News

May 07, 2023

Tech Review

The Canon MAXIFY GX6050 is a high-volume inkjet printer for small office or home

The Canon MAXIFY GX6050 is a high-volume inkjet printer for small office or home use. The design is sturdy, strong, and solid to feel without the potential of bits falling off or trays breaking,

This kit comes with a 3-in-1 refillable ink tank which is visible through the front display. This came with a colour 6.9cm LCD Tiltable display allowing you to view the various settings or use the touch screen options.

Contents

Functions: Wi-Fi, Ethernet, Print, Copy, Scan & Cloud

Ink

The kit comes with a 3-in-1 refillable ink tank with ink included in the box.

The ink supplied allows for 14,000 A4 pages from a full set of colour ink bottles or up to 6,000 pages from a black ink bottle, when Switching to Economy mode this can print up to 1.5 times more pages for even increased capacity.

To put this in perspective in terms of Ink used

The cost of an All-in-One Wireless Inkjet Printer in the region of 60 euros from a high street store had a Multipack printer option of ink for approx 60 euros, this had a yield of print 180 Pages colour & Black – 180 Pages as compared to the up to 18,000 pages available for the Canon MAXIFY GX6050

Note Prices are included for reference only to give a perspective in terms of cost per page

Setup:

The setup is straightforward in following the user guide instructions. And downloading the relevant software, The QR looks positive but does very little in terms of saving time or efficiency as it only takes you to the website. A search is required for the model printer near and then downloaded for a Windows laptop or Android phone. This works as required and the use of the printer display option is very good. The software appeared slow and clunky which I suspect has been pulled from the legacy products.

Additional help & initial set up faultfinding videoes etc available under https://www.canon.ie/support/consumer_products/videos/maxify-gx6050/

Removing the protective materials

Problems with printing

Removing paper jam

Network connection

Note, caution when accessing this website to ensure typed correctly ( putting a dash in instead of a dot will give detrimental results and be linked to another site.

Connecting to a Smartphone

If you are using multiple smartphones, perform these steps on each smartphone

Typically for an Android phone, the expectation would scan the QR code and then takes you to the play store, instead, this takes you to the Canon support website, where you have to manually enter the printer model and then go to the play store to download the app, ( this defeated the purpose of the QR code) given the impression the software works but old fashioned.

The user guide does give details about Using the Fax function. This model does not come with that option.

Warranty: This is great to see a business printer with a 3-year warranty ensuring confidence in Canon on their product with expected high usage in terms of the number of pages it can print from a single refill.

Comparison of Canon models:

Conclusion

The Canon Maxify GX6050 is a printer with experience from Canon experience dating back to 1985 having the world's first inkjet printer using Bubble Jet technology, this can be seen in the design and the key features required in terms of the basic you would expect and eco option and quiet mode.

This printer has one major advantage as compared to budget inkjet printers Its Low running cost and comes with four ink straight out of the box in terms of black ink can Print up to 6,000 pages (or 9,000 pages when printing in Economy Mode) from a single bottle or 14,000 colour pages from a full set of colour ink bottles. This can be improved even further with access to Economy mode, where you can print up to 1.5 times more pages.

Canon has placed a Total Cost Of Ownership (TCO) Calculator on their website to give value saving of 90% Average Savings On The Total Cost of Ownership vs top 10 laser and inkjet printers ( see https://www.canon.ie/printers/tco-calculator/ for a comparison)

The setup is straightforward but this is where Canon are using older technologies which can be seen from the software process and looking at the installation guides. The guide looks modern with QR codes from your phone or laptop, Unfortunately this is as far as it goes, Th QR code takes you to their website where you have to manually type in the model of your printer and download the Android app from the play store. For Windows, you have to choose a file and download the exe file and run. This process works and connects to the Wifi but felt old and sluggish. A CD is included and the mention of a fax machine on the installation again reinforces this outdated software view. (On a positive note, this model does not come with fax machine options which is an outdated technology )

The design in terms of the colour 6.9cm LCD Tiltable Touch screen display is a real positive in terms of getting into the printer setting, this was fast and responsive to touch. Printing via a laptop Android phone was easy while slower than some used before when Printing top quality.

Overall this is a solid printer in terms of build quality, with Key features, easy to use, excellent ink options, and a 3-in-1 refillable ink tank to provide years of cost-effective printing.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Canon-4470C006-MAXIFY-GX-6050/dp/B08ZG2R58Q

Video Review