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A Canon Multifunction Device
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The Canon PIXMA MG6650 is a multifunction device offering print, scan and copy capabilities. When connection this device to a computer system you have the choice of USB, wired or wireless connectivity with the access points for the first two being located at the rear of the unit. The rear also houses the mains power connection which is recessed into the body of the device. I found it took a fair amount of pressure to ensure a reliable connection was made for the power to be delivered to the PIXMA MG6650.
In general appearance the PIXMA MG6650, with dimensions of 455 x 369 x 148mm (W x D x H), is similar to the MG7550 reviewed earlier. The PIXMA MG6650 consists of a box shape with rounded corners for the inkjet printer element which then supports a tapered top containing the scanner and control panel. Apart from the scanner lid, which has a speckled and dimpled black lacquered coating, the rest of the unit is decked out in matte black. The coating on the scanner lid certainly reduces the amount of finger smears that tend to build up on lacquered surfaces.
Paper input and output is from the front of the printer unit. Positioned at the base of the printer module is a pull-out paper tray. This tray remains partially extended once it is loaded with your choice of media and features a flip-out extension arm which helps support printed documents as they ejected into the paper output tray. This paper output tray is located just above the input tray. Due to the length of this tray it does need the extension arm support to stop documents being scattered all over the place. To the left of the paper input/output features are slots for MS Duo and SD memory cards.
Running across the top of the unit is the control panel. Taking up a central position on this panel is a colour touch screen which provides menu items, prompts and status messages. You will need to scroll left or right to access some of the features available from this touch screen menu. To the left of the touch screen are options for power, Home and Back plus a Wi-Fi activity light. The right side has Black, Colour and Stop buttons plus the NFC (Near Field Communication) area allowing a smartphone or tablet with a Canon NFC-compliant app installed to send documents to the printer. Also on the right is an alarm light which indicates when an error has occurs. As yet I have not seen how brightly this light appears.
The PIXMA MG6650 is a five-cartridge model. By raising the top of the device you can insert the Black, Yellow, Magenta, Cyan and pigment Black cartridges into their appropriate slot. A red light on the top of each cartridge will glow to indicate that the cartridge has been correctly inserted.
Include in the package is a software CD with the usual Canon collection of set-up instructions, drivers and utilities. With regards to the latter item, you can cherry pick from a choice that includes My Printer, My Image Garden, Quick Menu and an electronic version of the User Manual. As mentioned earlier, the PIXMA MG6650 can be connected via USB, wired or Wi-Fi connection. The set-up wizard will lead you through the necessary steps to make the connection and will offer to print a test page.
The single paper input tray can handle various paper sizes whether of the plain copy or photo variety. The tray has a capacity of 100 plain sheets or 10 photo sheets. Whenever you load up the paper tray you will need to confirm the type and size of media being used by selecting the appropriate options from the touch screen.
Along with a Custom option whereby you can adjust the print quality with a slider bar, the print driver offers the choice of Draft, Standard or High quality. I tested the print speeds of these three settings using my standard 101-word monochrome document and a 101-word colour document with an additional small coloured image. The print speeds are recorded in the table below.
| Monochrome | Colour | |
|---|---|---|
| Draft | 24 ppm | 16.5 ppm |
| Standard | 23 ppm | 12 ppm |
| High | 8 ppm | 3.25 ppm |
While Draft mode might be considered a touch too faint for important documents, it would be fine for other tasks. For really important documents, the High quality would be an excellent choice.
Photographic printing produced excellent results at reasonable print speeds. See table for precise timings using the Canon My Image Garden app.
| A4 | 13 x 18 | 10 x 15 |
|---|---|---|
| 1 minute 43 seconds | 49 seconds | 37 seconds |
The scanner unit can produce images at a resolution of 1200 x 4800. An A4 colour scan was photocopied in 21 seconds.
Whether printing standard documents or photos, this multifunction unit would suit a home user. This product supports Windows XP (SP3) 32-bit and later or Mac OS X 10.6.8 and later. Canon has priced this product at £139.99.
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