Canon PIXMA TR8620a – All-in-One Printer Hom

Very pleased with performance and consumables.
Many years ago, I was the proud owner of a Canon PIXMA printer (sorry, can’t remember the model) when quality was paramount in the build, operation, interface and resolution, and the consumables. Prior to that ownership, I used other manufacturers and models and found the Canon line superior. With other units, I experienced clogs jets, high ink use and slow print and scan speeds. After some years, my Canon would no longer come ‘online’ to my WiFi and even direct PC linking was intermittent despite returning it to factory reset or attempting technical support.As I searched for a replacement, I checked out the current offerings and found most to be wanting…an evident lack of quality in construction, noticeable loss weight (heft), and features. I looked at other manufacturers and aside from ‘buying to try’, couldn’t find a another manufacturer without spending a fortune for a home printer. I opted not to go the ink tank route since I print only occasionally (a lot when I do) and tank reviews are mixed requiring frequent printing.I purchased a different Canon model, and didn’t like the print speed, noise and rate of ink consumption.I have that unit away and purchased this model and am pleasantly surprised by the differences. I had some experience with an earlier version of this model (purchased for a relative), that had the same front panel, front/rear paper loading options, SD chip option, WiFi connection and ink replacement features.I didn’t see any of that as off-putting – in fact, rear loading (especially for heavier stock) is a plus. So cutting to the chase: I’m please with this model. The GUI/LED panel has all the functions you could look for and is intuitive…you don’t actually need a manual. Linking to the WiFi was simple and quick. The print speed is faster than I anticipated and ink consumption is clearly better than the prior Canon unit. The network experience is good (laptop) , particularly when using Canon Inkjet Smart Connect (and likewise the mobile app when printing from it – both iPhone and iPad). Scanned images of documents, etc. are crisp, although I wish it would offer more than 600dpi when doing photos or images, but in those cases I use my iPhone/iPad for captures.Bottom line: Canon still makes a good product ‘tho the trend has been to use cheaper materials – more plastic parts noticeable in heft and feeling less solid. But all the competitors are doing likewise. And ink consumption is a problem across all lines, but that’s where they make their most profit even with tank units. There appear to be complaints about WiFi setup and performance; I have not encountered any issues with Canon software setup, and I will say that this touch screen interface is much easier than other Canon units.Lastly…there are complaints about having to raise the control panel to print – freeing up the space for paper tray loading and exiting prints. But I don’t really find that so annoying. The backlit LED panel is large and the touch screen easy to access, navigate and the functions intuitive. I wish the ADF could handle two-sided originals, but again not necessarily a deal breaker for me – it might be if I had large double-sided documents to scan or copy.I hope this helps.

Functionally great but not real user friendly
At first I was very pleased with this new printer. It prints beautifully, with high quality color saturation and perfect alignment, and it’s fast and quiet. I didn’t expect to need the scan and copy features but found myself using them frequently, making a lot of paperwork chores significantly easier for myself. But having used this for several months now, I’m frustrated with three things:- The android phone app for printing from cell phone is truly awful. About 70% of the time, I get errors I can neither explain nor fix (and not always the same ones). It works better to download the documents to your drive before printing, but this can’t always be done easily (I’m looking at you, shared Google docs), so I still haven’t been able to settle on an appropriate workflow. Furthermore, there doesn’t seem to be a way to print in gray scale instead of color from the phone.- It guzzles ink SO fast, and naturally the ink costs an arm and a leg.- You must have the printer’s control panel popped open in order for the printer to be on and respond wirelessly, which looks stupid and takes up an extra four inches of space. I guess I can live with this one, but it’s just another problem to have to troubleshoot when trying to print from my phone if someone’s accidentally bumped it.Based on reviews I read of other products, this is still probably a better printer overall than most, and I’m still generally happy to have it, but just be aware it’s not perfect and printing from your phone might end up being a real hassle.