Canon Pixma MG6250 review

£137
Price when reviewed

We’ve grown accustomed to a Pixma topping our A-List, and while for one that honour is currently held by HP, it depends on your needs. For features, efficiency and work documents, the HP Officejet Pro 8500A Plus is an unparalleled choice – but there’s still nothing that can touch Canon when it comes to consumer printing.

Take its photo output, for example. The MG6250 produces photos of unequalled quality and sharpness, with the extra dye-based photo black and grey inks contributing to rich colours, deep blacks and beautifully neutral monochrome prints. And it does all this remarkably quickly: a 6 x 4in best quality photo took only 44 seconds in our tests, with an A4 photo taking a minute longer.

Canon Pixma MG6250

Text is thicker than that produced by the HP, but its edges are just as defined and readable. Images and diagrams are bold, clear and with solid colour, making the MG6250 one of the best-quality printers we’ve tested. And its document speeds of 11.5ppm in mono and 6.1ppm in colour are well above average. In fact, when you include the excellent copy speeds and scan times, the MG6250 is an incredibly quick all-round device.

Where it falls down slightly is the quality of the scanner, which is good but not stellar. Colours are captured accurately, but scans are gloomy and fail to come close to the sharpness of those produced by the HP. That’s also why the MG6250’s copies aren’t as good as its prints: text was fine, but it produced a test photo entirely lacking the punch of the original.

It also isn’t a particularly cheap printer to run, but that’s the price you pay for that photo quality. With six inks to replace, costs work out at 2.9p for an A4 mono page and 8.7p for colour – although a 6 x 4in photo cost of 14.5p isn’t bad at all considering the quality.

Canon Pixma MG6250

The MG6250 can print directly to CDs via a supplied adapter, and up to 300gsm specialist media in its rear tray, while the main tray holds a healthy 150 sheets. And it can do all of this over wireless or a standard USB connection. The interface is a mix of a 3in screen and separate touch buttons that glow into life as required. They don’t give any tactile feedback, so navigating menus can feel odd, but menus are comprehensive and it’s very easy to get used to.

All of which makes the Canon Pixma MG6250 a fine all-round consumer all-in-one. Documents and photos arrive quickly and at top quality, and the whole package is a pleasure to use. Photo enthusiasts should look nowhere else.

Details

Speed rating 6

Basic Specifications

Colour? yes
Resolution printer final 9600 x 2400dpi
Integrated TFT screen? yes
Maximum paper size A4
Duplex function yes

Running costs

Cost per A4 mono page 2.9p
Cost per A4 colour page 8.7p
Inkjet technology Thermal
Ink type Dye-based black & colour, pigment-based black

Power and noise

Dimensions 470 x 367 x 173mm (WDH)

Copier Specification

Fax? no
Fax speed N/A
Fax page memory N/A

Performance tests

6x4in photo print time 44s
A4 photo print time 1min 44s
Mono print speed (measured) 11.5ppm
Colour print speed 6.1ppm

Media Handling

Borderless printing? yes
CD/DVD printing? yes
Input tray capacity 150 sheets

Connectivity

USB connection? yes
Ethernet connection? yes
Bluetooth connection? no
PictBridge port? yes

Flash media

SD card reader yes
Compact Flash reader yes
Memory Stick reader yes
xD-card reader no
USB flash drive support? yes
Other memory media support MMC

OS Support

Operating system Windows 7 supported? yes
Operating system Windows Vista supported? yes
Operating system Windows XP supported? yes
Operating system Windows 2000 supported? no
Operating system Windows 98SE supported? no
Other operating system support OS X 10.4.11+
Software supplied Canon MP Navigator EX, Easy PhotoPrint EX

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