Anybody establishing a small enterprise, or seeking to package out a house workplace, is sort of spoiled for selection on the subject of multifunction peripherals (MFPs). Among the many common gaggle of inkjets and lasers, there is a rising variety of business-focused inkjets with refillable ink tanks, and so they’re getting more and more reasonably priced.
Take Canon’s MAXIFY GX2050, a four-in-one multifunction costing £300 or so. For that, you get wired and wi-fi networking, a touchscreen, a 250-sheet paper tray, and a scanner with a 35-sheet computerized doc feeder (ADF). And if that does not strike you as nice worth, think about that it additionally arrives with a full set of ink bottles.
Like different refillable printers, the GX2050 prices a bit extra up-front than comparable cartridge-based inkjets. However with ongoing working prices of round 1p per web page (ex VAT), there is a good probability it will show cheaper to personal in the long term. There’s an opportunity it is higher worth out of the field – with one other printer you’d doubtless spend round £200 on cartridges or toners to match the two,500 pages or so you will get from the GX2050’s in-box ink.
You will solely see the worth from a refillable printer, although, if it lasts lengthy sufficient so that you can profit from the included ink and decrease working prices. Canon specifies an honest 27,000-page most obligation cycle for the GX2050, and backs that up with a three-year onsite guarantee improve supplied you register inside 30 days of buy.
So, the GX2050 appears to be like like good worth, but it surely does miss a few tips. Most clearly there’s just one paper enter, so customers may must unload it to print on totally different media. And whereas the printer is duplex (double-sided), the ADF cannot flip pages to seize each side in a single operation. That is a disgrace because it makes jobs like a full-duplex multi-page photocopy extra of a problem.
This printer’s coloration touchscreen management panel is welcome, particularly because it runs a user-friendly menu, however we want its hinges had been a bit stiffer – we discovered it stored folding again once we tapped it. You possibly can join this MFP to cloud companies like Google Drive to make prints or retailer scans, however it’s kind of odd that there isn’t any USB host port, which might be helpful for direct prints and scans. It could even be useful for maintaining jobs confidential in a small workplace that handles a number of accounts or spans a number of groups.
Canon MAXIFY GX2050 assessment: Organising
In case you’re not aware of Canon’s MegaTank-branded refillable inkjets, permit us to deliver you up to the mark. Like many of the vary, the GX2050 arrives with out ink and print heads. You match the latter first, after which you upend the provided ink bottles into the related tank – there’s bodily keying to stop you from misfuelling it. With this achieved you will must twiddle your thumbs whereas the printer primes the ink system, after which you can be a part of it to a wi-fi community and get on with putting in software program.
Though the GX2050 comes with full-sized bottles, you will lose a few of their 3,000-page capability to the one-time priming course of. Replacements value round £8 every, so this printer’s ongoing prices are within the area of 1p (ex VAT) per web page. There are even cheaper refillable inkjets, however that is nonetheless far lower than any comparable lasers or cartridge inkjets.
It is a squat MFP, but it surely’s hardly the most effective wanting due to a clumsy step between the printer base and the marginally inset scanner unit. And whereas we’re grumbling, it is a disgrace Canon hasn’t copied HP’s lipless scanner platens – it may be far more of a fiddle to retrieve authentic paperwork off scanners like this one with a raised encompass.
Bodily the MAXIFY GX2050 is not prone to pose any issues. It weighs solely eight kilos and is compact sufficient to suit on most desktops or shelving models. You will want clearance above it as a way to raise the scanner lid or use the ADF, however there are not any cooling vents or hatches to fret about on both facet.
Canon MAXIFY GX2050 assessment: Printing, scanning and copying
In case you’re after a screaming-fast printer for a really busy workplace, look elsewhere. The GX2050 is just rated at 15 pages per minute (ppm) in black and 10ppm in coloration, and it did not match that in our assessments. It was moderately fast for its class when printing textual content, producing a primary web page in 13 seconds, and happening to 13.4ppm over 25 pages. It truly beat Canon’s said pace over a 50-page doc, reaching a good 15.8ppm, but it surely’s simple to search out faster printers.
A lot the identical was true over our coloration assessments, the place the GX2050 struggled to a better of simply 5.3ppm when printing a easy web page of textual content and graphics. It delivered our extra demanding 24-page doc at 4.8ppm which, whereas not embarrassing, is actually not class-leading.
This printer makes use of pigment-based inks. These are good on plain paper the place they provide bolder prints with much less bleeding and working, however they have a tendency to sit down up on the floor of shiny picture papers, resulting in much less vibrancy and gloss than you get with dye inks. The GX2050 cannot make borderless prints, but it surely delivered every 6x4in (10x15cm) picture in a bit greater than a minute and accomplished an A4 print in two and a half minutes.
This MFP put in a extra convincing efficiency when scanning. It accomplished a preview in 9 seconds and wanted simply 14 seconds to seize an A4 doc at 150 dots per inch (dpi). It scanned a 6x4in picture at 600dpi in 30 seconds, needing 93 seconds for a similar job at a most 1,200dpi.
Inkjets aren’t normally the quickest copiers, however the GX2050 was fairly sprightly in black, finishing a single web page in simply 10 seconds, and 10 pages in a minute and a half. It wanted 20 seconds for one coloration web page, and a bit over two minutes to repeat 10 pages from the ADF.
Our outcomes from the MAXIFY GX2050 had been one thing of a combined bag. It made sturdy photocopies that had been notably nicely uncovered – avoiding the widespread failing of shedding element from darkly shaded areas. Mono copies had been wonderful, whereas the colours had been moderately correct with none noticeable bias. This multifunction’s scans had been deeply spectacular, too. Workplace paperwork had been sharp and properly uncovered, with clear textual content and detailed graphical replica. However even high-resolution picture scans had been spectacular, revealing a superb dynamic vary that captured the utmost element from an authentic.
Our check prints had been only a bit disappointing. We had been happy with the GX2050’s darkish black textual content, however the graphics suffered from a level of banding. This was most noticeable in areas of strong coloration fill and in coloration progressions akin to you might need in a slide deck background. We could not spot any distinction between simplex and duplex print high quality, nonetheless – all coloration prints had been moderately daring if a contact undersaturated.
The GX2050 is probably not arrange for shiny prints, but it surely’ll provide you with first rate matte pictures on suitably coated paper. We notably preferred its detailed black and white picture prints, particularly as they did not endure from the colour solid you usually get from a four-color inkjet.
Canon MAXIFY GX2050 assessment: Is it value it?
This is not an costly machine by the requirements of refillable inkjets and, despite the fact that you do not get an unlimited provide of ink within the field, it ought to work out low cost to personal. It isn’t badly specified, both, though with no USB host port or duplex scanner it is not fairly as versatile as we might like. It is actually not in an excessive amount of of a rush, both, though it is in all probability quick sufficient for the house and micro workplaces during which it is prone to be pressed into service.
For many customers, the GX2050 will doubtless produce greater than ok outcomes. It is actually an excellent scanner and copier, whereas its prints aren’t unhealthy. It is a good multifunction, then, but it surely simply does not fairly do sufficient for us to suggest it unreservedly.
Canon MAXIFY GX2050 specs
| Know-how | Thermal inkjet |
| Most print decision | 600×1,200dpi |
| Dimensions (HWD) | 225x374x380mm |
| Weight | 8.1kg |
| Most print measurement | A4 |
| Guarantee | Three years (with registration) |
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