Canon's Pixma MG4150 is one of many inkjet multifunction peripherals
in the PIXMA range. It's designed as an affordable but well-specified
device for home users; it has a comprehensive control panel with a
colour screen, can print on both sides of a sheet of paper
automatically, and can connect to a wireless home network.
The MG4150 looks and feels like a quality item. It's made from
glossy, firm black plastics, and most of the controls and covers feel
precisely engineered. One example of this is the scanner's hinges, which
telescope smoothly upwards by a couple of centimetres to accommodate
thicker originals without wobbling around.
Unlike some other models in the range, the MG4150 has only a single
paper tray. This is slung under the printer body and incorporates an
extending paper stop that's far longer than necessary for the input
stack. Instead, it's used to arrest paper as it overreaches the output
tray, which is a simple, short flap that folds up to form a cover when
the printer's not in use. It's an unusual arrangement, but it works well
in practice.
This MFP uses a button-based control system that uses a combined jog
wheel, selection button and rocker switch that we've seen on other
budget PIXMA MFPs. While it initially looks user-friendly, in practice
it's far from ideal. Things are complicated further by the use of three
dedicated selection buttons immediately under the screen.
At the top level of the user menu the jog wheel is used to move
between pages, each of which has three icons that line up with a button,
which is the only way to select them. Sub-menus generally present
multiple icons which you scroll between using the jog wheel and select
with its central button. This is a far more intuitive process, but the
options are sometimes listed vertically, sometimes horizontally, making
it rather inconsistent.
While the hardware controls can be frustrating, Canon's scan and
print interfaces are among the best, making this a simple MFP to operate
with a PC. It's fairly quick when printing black text on plain paper,
and at the default setting it's hard to tell the excellent results from a
laser printer's output.
Things are less convincing when printing graphics, however, with
colour and photo prints both rather slow. On plain paper we noticed
subtle horizontal banding, and the results were a touch faint. Colour
photos had less saturated, slightly more natural colours than we've seen
from other Canon inkjets, but those with sharp eyes could spot a tiny
amount of grain in their lighter regions.
While greyscale photocopies were a touch too dark, colour copies were
rather good. The quick scanner was also impressive, with an extremely
accurate focus, although it was a little disappointing when it came to
preserving shade details in darker photos.
With its reasonable running costs this could be a worthy budget MFP, but at the time of our review it cost more to buy than the
Canon Pixma MG5250, a more highly specified model in the same range. As such, it's hard to recommend just yet.
