There are printers and then also printers. We are all familiar with the small cube-shaped laser printers that spit out some pamphlets for selling books or a book book report designed to sit on a shelf near your desk at home. Then there are arms like Canon’s ImageClass MF743Cdw, a printer that moves squarely between the average home laser printer and the massive all-in-one office machine.
While this printer will not collect and staple your projects, it will do just about anything. It has a built-in scanner – just lift the cover on top, lower your page and use the built-in LCD screen to send the file to a mobile device, computer or as a fax machine — and some paper trays, one for odd sizes and one for letter / legal.
This guy is great. It is a heavy 64 pounds and is 43 inches high with a footprint of 21 x 29 inches. It takes up a lot of space. Be aware of this before dedicating a spot on your desktop to it.
The printer runs in duplex colors or black and white and supports wifi and Ethernet connectivity. You can also connect it to a computer via USB. With a spacious 5-inch screen, you can select various functions and settings, and you can also use the built-in NFC function to connect phones with one touch on the printer. There is also a USB port on the front of the device to quickly print documents and photos.
G / O Media can get a commission
Speed was above average on my test with about three seconds per black-and-white print seven seconds for color prints. The latter number was definitely influenced by a system in which the printer spit out three color pages at once and then warmed up the color toner for the next three pages. Canon estimates about 3,000 prints of the embedded black toner cartridge and about 2,000 for the color cartridge, though you may vary miles.
As a standard printer, it works perfectly. It is one of the few printers I have recently tested that is seamlessly connected to my home network and was available for every device in the home, including telephones and laptops. It was surprisingly refreshing because I definitely experienced frustration getting different printers connected to my local network. The MF743 found my network and connected continuously.
Speed, as mentioned above, is about average and I could do fairly solid prints in a matter of minutes – 50 pages or more -.
The screen on the device is very large enough to access the basic functions of the printer. The setting can best be performed in the remote admin system that essentially turns the printer into a web server, allowing you to enter the scanner mail and fax address book entries, update user profiles, and change settings. Unless you have the task of setting up this printer for a small office, you can use it right away, and you can easily ignore the more complicated settings.
Canon does not recommend photo paper in this printer, and I have tested all of these prints on plain font paper. Black-and-white reproduction was perfect, and you will find no fault in this model for text documents. Color test prints were surprisingly bright and clear and I found the color accuracy acceptable. Again, this is not a photo printer, but photos sent from an iPhone directly to the printer came out bright and clear.
The copy feature was a bit disappointing. I posted a print of a color test page I had printed earlier and fed back through the copier. The result is, as you can see, quite opaque. Each color has an orange tint and there are many artifacts caused by the light shining through the print. I also tested the ID copy on a standard driver’s license and some other cards. The copied results were inferior, but readable, and if you are not picky, they are useful for record keeping. The printer scans at 600 DPI, which should have been more than enough, but the on-board scanning and printing system does not seem to be working as well as it could.
Scanning was a completely different story. The scanned images appeared great on the computer and Canon includes the MF Scan Utility for scanning on Windows or MacOS. Because it is network connected, you can start the scan from anywhere, and the results are excellent. In fact, scanning and printing from a computer is the only viable method of copying color documents with this printer.
But look: the best place for this printer is in a small office. It’s too much firepower for home use – the paper bowl contains 300 sheets, which is absolutely much more than even a family with children needs. For example, if you are scanning paperwork at a doctor’s or in another professional situation, this is the perfect printer. Because it costs $ 400, and replacing black and white and color toner with just under $ 100 each, you’ll spend less than you would on a more powerful copier / printer combination, and it does almost anything. for which you need a small office. The ID and passport scanning are nice additions (as long as you scan and do not copy) and the fax function is, as they say, the cherry on the Pudding Pop from the nineties.
There are some features that standalone devices can probably do better. For example, if you purchased it for the ID scanner and plan to print the IDs right away, a separate ID scanner is the best solution. Or, if you plan to copy a lot of color documents and images, there are limited restrictions on this printer. But if you do well to transfer scans to your computer and then save them or print as needed, then you are definitely in good hands.
Canon is an excellent photo printer. This is not one of them. It is a heavy workhorse of a printer aimed at small to medium sized offices. The print quality is fast, economical and solid, and a definite upgrade from other multifunction printers I have seen in this price range.
READ MY
- High printing speed.
- Heavy duty paper tray and design.
- Color copies are not good.
- Ideal for a small office.