Canon PIXMA MG6150 review

The PIXMA MG6150 is aimed at those wanting a little more than a basic inkjet MFP. Its price reflects the higher specifications: the scanner can capture images at an impressive 4,800×4,800dpi, there’s a comprehensive set of interfaces that includes wireless networking and (unusually) infrared, and the print engine uses six inks.

Unlike some six-ink systems, the MG6150 doesn’t use light cyan and light magenta. Instead, there’s a large pigment-black cartridge that’s used almost exclusively for printing text on plain paper, and five dye-based inks: black, cyan, magenta, yellow and grey. The latter should give the printer better control over the shading in light regions of a picture and help deliver good black and white prints. All six cartridges and the print heads must be inserted before the printer is ready to go.

As we’ve come to expect from the PIXMA range, the MG6150 is extremely stylish, with a predominantly high-gloss black plastic case. Although this is a bulky MFP, it wouldn’t look out of place in the sitting room next to expensive AV equipment. At least, not at first. Our test units weren’t brand new and had already picked up several light marks and scratches that took the edge off their appearance. While review units do have a hard life, this does suggest that the PIXMAs’ gloss finish is less durable than more run-of-the-mill alternatives.

A few scratches can’t spoil the effect when you turn the printer on, though. Icons drift into the 7.5cm screen as though entering from the wings, coalescing into a menu while the surrounding touch controls ripple into life. Unfortunately, the menu system proved rather fiddly. The cursor controls are quite a distance from the screen and instead of a single, central action button there are three that line up with on-screen icons.

Fortunately, print quality came to the rescue. With pigmented black ink, the printer produces crisp and absolutely black characters that look almost as good as those from a laser. While swift, it’s not especially fast on plain paper – 24 pages of colour graphics took just under seven minutes, equivalent to 3.5ppm. Given this comparative lack of urgency we were impressed by the rate at which it could reel off photos, despatching six postcard-sized prints in less than five minutes and two 10×8 inch prints in just three and a half.

The MG6150 prints excellent photos. While they don’t embarrass those from four-ink models, there’s more subtlety to the colours, which are rich without appearing too saturated. They’re not perfect, however, and we narrowly preferred those from the Epson PX720WD.

While the MG6150’s scanner is very good, it can’t quite match the one in the PX720WD. It’s a little quicker, with a 1,200dpi photo scan taking just 44 seconds, and it has a higher maximum optical resolution, but the Epson has the edge when it comes to preserving detail in the darkest regions.

Overall, there’s little between this MFP and the Epson Stylus Photo PX720WD. The MG6150 is a good alternative if you need high-quality text printing, but the slightly cheaper Epson is a better photo printer, and quite a bit cheaper to run.