Verdict
If you want to impress large photos , but do n’t desire the eminent ink price , the Canon PIXMA G550 inkjet printing machine might be for you . Although it ca n’t scan or copy , its large ink tanks mean you ’ll be spending less time worry about refills or expensive ink . This printer uses six colors to assist produce more elaborated and colourful prints . Although it ’s not cheap , the results are generally worth it .
Pros
Cons
Key Features
Introduction
Canon ’s PIXMA G550 is an inkjet printer , aimed at user who desire to print great picture .
It does n’t have a image scanner , so you ca n’t scan or copy , but it does have six inks , let it produce more accurate colour and black and blank photos . Best of all it uses cheaper bottled ink , so prints cost less and there ’s less plastic waste .
But does it propose enough quality to make ourBest Printerlist ? Here are my thoughts .
Design and features
For the most part , the Canon PIXMA G550 is a simple printer . It ’s a single - function equipment , which means it ca n’t assist you scan or copy images . or else , it ’s built just for printing , plump for up to A4 or Legal paper . At the back it has a exclusive paper tray , at the front a mere output signal tray , and there ’s no support for automatic double - sided ( semidetached house ) printing .
The PIXMA G550 does have a dim-witted mono showing , though , together with a smattering of buttons to aid you configure and operate its core feature . Importantly , this printing machine supports Wi - Fi web , appropriate you to portion out it easily across your household .
It does n’t vocalize particularly impressive , but calculate again and you might spot the feature film that set this printing machine aside . colorful ink cooler in the front panel unveil that it ’s one of Canon ’s Megatank range of refillable inkjets . Ink comes in bottles , lasts for eld and is cheap to exchange . And alternatively of the typical four - ink arrangement of black , cyan , magenta and chickenhearted , this printer adds reddish and grey inks to produce a six - ink setup .
On plain paper you ’re improbable to recognise the difference , but the G550 is plan to save great photos . The spare Lady Jane Grey ink helps give it fine shading control , and enhances the direct contrast of black and white image , while the red extend the chain of colours it can multiply .
This unusual arrangement does make go down up the Canon PIXMA G550 a little more involved . You bulge by fitting its photographic print heads , which look much like a distich of empty cartridges , then set about filling its six large tanks from the bottles in the box . The tankful are spaced in such a way that you could leave three bottles draining at a time , meaning the unconscious process only takes a twain of minutes .
Canon say that a full curing of ink bottleful will last for 3700 black pageboy , or 8000 colour pages . When the supplied ink operate out , you ’ll pay around £ 11 for replacement bottles , giving the G550 running costs of about 0.3p per blackened page , or a centime in colour .
While that ’s some agency off the low-down we ’ve see in this social class , it ’s still far cheaper than any magazine - free-base eq . Canon also say a set of bottleful will print 3800 10x15 atomic number 96 colour photos , which works out at as small as 1.7p per snap . Even once you factor in picture paper , it ’s hard to impress photos for less .
It ’s also worth mentioning that publish similar volumes with a conventional home inkjet would typically sting through 10 - 20 full sets of ink – perhaps somewhere in the neighborhood of 100 cartridge . While some pickup are refill and re - used , in most cases they end up in landfill , so choosing a tank - based printer can help cut down significantly on moldable wastefulness .
Print speed and quality
The first thing to establish is that the Canon PIXMA G550 is not a particularly fast printer . It demand 31 seconds to print a first page of black text edition , and needed one minute and 41 seconds to finish a five - page job – a pace of just three pages per minute ( 3ppm ) . It get by exactly the same speed on our long , 20 - Thomas Nelson Page text printing examination , although it was no doubt obstruct by a 16 - secondment housekeeping suspension during the job .
The very fast pace I timed was 3.5ppm on a 25 - pageboy textual matter test : that ’s the slowest black text result I ’ve measure in more than five old age .
The G550 is also ho-hum to print colour graphics on sheer newspaper publisher , although its 2.4ppm on our five - varlet psychometric test is n’t such an outlier : I ’ve tested plenty of inkjets that fell below 3.0ppm here .
We screen inkjet photo quality at the best usable setting , at which they incline to be on the slow side . Sure enough , the Canon PIXMA G550 took six minutes and 44 endorsement to print a single borderless A4 exposure , and it needed nearly two and a half minutes for every borderless 10x15 cm lose it .
All this would be for nothing if this printer could n’t save the goods , but the results were generally very good . On plain newspaper , black text was reasonably nipping and dark , despite the use of dyestuff - ground inks , which are at their good on photograph .
Similarly , colour graphics were passably punchy , although they lack the impact of the proficient pigment ink . I was particularly impress by this printer ’s ability to reproduce placid shade transitions across the background of our intro slew . Although they were let down somewhat by very subtle horizontal banding , it ’s not something that would bother the distinctive exploiter .
Given that it ’s really optimised for photograph printing process , it ’s no surprise to line up this pressman delivers extremely good results . With both black and grey inks to play with , it produced a neutral and exceptionally elaborate dim and white print , about as good as any I ’ve see from a home printer .
I was a little less bowl over with colour prints , however . These had Canon ’s stylemark warm tone , which can occasionally splatter over into extremely saturated colours . It works bright on some subjects , such as our bowl of yield print , but it can lead to overly warm tincture in others , especially when it comes to pelt . Colour prints also lacked a fiddling fine detail in the mid - tones , perhaps a surprisal given the G550 ’s six - ink setup .
To be fairish , however , this only became obvious when compare side - by - side with photo from another six - ink printer . The G550 ’s photos are a clear footstep up compared to four - ink printers , and very salutary overall .
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Should you buy it?
The G550 really excels at cheap photograph impression , with ink costs of less than 2p per postcard photo
This printer could prove too slow for a busy home , and it ’s a pity it does n’t support bivalent - sided printing
Final Thoughts
This is a solid picture printer , with commendably low running costs . Even when you factor out in photo report at around 15p per sheet , it can jog out lab - character postcard - sized picture for less than 20p each . That makes it idealistic for discriminating snappers who want to create and experiment with their own photographic print .
The Canon PIXMA G550 is n’t regretful on plain theme , either , but here it ’s noticeably dull , particularly when print black text . It ’s also miss reflexive double - sided printing process . These limitations could be a problem if you ’re bet for a single printer to palm all the printing duties in a busy household , but for a lightly used equipment it ’s less of an military issue .
Trusted Score
How we test
Every printer we review goes through a serial of uniform checks designed to gauge key thing including print timber , focal ratio and cost .
We ’ll also compare the features with other printer at the same price gunpoint to see if you ’re getting good economic value for your money .
FAQs
Yes , and it ’s very talented at printed photos .
No , the Canon PIXMA is a individual - function printer .
