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  • Introduction

  • Design

  • In Use

  • Performance

  • Conclusion

  • Color Performance

  • Detail

  • Print Speed

  • Introduction
  • Design
  • In Use
  • Performance
  • Conclusion
  • Color Performance
  • Detail
  • Print Speed

Introduction

If you're on the fence about what kind of printer to buy, this one bridges the gap between "just prints photos" and general family use fairly well. There are a range of options not commonly found on comparably-priced printers that the MG5420 brings to the table, and considering the performance for the price, you can count on stretching your dollar quite far. This is especially good if you're looking at Canon's high-end printers, but don't have the cash or the conviction to spend big.

Design

If you're looking for a small printer because you have space issues on a cluttered desk, you may want to look elsewhere. It's not that the printer is a huge, ink-spewing monster, but its profile is actually a bit unwieldy when you consider that all the space freed up by having a low profile is lost in how wide it is. For those of you at home, definitely measure out to see if your desk can accommodate something that measures 18.0" x 14.6" x 5.9", and weighs 17.5lbs.

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It has a range of networking options that will allow you to print pictures and other files from your smartphone or tablet.

Aside from the general girth of the unit, its functional features are quite handy. Not only does it perform all the typical functions of a multifunction printer—print, scan, copy—but it also can print on things like CDs and DVDs if you elect to, and it has a range of networking options that will allow you to print pictures and other files over a wireless network or the internet from your smartphone or tablet.

While the printer's drivers disc comes with quite a few bundled software options, you can elect not to install them. However, I recommend installing the user's manual, Adobe RGB color profile, and XPS drivers at the very least. These will help you adequately support your day-to-day options, and if you want to do some of the more unusual print jobs, the drivers disc will always be there.

In Use

Opening any printer's box can be a bit daunting, but there should be no surprises with the {{ products(undefined).name }}. Aside from the large amount of plastic waste you'll be greeted with, the printer is neatly packed into the box with all the items you'll need to get going. If you prefer setup via USB, you will need a type A to type B USB cable, however.

Once you're done hunting and removing tape and plastic, setup is fairly straight-forward from there—if you're setting up over the network, you can enter your password in using the capacitive touch controls on the printer, and the animation will guide you through each step. Just be sure not to throw away the test paper (you'll need that at the last step) and you'll be printing photos in under half an hour.

You'll find that there are very few idiosyncrasies to deal with.

If you've installed the drivers, you'll find that there are very few idiosyncrasies to deal with—print options are effectively handled on Mac and PC if your software supports them, and the biggest frustration is honestly the print speed. I do need to warn you: put your photo paper in the load tray face down, lest you get ink on the printer's rollers, which are a huge pain to clean.

Perhaps one of the best things about this printer is the ink managament, though that's true of many single-ink cartridge printers out there. Because there's only one ink to a cartridge, replacing ink means only grabbing the color you need: not throwing away the whole cartridge when cyan runs out and leaves you with gross-looking photos. You can easily track ink levels on the printer's screen, and when it is time to change an ink cartridge, all you have to do is pop open the hood of the printer (it's fun to think of it that way, at least), and the screen will tell you how to do the rest. It's very stress-free.

Performance

Considering that this is a more mid-range printer, it actually makes this kind of performance surprisingly good. To wit, you're getting more than what you pay for in terms of color performance, color gamut, and detail—this printer offers somewhat comparable print performance to its bigger brother, the MG6320, and outperforms it in color gamut. All this does come at a tradeoff of print speed, however.

The dropoff in quality from "Best" to "Fast" is not as big as you'd expect

That's not to say that the print speed is bad—it's not. However, if you need high-quality documents in a hurry, it takes almost a full minute per page for color prints. I do want to point out that the dropoff in quality from "Best" to "Fast" is not as big as you'd expect, and in return, you can rip off 25 pages in just over 3 minutes if you're late for a meeting or class. Detail in gradients is severely impacted, however.

