Verdict

Pros

• Good print quality
• Extending hinges for book scans
• Fit to page function

Cons

• 12 second pause on each colour page
• Large footprint when open
• Esoteric LED display

Introduction

Can you get a worthwhile inkjet all-in-one for under £35? Canon’s offering is the Canon PIXMA MG2250, which looks uncannily like the Canon PIXMA MG3250 we reviewed a few weeks ago. The main differences are internal, as this printer doesn’t have duplex print or a wireless connection. Does this remove too much from the machine?

Canon PIXMA MG2250 Design

The Canon PIXMA MG2250 is designed for home use and provides basic print, scan and copy through USB connection. Canon has dropped most of the high-gloss black plastic, which is a relief for many, and instead offers a textured black case with simple lines and smoothly curved vertical edges.

To the left of the lightweight scanner lid, which is on extending hinges so you can easily scan books and magazines, is a deep, thin control panel, with a single, seven-segment LED display.

As well as showing a copy count, the display’s main function, it’s used to indicate a number of other status conditions, such as printer busy and cartridge cover open. Trouble is, there are quite a few displays and you need to refer to a crib sheet to work out what each one is trying to tell you.

The paper trays are arranged in Canon’s FastFront design, where the front cover folds down as an input tray and, behind that, a second tray folds down for output, with the paper stop provided by a swing-out arm at the front of the input tray. This rather convoluted arrangement gives the printer an unusually big footprint when it’s open for printing.

Canon PIXMA MG2250 Features

The software is a simplified set of the applications provided with the higher priced PIXMA MGs. There’s no need for any of the wireless support or Android app with the Canon PIXMA MG2250, but you still get My Image Garden, Creative Park Premium and Image Display.

The combined head and ink cartridges slide into their carriers, once you’ve folded down the internal cover. The colour cartridge is tri-colour, which makes for easy maintenance but can be wasteful of ink, if your colour use doesn’t match Canon’s expectation.

Canon PIXMA MG2250 Performance

Canon rates the Canon PIXMA MG2250 slightly slower than the Canon PIXMA MG3250, quoting 8.4ppm and 4.8ppm for black and colour print, against 9.2ppm and 5.0ppm. Under test, though, these figures weren’t completely borne out.

Our five-page black text test returned 6.5ppm and the black text and colour graphics test gave 1.7ppm, while the Canon PIXMA MG3250 produced 7.0ppm and 1.7ppm. So, while the black text speed is 0.5ppm slower on this machine, the colour speed is pretty much the same.

This is mainly because any difference in print speed is swamped by the 12s pause for ink drying on all but the first sheet of any colour print-out. Canon really needs to sort out the drying time of its inks – we don’t know of non-Canon inkjets that do this on single-sided prints.

The 20-page black text print gave 6.8ppm, while the MG3250’s speed was 6.7ppm, so slightly ahead, here. This printer was quite a bit slower at copying a page, though, taking 1:44 as opposed to 1:31. It took only two seconds more to print a 15 x 10 photo, which it completed in 1:41.

Black text print is sharp and dense, with only the occasional wobble as the head matches up lines. Colours are bright on plain paper and black text on colour shows little run. A colour copy comes through reasonably close to the original colours and a photo print punches well above its weight, showing smooth colour gradations, sharp detail and good colour fidelity.

Running costs are fair for a printer at this price. Using the XL, high yield cartridges gives a black page cost of 3.7p and a colour one of 7.9p. Although we’ve tested printers which give better costs, most of these have higher selling prices, too.

Canon PIXMA MG2250 Verdict

As an inexpensive all-in-one for the home or possibly student digs, the Canon PIXMA MG2250 is a good basic printer, copier and scanner. It has extras, but if you can manage without wireless and don’t need duplex print, you can save a few quid. Running costs are reasonable, when compared to other budget printers, though you do have to familiarise yourself with its idiosyncratic, seven-segment LED.

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