Canon Office Products MAXIFY MB2120 Wireless Color

Outstanding printer for its class!
I’m a college student that has to go through copious amounts of drafts and printing out various peripheral documents that go along with the territory (syllabus’s, schedules, notes, flash cards, etc.). So, it wouldn’t be long until I would find that I needed something that could scan and print double-sided and had a stronger wireless connection than my previous workhorse (Canon PIXMA 432). Enter the MAXIFY MB5100. This all-in-one (so far) has met and exceeded my expectations for what this printer can do, particularly within its price point and class.To give some background, I’ve had this thing plugged in and in use for two days, testing out everything that I put into this review and can vouch for the following:The good:Compared to what I was running before, this thing is FAST! What would have normally taken approximately 10 minutes to print on my last rig, takes only 10 seconds with this one. I can’t even begin to tell you what this does for my precious time. As for quality, it is comparable to the last printer and I feel as though that the text might even seem a little sharper. This could be psychological though, seeing as how I just bought it. Take that part of the review with a grain salt.The unboxing was fairly easy and the packaging kept the printer nice and cozy through the rough handling of the shipping people. At this point, make sure that you follow the directions when setting it up and connecting to your wireless. This is important and will touch base on this later in the review.Double-sided printing and scanning? It practically sells itself. For its cost, it’s kind of hard to find something that can do this that is comparable. I’m currently writing this after finishing up a quarter in Business 101. I had four to five chapters from the online book that I wanted to print out and keep for future reference and this printer delivered with efficiency and ease. Again, saving money on paper and time is going to make a huge difference for me and I couldn’t be happier. The printer was also fairly economical with the ink seeing as how the chapters in this book were slightly picture-intensive and may have used up more color than I would have liked.The scanning was a breeze and didn’t give me any hiccups. Using a Mac and the Preview program to do so, was issue-free and fast. Seems as though Canon has provided better drivers these days to support the ease of use.Can I just say that I am totally digging on the back lit color touchscreen display? It seems like such a simple amenity, but it is something that I have lacked. Since I keep my printer resides in a part of the room that is dimly lit, I would generally have to bring a flashlight whenever I had to troubleshoot or ensure that there were no error codes. Problem solved!Things to watch out for:Getting back to setup, it pays to make sure you read and understand the manual to know exactly where you are and what you are doing in the process. If you are using the wireless setup option like I did, it will involve using your smartphone for the hookup and there are some certain things you should know regarding. For instance, it will ask you for connecting up to your Wi-Fi but what it basically means initially is hooking up directly to your smartphone first. That being said, if you have multiple SSIDs running off your Wi-Fi, make sure that you marry this printer up to the [SSID] that you want to use to make it consistent when you add your printer to other computers/tablets you might have. Seems like the Getting Started manual doesn’t go far enough into this part of the process. After that though, the setup should be fairly intuitive to your average computer user. To reiterate, I used the wireless connection option. There is a USB and ethernet connection available to you if that is your preferred method.Play around with this printer at first and get to know it. Its full chock full of features that I have yet to discover/implement at this point. For a college student, it’s got all the functionality that you could ever need. I did try to scan directly to email last night and it appears as though you need to sign on to a proprietary cloud service in order to do so. I haven’t gotten that far yet but intended to post an update review when I do. I also noted that you can direct link OneNote, Google and other popular accounts directly on the printer itself.Get familiar with the settings, specifically as it pertains to the powersaver options. After a considerable amount of time, the printer will power down and when you go to print, it will show that it is disconnected. A minor inconvenience, but one that was fairly noticeable on the default settings. That said, it’s easy to change and go about your business.Overall, I am very pleased with what I received and would recommend this to anyone that is a student, runs a small business, or works from home. Space-wise it doesn’t take up a huge footprint and its functionality is second to none. Some minor things I wished were fixed or made easier, but it would be exceptionally nitpicking. For those of you that are curious to the ink-smudging complaints, I have not experienced this as of yet nor have I had problems with the ADF taking more than one sheet at a time. I believe that it is not a pervasive problem across the product line and, should you encounter it, bring in for service or return it if you are in the warranty window.Cheers!

JUST SAY NO
The worst printer I have ever owned. I operate a small business and consider myself relatively proficient with minor tech issues and this thing has probably taken years off my life with the amount of stress its caused with jobs that should take 20 seconds. Save yourself and do not buy this useless piece of plastic. 10-15 minutes of noisy waiting MAYBE gets you one printed sheet, on a good day. A huge waste of money. Buyer beware.