A Cheap Printer With the Usual Catches
At around $79, the Canon PIXMA TS6520 looks like an absolute steal for a wireless color all-in-one printer. It scans, copies, and handles duplex printing without occupying half your desk. But like almost every budget inkjet sold today, the low entry price is an illusion designed to get Canon ink cartridges into your home. It handles basic everyday jobs reasonably well, yet you need to know what you are signing up for before hitting buy.
Compact Footprint and Usable Controls
The white chassis looks clean in a home office, and the 1.42-inch OLED screen delivers crisp basic status indicators without requiring you to decipher blinking LED lights. Paper handling is respectable for the size, offering automatic two-sided printing that prevents unnecessary paper waste. Before picking one up, you should check the current price on Amazon because discounts occasionally make this entry hardware even cheaper.
Print Quality Versus Ongoing Cartridge Costs
Text documents emerge crisp and legible, while color prints and light photo tasks look decent enough for school projects or family recipes. However, print speeds are modest, and the ink cartridges hold small volumes. If you print frequently, the cost of replacing black and color cartridges will exceed the cost of the printer itself within a few months, making heavy print jobs financially frustrating.
What the Reviews Show
With an average score of 4.2 out of 5 across roughly 1900 reviews, user sentiment is mostly positive but grounded in reality. Buyers routinely praise the straightforward wireless setup, sharp document quality, and compact size. On the flip side, critical feedback regularly centers on finicky Wi-Fi drops, sluggish print output, and the rapid depletion rate of the starter ink included in the box.
Who It Is For
This machine is built for students, light home users, and remote workers who print fewer than twenty pages a month and occasionally need to scan a document. If you print daily, run a home business, or expect commercial-grade speeds, buying a budget cartridge inkjet like this is a mistake, and you should look toward a refillable tank model instead.
Bottom Line
The Canon PIXMA TS6520 delivers solid basic utility for under eighty bucks, provided your monthly volume stays low. If you understand the ink economics and just want a simple all-in-one for occasional paperwork, see today’s price on Amazon.