If you need to print photos, this printer takes its time, but is more reasonable than some on best quality. Larger prints will take longer than smaller ones, obviously, but it's definitely faster and more convenient than going to a one-hour photo. A big plus if you want to keep your photos in your own hands, and not passing through others' hands.

Conclusion

I would go so far as to say that this printer is a solid bet for someone who needs something that works the way you ask it, when you ask it, and how you ask it. It doesn't hurt that the pricetag is only $149.99—even though it might be a bit more than what your average spender is looking to plunk down on a printer, the value of buying a good, consistent, and efficient printer is high.

Sure, it's not flashy, and what printer is nowadays? But a printer that you don't think too much about is valuable when you rely on paper copies of documents and photos. How many times have you wished death and destruction upon a printer of yours, or fought the temptation to take it out back and "relieve stress" with any manner of blunt objects? There's a reason why we laugh at the iconic scene from Office Space.

Keep in mind that Canon is one of the biggest players left in the printer scene, so chances are high that you won't have to suffer the annoyance of not being able to find the correct ink in a few years. If you're looking for a printer that can handle just about anything you ask of it (within reason), and is about as stress-free as it gets in the printer world, the MG5420 is a smart purchase.

Color Performance

In short, the color performance of the {{ products(undefined).name }} is surprisingly good for its price point. Not only does it sport a relatively wide color gamut, but its color accuracy is passable for printers even a bit more expensive.

The average measure of color error is 7.3 ∆E

It does have some errors more visible than others, and even though the average measure of error is 7.3 ∆E, it struggles a bit more with bluish green (12.7∆E), purplish blue (11.8∆E), and magenta (11.2∆E) a little more than it does with other colors. That's not terribly surprising, and it's really not as bad as it sounds—while it may be ever-so-slightly visible to some, chances are good you won't really notice it too much.

The bright spot here is the gamut: sitting at 55.82% of the Adobe RGB color gamut, this printer can reproduce a huge range of colors not normally within reach of an inkjet printer.

Detail

Both of the latest printers in Canon's MGxx20 line actually do very well with detail, and the MG5420 is no different— not only does it handle fine lines very well, but sharp high-contrast edges are also fairly well-produced, though there is some blurring of edges there.

Our scans are very, very tiny (think, less than a square inch, and .1" x .1" respectively), so tiny errors in the picture aren't going to show up to the naked eye that well. Really, we look for glaring issues, and aside from the blurred edges in the small scan, there were none with the MG5420. While that's certainly impressive, it's even tougher for a printer to make an adequate gradient, which the MG5420 handles famously. You will notice a little bit of color banding in the darker blues, but overall the detail in shadows and gradients is quite good.

So what makes a high level of detail in color possible? Much like it is on televisions, good contrast goes a long way to making your images pop. Because the MG5420 measured with a "might as well be perfect" black measure (DMax) of 2.95, the limiting factors on making your printed photos' contrast is the paper you use, and ink technology—not the printer.

In this day and age speed is king, but as with most things, if you want the best quality you'll have to wait for it. Moving at a very slow pace of 2.42 seconds per square inch of photo space on Best quality, you'll probably get annoyed if you have a large print job and somewhere to be. However, the quality delivered is worth the wait.

Printing documents is also extremely slow on the highest print quality: by taking 23 minutes, 24 seconds to print a 25 page document, the MG5420 will leave you waiting for a page every 56.16 seconds. Yikes. However, all hope is not lost: if you absolutely need a document right now, lowering the print quality to "fast" will enable your MG5420 to blast out that same 25-page document in only 3 minutes, 9 seconds. Sure, you lose some of the quality, but this printer seems to mitigate that problem fairly well.

Meet the tester

Chris Thomas

Chris Thomas

Staff Writer, Imaging

@cthomas8888

A seasoned writer and professional photographer, Chris reviews cameras, headphones, smartphones, laptops, and lenses. Educated in Political Science and Linguistics, Chris can often be found building a robot army, snowboarding, or getting ink.

See all of Chris Thomas's reviews

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