon originals works out at approximately 1.2p per-page when purchasing a multipack, which covers full colour printing across all four inks, excellent value. You can save even more money if you switch to using our excellent compatible inks for the MB2155. These come in at 1.1p per-page, which is amazingly good value for the quality you'll enjoy.

Mick's Verdict

I would recommend this Canon printer if you’re looking for a well-equipped small or home office inkjet all-in-one to serve your business or busy family who always need to print. As always, your choice will depend on your specific needs, but for me the Canon Maxify MB2155 is a fantastic all-in-one, ticks all the right boxes and represents great value at £112 inc. VAT.

Hope you enjoyed reading my review! As a thank you, if you purchase this printer before the end of June 2017 you can get an extra 5% off by using the code MICK5 at checkout.