The printer market has long been dominated by a well-established model: affordable devices, but cartridges that cost an arm and a leg. With its MegaTank series, Canon has decided to shake things up a bit. The Canon GX7050 printer arrives as a 4-in-1 multifunction printer (print, copy, scan, fax) designed for small and medium-sized businesses, freelancers, and homes that print a lot. The promise is clear: minimal total cost of ownership, thanks to high-yield refillable ink tanks.
We wanted to see if this promise really holds. The test begins right from the unboxing. The box is generous and suggests a “compact colossus” weighing 13 kg. Once the packaging is removed, the printer appears in its two-tone black and white design, solid and serious, almost intimidating in its robustness. Inside, everything is there: the Canon printer, the power cable, and the four bottles of GI-56 ink (black, cyan, magenta, yellow).
A small detail that makes you smile: Canon still provides a CD-ROM for the drivers. This isn't an oversight, but a thoughtful choice. Even without a stable internet connection or a modern computer, installation goes smoothly. This is a sign that the brand has thought about reliability and operational continuity, essential qualities for a professional environment where every minute counts.
“After conducting several tests, we are ready to give you our opinion on this Canon GX7050 printer without cartridges.”
Table of Contents
Design and ergonomics: efficiency on a professional scale
The Canon GX7050 isn't exactly compact, measuring approximately 399 x 410 x 314 mm (with trays retracted), but it boasts a design optimized for productivity. Its angular lines and robust construction immediately inspire confidence. It's a very handsome printer, and it's hard not to love it. From the first impression, you get the feeling that Canon has truly thought of everything for professional use.
What's striking is the ergonomics designed for the daily life of a busy office. Paper handling is particularly efficient: the Canon GX7050 can hold up to 600 sheets, divided between two front cassettes of 250 sheets each and a rear 100-sheet tray. The latter is very versatile, accepting specialty papers up to 275 g/m², envelopes or even banners up to 1.2 meters long.
A front-facing USB port adds significant convenience, allowing you to print directly without using a computer. The interface is based on a 6.9 cm color touchscreen, mounted on a tilting stand, offering good readability and intuitive menu navigation. The entire system, including the front-accessible ink tanks, is designed to facilitate daily use and limit hassle, perfectly suited to a professional environment.
On the paper side, it's already flawless. Now it remains to be seen whether it lives up to its promises, particularly regarding the low printing cost per page.
Installation and connectivity: the step towards immediate productivity
Perhaps the most anticipated step when starting up your Canon GX7050 printer is filling the ink tanks. No more messy cartridges! The GI-56 bottle system is designed to be simple and clean. Each bottle has a unique nozzle that only fits the corresponding color tank, an ingenious keying system that eliminates any risk of error. Filling is effortless and spill-free: simply insert the nozzle and the ink flows automatically.
Once the ink is in place and the printer is turned on, initial setup takes just a few minutes, guided by the touchscreen. During our test, we were able to verify its compatibility with a multitude of work environments. The Canon GX7050 offers a full range of connection options: USB, 10/100 Mbps Ethernet for wired integration into the corporate network, and of course Wi-Fi. A particularly appreciable point is the support for dual-band Wi-Fi (2.4 GHz and 5 GHz).
This ability to operate on both frequency bands is a real asset. In a modern office, the 2.4 GHz network is often congested, which can cause slowdowns. The 5 GHz band allows the printer to connect to a less congested network, ensuring a faster and more reliable connection, especially when sending large documents or for scanning, where a loss of connection can interrupt the workflow.
Beyond these physical options, the Canon GX7050 printer is compatible with numerous apps and cloud services, such as Apple AirPrint, Mopria (Android), PIXMA Cloud Link, and even Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant, ensuring seamless integration into any work ecosystem.
Cost of use and profitability: the MegaTank's strong argument
The Canon GX7050's real strength is its cost of ownership. The MegaTank system is a radical and ultra-economical alternative to traditional cartridges. The ink bottles included with the printer offer impressive yields: 6,000 pages in black and 14,000 pages in color. By activating the economy mode, these yields can even climb to 9,000 pages in black and 21,000 pages in color.
To measure long-term profitability, we calculated the cost per page based on yields and average prices for replacement bottles, around €18 for black and €35 for color. The results speak for themselves:
| Consumable | Standard yield | Estimated unit price | Cost per page (estimate) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Black (GI-56 BK) | 6,000 pages | ~18 € | ~0,003 € |
| Color (GI-56 C/M/Y) | 14,000 pages | ~35 € | ~0,0025 € |
| Maintenance Cartridge (MC-G01) | N / A | ~23–28 € | N / A |
For comparison, a typical inkjet printer costs 6 to 10 cents per page, and a monochrome laser printer costs 2 to 5 cents. With a cost per page of around 0.3 cents, the GX7050 therefore offers spectacular savings, which more than justify its initial purchase price.
Cost-effectiveness is enhanced by very low power consumption: only 0.9W in standby and 23W in copy mode. The presence of a user-replaceable maintenance cartridge (MC-G01) also helps limit repair costs and time, providing welcome peace of mind in a professional environment.
