Canon's Pixma MG4150 is an all-in-one model that's targeted at families and students. It costs around £120 online and offers printing, scanning and copying features.
It can automatically print on both sides of a page and also has Wi-Fi onboard, so you can print directly from smart phones and tablets, wherever you are.
Design and features
Like a lot of Canon's recent all-in-one models, this is quite a smart-looking printer. The combination of the polished black finish and nicely rounded corners help it look more attractive than many rival manufacturers' models.
The control panel down the right-hand side includes a flip-up 3-inch colour screen. This isn't a touchscreen, so instead you access the various menus using three buttons mounted directly beneath the display that correspond to the three icons that are on the screen at any one time.
You can scroll up and down through the blocks of icons using the directional pad controls mounted beneath these buttons. There are also dedicated controls for colour and black and white copying, so it's an easy model to use.
There's no PictBridge USB port for printing directly from your camera, but it does have an SD and Memory Card reader on the front to let you print snaps directly from sticks.
When it comes to paper handling and cartridge loading, it uses Canon's FastFront design. This means that unlike most cheap all-in-one models, it doesn't have a vertical loading paper tray at the back. Instead, you flip down a panel at the front to reveal the paper-in bay at the bottom and telescopic paper-out tray sitting just above it.
Installation
Installing the ink cartridges is pretty straightforward. You simply pull down another front flap and slot the cartridges directly into a bay on the right-hand side before securing them with a levered retainer. It's not as elegant a solution as the simple push-in designs that you get on some more expensive printers, but as there are only two cartridges to load, it's no hassle.
Installing the software on your PC is a breeze. You can choose between a USB or Wi-Fi connection. The Wi-Fi option opens up more possibilities. For example, if the printer is connected via Wi-Fi, you can also download free apps for iOS or Android phones and tablets to print directly from your mobile device. The printer also works with Canon and Google's cloud printing services, allowing you to send jobs to it from any Internet-connected PC or smart phone, anywhere in the world.
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