CANON PIXMA MG2950 REVIEW

These days it’s common for even the cheapest printers to support wireless networks. Canon’s Pixma MG2950 is a case in point–it’s an inkjet multifunction printer (MFP) which scans, prints and makes copies. Connect it to your home network and the whole family can make use of it from PCs, Macs and even smartphones and tablets, yet it costs less than $50. Although it offers all these functions, the Canon MG2950 is still basic in many ways.

Around the back you’ll find a simple paper input tray with no manual feed option, while the output tray is also a basic pull-out affair. With no raised edge or stopper, longer jobs can result in a disordered pile of printed pages.

The scanner’s lid is thin and flimsy, but its hinges allow it to close flat on thick documents, which should help guarantee decent scan quality. As is typical with Canon’s cheaper inkjets, the Canon MG2950 produces a wheezy noise when printing, but this is not overly loud or irritating. It’s not a quick printer, though, delivering five pages of text in 45 seconds, which works out at 6.7pages per minute (ppm). It’s even slower when printing color graphics (five pages in three minutes). While this relaxed pace is to be expected at this price, we’re less happy that the MG2950 doesn’t support borderless photos on 6x4in paper and that it won’t even print on A4 photo paper. At least plain-paper documents came out well, with crisp black text and punchy graphics.

Scanning over a Wi-Fi connection can be slow due to the large amount of data being sent, so we carried out our timed tests via USB. In this case, the Canon MG2950 was remarkably quick: capturing an A4 document at 150dots per inch (dpi) took just eight seconds. Scanning in more detail at 300dpi took only 14 seconds, while even capturing a photo at the maximum 1,200dpi setting took only 51 seconds. The scan results were impressive, with sharp focus and accurate color reproduction. With high-quality scans and prints, it’s not surprising that photo copies were also very good.

The MG2950’s two black and color ink tanks are available in two sizes (the XL version is better value for money). Using these, running costs work out at 8.4p per page of mixed text and graphics, which is reasonable, although the black portion of this is quite high at 3.4p. This isn’t a bad MFP for everyday jobs –with decent results and affordable costs, but we’d suggest spending a little more to get faster speeds and better photo printing.