The Pixma MG2250 is the new entry-level product in a wave of multifunction printers recently released by Canon. The younger sibling to the Pixma MG2150, this model prints, scans and copies and is aimed at households with text and photo printing needs.
Remember, this is an entry-level printer so it doesn't have all that much in terms of hardware and functionality: no Wi-Fi, no Ethernet, no double-sided printing, no fax, no card reader and no touchscreen.
When you run out of ink, you can still "force" the machine to print by holding down the Stop/Reset button for a few seconds. However, only use this as a fallback solution because the quality will be considerably degraded.
Artistic effect in My Image Garden.
My Image Garden allows users to touch up, pivot, crop and reverse photos directly in the editing bin. As beginners will surely appreciate, edited images are automatically re-sized to 10 x 15 cm.
Creative Park widens the user's possibilities even further by providing cut-and-paste tools and templates for cards, calendars and artistic designs on card stock. Art lovers can choose from works of art that are ready to print directly from the machine. Unfortunately, the MG2250's print quality may disappoint (visible ink droplets and questionable colour accuracy...).
Another novel feature that Canon boasts is the ability to print photos straight from Facebook, but the Print Your Days app has strides to make in user-friendliness and just can't compete with HP's version featured on the Photosmart 7510 e-All-In-One.
In the end, it all smacks more of marketing strategy than real innovation.
As expected, the print speeds don't beat any records—by far. The MG2250's speeds are comparable to its low-end counterparts: 8 pages per minute (ppm) in colour and 6 ppm in B&W. These are nearly the opposite figures as the Epson Stylus SX420W (4 ppm in colour and 8 ppm in B&W). Canon's black ink always takes longer to dry.
The Pixma MG2250 prints photographs much faster than the Epson Stylus SX420W. The Canon takes 2 minutes and 44 seconds to print one A4-size photograph, compared to 4 whole minutes on the Epson Stylus. And in 10 x 15 cm, Canon holds the advantage with 1 minute and 5 seconds, compared to Epson's 1 minute and 24 seconds.
The MG2250 will do perfectly fine for all-text documents. The main flaw comes with graphical elements, as seen in the picture below, where the ink droplets are visible in areas of solid colouring. The overall effect is middling. The letters are visible and the shading is accurate, but the characters in the yellow legend bleed, making the whole look more like a rough draft.
The Delta E 94 colour difference graph below shows inaccuracies mainly in the blues and greys, which leave room for improvement—though that may not be a problem if you're only printing for personal use.
Same thing goes for photographs. The ink droplets are visible in places and the colours are fairly saturated. This was intentional on Canon's part, though not appreciated by all users (including us), to make the photographs look more flashy. In the end, the result is perfectly adequate for casual users who just want to print a family photo from time to time—it's even better in some ways than many more expensive office printers.
The white button on the hood of the machine prints B&W copies and the green button prints colour. It takes 20 seconds to copy a B&W document and 47 seconds for colour, which is twice as long as your average professional printer. Then again, it's neither the same price nor the same targeted consumer base as the MG2250. The copy quality will do for text only.
The MG2250 consumes less than 1 watt in sleep mode and 13 watts at work. That's about as low as it goes, at least among the printers we've tested. And it's quiet, too, maxing out at 48 dB(A).
Only two ink cartridges are required for this printer, one for black and one for all the other colours. And there are two cartridge sizes, standard and high yield. As always, the cost per page is cheaper with high-yield (XL) cartridges: 10.8 pence. That's slightly below average as inkjets go, and well below the 22.8 pence per page that the standard cartridges yield. XL cartridges have the added benefit of reducing maintenance.
ISO lifespan for text (XL cartridges)
ISO lifespan for text (standard size cartridges)
Hardware
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Canon has placed its bets on elegance and compact size. And the MG2250 is a safe bet for anyone who likes glossy black plastic and doesn't mind finger smudges by the dozen. It is indeed compact, at 44.9 x 30.4 x 15.2 cm and weighing 5 kg. The MG2250 was made to fit on a shelf, with ingoing and outgoing paper transiting through the front in Canon's FastFront design.
Remember, this is an entry-level printer so it doesn't have all that much in terms of hardware and functionality: no Wi-Fi, no Ethernet, no double-sided printing, no fax, no card reader and no touchscreen.
Paper goes in and comes out through the front
Ink cartridges also go in through the front
When you run out of ink, you can still "force" the machine to print by holding down the Stop/Reset button for a few seconds. However, only use this as a fallback solution because the quality will be considerably degraded.
