🖨️ Review: Canon Pixma MG3620 Wireless All-in-One Color Inkjet Printer
The Canon Pixma MG3620, a wireless all-in-one color inkjet printer, positions itself as a budget-friendly and compact solution for home users with modest printing demands. Combining printing, scanning, and copying capabilities in one sleek unit, it particularly shines in its wireless and mobile connectivity features, making it a popular choice for families and students. This in-depth review explores the MG3620's key features, performance, and overall value proposition.
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| Review: Canon Pixma MG3620 Wireless All-in-One Color Inkjet Printer |
Key Features and Design
The MG3620 embraces a minimalist and compact design, available in classic black (as reviewed), red, and white. Its small footprint is a significant advantage for users with limited desk space.
All-in-One Functionality: It offers printing, scanning, and copying, making it a versatile tool for everyday tasks.
Wireless Connectivity: The core appeal of this model is its wireless capability, supporting Wi-Fi and direct mobile printing technologies like Apple AirPrint and Mopria Print Service. This allows users to easily print from smartphones, tablets, and computers without needing a physical connection.
Auto Duplex Printing: A great feature for saving paper and environmental consciousness, the MG3620 includes automatic two-sided printing.
Simple Interface: Keeping costs low, the printer lacks an LCD control panel. It relies on a few physical buttons on the top face for basic operations like making copies, and the user's computer or mobile device for most settings.
Ink System: It uses a two-cartridge system: one for black pigment ink and one tri-color cartridge (cyan, magenta, yellow) for dye-based colors.
Performance: Print, Scan, and Copy Quality
The Canon Pixma MG3620 generally performs well in the area most critical to users: output quality, especially considering its affordable price point.
Document and Photo Print Quality
Text Quality: For standard documents, the text is generally sharp and legible. While not matching the crispness of high-end laser printers, the quality is more than sufficient for everyday school papers, invoices, and casual correspondence.
Color Graphics and Photos: This is where the MG3620 truly performs above its weight class. With a high print resolution of $4800 \times 1200$ DPI, it produces photos with rich, vibrant colors and good detail. Business graphics also look appealing. Photo printing on glossy paper yields results that are satisfactory for non-professional use, making it a solid option for casual photo enthusiasts.
Auto Duplex: The automatic two-sided printing is convenient, though some reviewers noted that to prevent ink show-through, the printer deliberately prints lighter on two-sided documents, which can slightly affect text saturation.
Scanning and Copying
The flatbed scanner offers a good optical resolution of $1200$ DPI, capturing details effectively. Scans of photos and documents are clear and color-accurate.
Copy speeds, particularly for color copies, are surprisingly quick compared to some competitors. However, a major drawback is the absence of an Automatic Document Feeder (ADF), meaning multi-page documents must be scanned or copied one page at a time.
The Downsides: Speed and Running Costs
While the MG3620 excels in print quality and affordability, its performance has notable compromises.
Printing Speed
The printer is known for its slow operational speeds.
Monochrome (Black Text): Speeds are significantly below the average for inkjet printers, making it unsuitable for high-volume or urgent print jobs.
Color Prints: Color printing is also slow.
Duplex Printing: Automatic two-sided printing further increases the time needed for a print job.
Operating Costs
This is perhaps the biggest consideration for potential buyers. The initial low purchase price is offset by the high running costs.
The standard ink cartridges have a relatively low page yield, leading to a high cost per page (CPP) for both black and color prints.
The two-cartridge system (separate black, and a single tri-color) means that if one color runs out, you have to replace the entire color cartridge, which can be inefficient if you primarily use one color more than the others.
Conclusion on Cost: If you print frequently or in high volume, the MG3620's lifetime ink costs will quickly surpass the savings from its low initial purchase price. It is most economical for users with very low and infrequent printing needs.
Connectivity and Setup
The wireless features are a huge selling point, but setup can be tricky.
Mobile and Cloud Printing: Excellent support for mobile printing via AirPrint, Mopria, and the Canon PRINT app makes printing from any device seamless once connected.
Setup Difficulty: Numerous user reviews point out that the initial Wi-Fi setup process can be frustrating, clunky, and time-consuming, sometimes requiring several attempts or a workaround.
Verdict and Target Audience
| Feature | Pros 👍 | Cons 👎 |
| Output Quality | High-quality photo and vibrant color printing. Sharp text for casual use. | |
| Connectivity | Excellent wireless and mobile printing support (AirPrint, Mopria). | Wi-Fi setup can be difficult and frustrating. |
| Cost | Very affordable initial purchase price. | High cost per page (CPP) and low ink yields. Not for high volume. |
| Functionality | All-in-One (Print, Scan, Copy) with Auto Duplex. Compact design. | Very slow print speeds. No ADF (Automatic Document Feeder). |
The Canon Pixma MG3620 is a printer of compromises. Its low price and surprisingly high photo quality make it extremely appealing.
Target Audience: This printer is best suited for the casual home user or student who needs a versatile machine for occasional printing of documents and good-quality photos. It is the perfect choice for someone who values a low up-front cost and doesn't print enough for the high ink costs to become a major issue.
If you require high-speed printing, low running costs, or an ADF for scanning multi-page documents, you should consider a more expensive model. For everyone else looking for a compact, feature-rich, and wallet-friendly wireless all-in-one, the MG3620 is a worthy contender.