Canon PIXMA TR7020a All-in-One Wireless Color Inkjet Printer, with Duplex Printing, Mobile Printing, and Auto Document Feeder, Black, Works with Alexa by Canon

Greatly debated between this lower cost inkjet and the similarly rated Canon MF656Cdw which was nearly 4x the price but a color laserjet.

I bought the TR7020a inkjet because it was the highest rated printer with a document feeder for less than $100. Generic ink cartridges are fairly affordable and my wife got tired of our black & white laser printer (which had really cheap toner) which was getting flaky on print quality (she never liked giving up color).

Pluses:
+ two paper feed systems so you can set up for different printing types (letter, photo paper, envelopes, etc).
+ good print quality- even small text is crisp and clear.
+ only two ink cartridges (black and multicolor).
+ duplex printing works well.
+ does have an auto document feeder, scanning was acceptable quality but had some issues (see below).
+ Canon U-scan utility has a pdf editor (only works with Canon scanner generated .pdf’s but it does make it easy to compile multipage .pdf’s without Adobe pro).
+ fairly compact, although the output tray sticks out a lot.
+ has USB port and wifi network which both work ok.
+ bright light sweeps across the front of the printer to let you know it’s doing something (would be annoying if the printer was right next to your face).

Negatives:
– pretty slow printing, probably the slowest printer I’ve owned in a long time – if you only print small amounts like us you may be able to live with this. If you need to print regularly fast, this is probably not the printer for you.
– really slow scanning (see video which is scanning one page at 200dpi resolution directly through a USB cable and the Canon software).
– scanner jams/skips pages regularly. I had two distorted pages, 5 missed pages, and 3 jams while trying to scan an 18 page document (which required multiple tries – the included Canon Uscan PDF editor software made it fairly simple to construct a complete document from partial scan successes.).
– cheap feed and output trays despite a hefty 18lb printer.
– front paper tray only holds 100 sheets.
– screen is tiny, and navigating is slow – good luck entering a wifi password with just a few buttons (worked eventually) and no useful touchscreen.
– ink cartridges are ‘starter’ standard capacity (200 sheets?), printer says to order more ink immediately.
– XL ink cartridges are claimed ~400sheets, will see how that goes.
– includes a really short USB cord, will probably need a longer USB to USB-A cord if the back of your computer is not right next to the printer.
– no network port connection (can only network via direct wifi, connect to a wifi router, or USB port).

We only use a printer intermittently and have had trouble in the past with inkjets clogging (don’t think the much cheaper-per-page ink tank printers would work for us) – I’m hoping inkjets have improved in the last few years and we print more regularly with this one. If I had to use the document feeder regularly I would probably return it, but I only scan multi-page documents a few times a year and they are usually pretty short.

Based upon the above, I’m rating this printer 4 stars. It would be a 3 star printer if not for the really cheap price (decent features to price ratio). If it holds up and doesn’t chew through ink too fast I will be happy with this purchase. If it doesn’t hold up, I will probably give up on inkjets for awhile and try the color laserjet.

Got this to replace an aging TR8600 that suddenly developed a paper feed sensor problem that killed it. I promptly went all office space on it (shattering glass and plastic is so satisfying), and got this printer to replace it. =o) This printer was cost effective and does the job for light duty office work. I really love Canon. I’ve been using their products for over 2 decades now. They are reliable for a long time, and then provide great stress relieve when they break. =o)

It works fine when it is recognized, but that in there lies the problem. Nearly every time I want to use it with my computer, it says it is offline. I can print from my phone just fine because it is obviously not offline, and I can use the scan function just fine, but printing, nope. At first I tried restarting my computer, which worked but is obnoxious when you are in the midst of work and have a bunch of things open, but then I realized that I can go to the printer settings, and print a test page. That kicks off the original item to be printed and also prints a test page. This is both a waste of time and money (ink and paper).

The first time I printed an image, it was muted to all heck. I was like no way this is the way. So I Googled the issue. Now I can’t remember how I fixed it, and I am sure I will have to Google it again the next time I want to print an image and actually see the colors.

When it does print without issue, the quality is good. It is loud, which I didn’t think would bug me because I don’t print that often, but it is kind of annoying. Nothing I can’t manage though. The scan function takes awhile, but so did my old printer, and this one has a document feeder that my old one did not, and that has been WONDERFUL. The paper tray doesn’t pop out automatically, a feature my old printer had, and I miss that because where I have the printer, I don’t like to keep the tray out because I fear it will get broken by my wonderful daughter who pays no attention to her surroundings.

The software doesn’t have Canon in the name, which makes it hard to find if you don’t remember that it is IJ blah blah blah. It also looks like it is straight out of the 90s, and just has mediocre functionality. You do need an app to print from your phone. There is a Canon app, but I think the Mopria Print app is the one you want (Android).

Basically do not get this printer if you don’t have some level of technical acumen or if you don’t have admin rights to your computer, and be prepared for having to do some research when things don’t go as expected.

DISCLAIMER: If you are buying this to use with a work computer to which you do not have administrative rights to create new users, DO NOT get it. This printer requires not just an admin user to install the software but a LOCAL admin user. So calling IT won’t get the job done unless they believe you that it needs a local admin user and are willing to create one.