Apps: My Image Garden
My Image Garden is a platform that merges the softwares Canon has developed for its Pixma line. For example, it features a dedicated space for browsing photo directories and editing images. Like with Photoshop, you can choose from a range of filters (soft focus, shrink, etc.) and automatic and manual tools for correcting contrast, brightness, sharpness, and so on. In the advanced settings you can set the colour tones and balance.Artistic effect in My Image Garden.
Creative Park widens the user's possibilities even further by providing cut-and-paste tools and templates for cards, calendars and artistic designs on card stock. Art lovers can choose from works of art that are ready to print directly from the machine. Unfortunately, the MG2250's print quality may disappoint (visible ink droplets and questionable colour accuracy...).
Another novel feature that Canon boasts is the ability to print photos straight from Facebook, but the Print Your Days app has strides to make in user-friendliness and just can't compete with HP's version featured on the Photosmart 7510 e-All-In-One.
In the end, it all smacks more of marketing strategy than real innovation.
Speeds
As expected, the print speeds don't beat any records—by far. The MG2250's speeds are comparable to its low-end counterparts: 8 pages per minute (ppm) in colour and 6 ppm in B&W. These are nearly the opposite figures as the Epson Stylus SX420W (4 ppm in colour and 8 ppm in B&W). Canon's black ink always takes longer to dry.The Pixma MG2250 prints photographs much faster than the Epson Stylus SX420W. The Canon takes 2 minutes and 44 seconds to print one A4-size photograph, compared to 4 whole minutes on the Epson Stylus. And in 10 x 15 cm, Canon holds the advantage with 1 minute and 5 seconds, compared to Epson's 1 minute and 24 seconds.
Quality
The MG2250 will do perfectly fine for all-text documents. The main flaw comes with graphical elements, as seen in the picture below, where the ink droplets are visible in areas of solid colouring. The overall effect is middling. The letters are visible and the shading is accurate, but the characters in the yellow legend bleed, making the whole look more like a rough draft.The Delta E 94 colour difference graph below shows inaccuracies mainly in the blues and greys, which leave room for improvement—though that may not be a problem if you're only printing for personal use.
Average Delta E 94 (colour difference): 12.1
The higher the bar, the less accurate the colour.
The average for printers we've tested is 7.
The higher the bar, the less accurate the colour.
The average for printers we've tested is 7.
Same thing goes for photographs. The ink droplets are visible in places and the colours are fairly saturated. This was intentional on Canon's part, though not appreciated by all users (including us), to make the photographs look more flashy. In the end, the result is perfectly adequate for casual users who just want to print a family photo from time to time—it's even better in some ways than many more expensive office printers.
Average Delta E 94 (colour difference): 5.1
Scanner & Copier
The white button on the hood of the machine prints B&W copies and the green button prints colour. It takes 20 seconds to copy a B&W document and 47 seconds for colour, which is twice as long as your average professional printer. Then again, it's neither the same price nor the same targeted consumer base as the MG2250. The copy quality will do for text only.Average Delta E 94 (colour difference): 7.7
Energy Consumption & Noise Levels
The MG2250 consumes less than 1 watt in sleep mode and 13 watts at work. That's about as low as it goes, at least among the printers we've tested. And it's quiet, too, maxing out at 48 dB(A).
Cost Per Page: 10.8 pence
Only two ink cartridges are required for this printer, one for black and one for all the other colours. And there are two cartridge sizes, standard and high yield. As always, the cost per page is cheaper with high-yield (XL) cartridges: 10.8 pence. That's slightly below average as inkjets go, and well below the 22.8 pence per page that the standard cartridges yield. XL cartridges have the added benefit of reducing maintenance.ISO lifespan for text (XL cartridges)
| Cartridge | Price (starting at) | ISO lifespan | Cost per page |
| PG-540XL (black) | £26 | 600 | 4.3 pence |
| CL-541XL (cyan) | £26 | 400 | 6.5 pence |
ISO lifespan for text (standard size cartridges)
Pros
- Price
- Low power use
- Quiet
- Elegant
- Compact
Cons
- No double-sided printing
- No Wi-Fi or Ethernet
- No card reader
- Screen is small and cursory
Conclusion
This is a good printer for a buyer on a budget. This is a low-cost printer, and you just shouldn't expect high speeds or beefed up hardware and features. For this type of product the Pixma MG2250 is a perfectly good buy.
OUR SCORE
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