Canon i-SENSYS LBP5050

I wanted to replace my now quite ancient Lexmark inkjet with a colour laser printer.

Printer Requirements
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I mainly use my printer for "office" type work but my wife, who is an avid card maker, also uses the printer for this hobby. We only occassionally print photographs, as I think it is now so inexpensive and easy to print photos at the supermarket that it's not worth the cost of the ink to print at home.

We did not want to spend a lot of money but we did want a good "workhorse" and also specifically one that would print onto cardstock (a requirement of my wife).

The Results
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The printer was relatively easy to install, but it is heavy and you do need to have two people to lift it out of the box. The set-up instructions were not as clear as they could be, sometimes it was hard to work out that they were now instructing you about the back of the printer, not the front, and also the instructions covered two different models and this was not immediately clear. Despite this, it took only about 10 mins of faffing about to have it set up and working.

I am very pleased with the print quality, and once the first page is printed (which does seem to take a while), the print speed is excellent. It is much quieter than my old inkjet. The printer also looks attractive and takes up a smaller footprint than my old inkjet.

Unfortunately, it only prints onto thin cardstock, not even medium weight card, so my wife is a little disappointed with this aspect and we'll keep our temperamental Lexmark for the times when she wants to print onto heavier weight card.

I have had to give ratings on Reliability and Manufacturer Support as it won't let me leave a review without doing so, but as this is a new printer, I haven't actually yet tested either of these.