So far, the Canon GX7050 printer delivers on all its promises, especially the most anticipated one: exceptional ink savings. It's hard to beat that. It remains to be seen whether it also excels where it's least expected: print quality, especially photo quality.
Performance and print quality
The printer was designed for productivity, and our tests confirm the figures. The Canon GX7050 achieves a print speed of 24 ipm in monochrome and 15.5 ipm in color, performances that place it among the most efficient printers for professional use. The first page out time is also impressive: only 7 seconds for a black and white document and 8 seconds for a color document. Suffice to say, printing reports or presentations will never slow down the pace of a busy office.
The print quality of text documents is exemplary. Pigment inks specially designed for professional needs produce crisp, clear text. The characters are displayed in a deep black, resistant to rubbing and highlighting, ensuring perfect legibility and long-term durability. Color graphics and presentations are also carefully handled, with prints deemed “vibrant” and faithful.
However, a more in-depth test reveals an important nuance: while document printing is flawless, the rendering of photos on glossy photo paper is less convincing. Images can appear a little “flat” or slightly grainy. This is not a design flaw, but the result of a deliberate technological choice by Canon: the Canon GX7050 uses exclusively pigment inks, optimized for sharpness and durability on conventional paper, to the detriment of the brightness and saturation of dye inks used for photography.
This compromise clearly reflects the printer's positioning: the Maxify GX7050 is primarily a work tool, designed for office use and professional documents, and not a solution dedicated to high-end photography. We would have hoped for a little better for photos, however, but this printer is geared towards speed and economy. It still prints beautiful photos, even if they are not as vibrant as those produced by conventional inkjets or more expensive models.
Scanning and copying functions: the multifunction device at its peak
As a 4-in-1 multifunction device, the Canon GX7050 also excels in its scanning and copying functions. The 50-sheet automatic document feeder (ADF) is a definite plus, allowing for unattended processing of large volumes. Productivity is maximized thanks to the single-pass duplex scanning and copying function.
Double-sided scanning without having to manually turn documents is a major advantage that sets the Canon Maxify GX7050 from its little sister, the GX6050. Scanning speed is also up to expectations, with 23.2 ppm in double-sided color and 22.6 ppm in double-sided black and white. The quality is impeccable, with an optical resolution of 1200 x 1200 dpi. A particularly useful feature for document management is the printer's ability to automatically delete blank pages when scanning mixed documents.
However, there is one small drawback worth highlighting. Despite the Canon GX7050's formidable efficiency, some of the scanning software features appear simplified. For example, scanning to a network directory is "basic" and the file name is limited to only 16 characters, which can make this function almost unusable for a strict organization. To get around this limitation, the user may have to scan to a front-panel USB drive and then rename the files on their PC, partially canceling out the time savings offered by the hardware. This point of friction, although minor, must be taken into account when evaluating the printer overall.
Maxify GX7050 Cartridge-Free Printer – Pros and Cons
The Canon GX7050 stands out for its low running costs and versatility, making it an ideal choice for offices and power users. Here's a look at its key strengths: speed, productivity, connectivity, and ink savings, as well as its limitations, such as photo quality and printer weight.
- Extremely low cost of ownership and total cost of ownership (TCO) thanks to MegaTank ink tanks
- Impressive ink yield: 6,000 pages in black and 14,000 pages in color
- Large 600-sheet paper capacity and versatile rear tray for specialty papers
- 50-sheet automatic document feeder (ADF)
- Double-sided scanning and copying in one pass, a major time saver
- High printing and copying speed
- Complete connectivity: dual-band Wi-Fi, Ethernet, USB and cloud services
- Pigmented inks produce durable, smudge-resistant professional documents
- High initial purchase price, which may be a deterrent
- Glossy photo quality deemed “flat and grainy”
- Some software features, such as network file name management, could be more robust
- Weight of 13 kg, making it difficult to move
Conclusion and opinion: a relevant investment?
At the end of our review, the verdict is clear: the Canon Maxify GX7050 is a formidable printer, designed for long-term productivity and profitability. Its robust design, large paper capacity, and single-pass duplex automatic document feeder make it an exceptionally efficient work tool. But the real stroke of genius lies in the MegaTank system, which offers a virtually unbeatable cost per page, far outperforming cartridge-based printers and positioning itself as an economical and reliable alternative to laser printers for SMEs.
That said, this printer isn't for everyone. Its initial purchase price, often over €500, can be a deterrent for occasional use. Photo print quality on glossy paper remains a technological compromise: it prints beautiful photos, but not with the vibrant rendering of a classic inkjet or a more high-end model. Finally, while the hardware is impeccable, some software features could be improved to match the printer's efficiency.
The Canon GX7050 is a smart investment. It's the perfect printer for small and medium-sized businesses, home users, or high-volume printing homes. It focuses on productivity and cost-effectiveness, and in this area, it's a successful bet.
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