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Canon PIXMA MG3250 review – Still a great budget buy

Our Rating :
Price when reviewed : £46.08
inc VAT

We weren't impressed by its Wi-Fi performance, but the Canon PIXMA MG3250 delivers great results

You might not expect to find a cheap inkjet MFP with wireless networking, but these days you can choose from several around the £50 mark, with this Canon PIXMA MG3250 available now for only £40 from Argos. The MG3250 is last year’s model, but things don’t move that quickly in the world of printers now.

It’s rather smart-looking, but it’s not especially highly specified, with only modest print speeds and scan resolutions. Its controls are fairly basic too, with no colour screen or memory card slots, suggesting that its Wi-Fi support comes at the expense of other useful features.

The Pixma MG3250’s single paper input tray is an unusual design that combines a 100-sheet input capacity with an extended area that catches printed pages as they spill over the short output flap. It sounds rudimentary, but works very well and allows the trays to fold up into the printer when not in use. It’s worth noting that the Pixma MG3250 also supports duplex (double-sided) printing, which is pretty good considering its price.

Canon has managed to pack quite a few copier functions into the MG3250’s push-button controls, which allow you to set up to 20 copies at a time, choose between A4 documents and A4 or 6x4in photos and even resize originals to fit the output size.

Canon PIXMA MG3250 Wi-Fi setup If your router doesn’t have WPS, use a temporary USB connection to join the MG3250 to a wireless network

As there’s no screen, this printer must be joined to a wireless network using WPS or a USB connection during setup. It’s a straightforward job, but once we’d installed the software we weren’t too impressed with the printer’s wireless performance. During our first round of print tests it was prone to pausing mid-job with the Wi-Fi indicator light flashing. We restarted our network router and the printer, after which its performance seemed to improve.

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Basic Specifications

Rating****
Maximum native print resolution4,800×1,200dpi
Max optical resolution1,200×2,400dpi
Output bit depth24-bit

Tested Print Speeds

Time for two 10x8in photos 1.09m 28s
Time for six 6x4in photos 1.017m 13s

Physical and Environmental

Standard printer interfacesUSB, 802.11b/g/n wireless
Optional printer interfacesnone
Size152x449x304mm
Weight5.5kg
Noise (in normal use)42.5dB(A)

Paper Handling

Maximum paper sizeA4/legal
Maximum paper weight300gsm
Standard paper inputs1
Standard paper input capacity100
Maximum paper inputs1
Maximum paper input capacity100
Duplex (code, cost if option)Yes

General

Printer technologythermal inkjet
Supported operating systemsWindows XP/Vista/7, Mac OS X 10.5.8 or later
Other inkjet features7-segment LED display
Other inkjet optionsnone

Buying Information

Price£46
Consumable parts and prices£15
Price per colour A4 page3.8p
Quoted life of supplied black cartridge180 pages (ISO/IEC 24712)
Quoted life of supplied colour cartridge(s)180 pages (ISO/IEC 24712)
Quoted life of supplied photo cartridge(s)N/A
Warrantyone year RTB
Supplierhttp://www.printerland.co.uk
Detailswww.canon.co.uk

Print Quality

Number of ink colours4
Number of ink cartridges2
Maximum number of ink colours4
Maximum number of cartridges2
Quoted photo durability30 years
Quoted photo durability sourceCanon

Tested Scan Speeds

Full scan area preview6s
A4 document at 150dpi12s
A4 document at 300dpi21s
6x4in photo at 600dpi25s
6x4in photo at 1200dpi1m 23s

Tested Copy Speeds

Time for single A4 mono copy 1.013s
Time for single A4 colour copy 1.027s
Time for 10 A4 copies using feeder 2.0N/A

Photo Features

PictBridge supportNo
Borderless printingA4
Direct (PC-less) printingNo
Supported memory cardsnone
CD printingNo

Copy Features

Maximum number of copies20

Fax Features

Max mono fax resolutionN/A
Fax memory (maximum mono pages)N/A