Canon Pixma TS8350
An affordable mid-range printer that produces topquality prints that are far beyond expectations
SCORE
PRICE £100 (£120 inc VAT) from argos.co.uk
Canon’s Pixma TS8350 has been a stalwart of the mid-range multifunction scene for a while, but the simple truth is that it hasn’t been bettered. There are some niggles, but the TL;DR summary is that this printer produces fantasticlooking prints, whether you’re churning out a report for work or a photo for pleasure.
We love the simplicity of Canon’s setup process. Head to ij.start.canon, enter the printer’s series name (the Pixma TS series in this example) and then choose the exact model from the list. You’re guided through every step of the process in as much or as little detail as you want, from removing the packing tape that stops the components rattling around in transit, to connecting the device via USB or Wi-Fi. It’s easy to skip through if you’re confident, yet there are plenty of supplementary videos and animations on hand for those who aren’t.
The printer itself is a sleek black box, with a shiny, textured finish that gives it a classy sheen. The front houses a luxurious 4.25in colour touchscreen, and for that extra je ne sais quoi it sits on a panel that tilts out to ensure it’s easy to see whether you’re sitting in front of the printer or standing above it. This makes operating the printer as slick as using a phone app.
It’s a shame, then, that Canon spoils this classy feel with flimsy build quality in places, with delicatefeeling fold-out trays being one obvious example. The Pixma TS8350 is sturdy enough if your office is a haven of peace and tranquillity, but if you need to share the printer with a mob of kids printing their schoolwork then you should start looking at sturdier models. Also, don’t leave your coffee in front of the printer when you set it up, because the first time you use it, the out tray comes shooting out from under the control panel. It’s easily powerful enough to push your mug onto the floor.
When it comes to the crunch, though, what makes this printer our pick of the inkjets is its print quality. It uses six cartridges, adding “photo blue” and a secondary larger black cartridge to the usual four base colours. The resulting prints are glorious. In photos, the colours are rich and bold, while black areas are deep black. Text is crisp, and its results in our mixed text and colour prints proved to be as good as any other printer in this test. Although we found it lost some of its depth when printing on both sides of a sheet, it’s a true multifunctional workhorse, coping brilliantly with every task we threw at it.
Considering this, the printing costs are surprisingly decent – as long as you opt for Canon’s XXL cartridges. With these, the main colour ink cartridges should print around 800 pages, with the black lasting 600. This works out to 3.4p per page for mono prints and 6.2p for colour. It’s pricier than the ink tank printers but isn’t far off what you’d get from Epson or HP’s subscription services; note you don’t get the ecological benefit of recycling your cartridge, as while Canon did offer a recycling service previously, it’s currently suspended.
The printer is relatively nippy. It takes 11 seconds to print its first page from the moment the Print button is pressed, which is third fastest in this group. Standard printing tasks sat around the middle of the group, but it was the fastest inkjet at printing our batch of 6 x 4in photos (while also producing some of the best-looking prints this month). It was similarly quick off the blocks when producing copies from its scanner, both in mono and colour.
With its superb colour prints and stylish curves, the Pixma TS8350 is clearly aimed at creative types, and it works with a good range of Canon’s interesting media consumables, from CD covers to vinyl nail art. Don’t be fooled, however, because this printer can cope as admirably with boring office jobs as it can with photos and entertaining craft projects. You need to look elsewhere if an automatic sheet feeder is essential to your copying jobs, but for a mid-priced printer this model is the pick of a colourful bunch.