Canon MegaTank G3270 pros, cons & reviews

The Canon MegaTank G3270 is an inkjet printer aimed at home and small office users who print frequently. As part of Canon’s MegaTank line, the G3270 features large-capacity ink tanks instead of small cartridges. This helps lower the cost per page while reducing waste from discarded cartridges. This article discusses the Canon MegaTank G3270’s pros, cons, and reviews.

We’ll help you decide if this printer is the right choice for your home or office.

Pros

• Ultra Low Ink Costs: The MegaTank ink system allows you to print thousands of pages before needing a refill. Based on Canon’s estimates, you can print up to 6,000 black/white pages and 7,700 color pages with the included bottles. This drastically cuts down on ink costs over time.
• High Page Yield: Thanks to the large ink tanks, you get excellent page yields from the G3270. Replacement ink bottles yield approx. 6,000 black pages and 7,700 color pages.
• No Cartridge Waste: Since ink is poured directly into the permanent tanks instead of replaced in cartridges, there is almost zero plastic waste generated over time. Much better for the environment.
• Good Print Quality: Print quality from the G3270 is quite good for everyday documents and photos. While not at the level of more high-end photo printers, the output is very solid for home and home office needs.
• Fast Black Print Speed: Print speeds when printing in black reach up to 20 pages per minute for letter-sized documents. This allows you to churn through tasks like printing reports quite efficiently.

Cons

• Slow Color Print Speed: While black print speed is reasonably fast at 20ppm, color printing slows significantly to 6.5 pages per minute. So large color print jobs will take quite awhile.
• No ADF for Scanning: There is no auto document feeder for the scanner, meaning you can only scan one page at a time. An ADF would have been a nice addition for scanning and copying multi-page documents.
• No Duplex Printing: The printer does not support duplex (two-sided) printing. Any two-sided print jobs will have to be printed one side at a time manually. Having automatic duplex would cut paper usage.
• Large Footprint: Due to the mega ink tanks, the printer itself has quite a large footprint at 17 inches wide and 14 inches deep. You will need a decent amount of desk space for it.

Print Quality

Print quality from the Canon MegaTank G3270 is very good for an inkjet aimed at home and home office users. Text documents print with sharp black text at up to 4800 x 1200 optimized dpi. The color reproduction is also vibrant and accurate when printing photos, graphics, and other color documents.

The printer can handle basic photo printing tasks quite well. While serious photographers would likely opt for a more high-end Canon photo printer, the photo output from the G3270 is perfectly fine for printing typical photos to share with family and friends. It supports printing directly from USB flash drives for convenience.

Connectivity and Setup

In terms of connectivity, the Canon MegaTank G3270 offers quite a few options to get your devices connected. Connections include Wi-Fi, Wi-Fi Direct, USB, Bluetooth, and Canon PRINT app compatibility.

The one area lacking is ethernet connectivity. So if you don’t want to use the wireless connectivity options, you would need to connect via USB instead of a wired ethernet port.

Many users report that the initial setup is quick and painless. Canon provides the needed software and drivers on the included CD-ROM, or you can download them directly from Canon’s website as well. Connecting over Wi-Fi is straightforward with the printer walking you through the connection process.

Cost Efficiency

One of the key highlights of this printer is extremely low printing costs. Thanks to the high-capacity MegaTank system, your ink costs over time are slashed dramatically compared to standard cartridge printers.

Let’s break down the numbers:

The replacement ink bottle sets yield approx. 6,000 black pages for $17.99 and 7,700 color pages for $23.99. This makes the cost per black page an incredibly low $0.003 and the color page cost $0.0031.

Comparing this to a standard cartridge printer with ink costs of $0.05 (black) $0.10 (color) per page, you are saving up to 94% on ink with the MegaTank bulk ink system.

For high volume home and small office users, the long term cost savings are substantial. Even with the slightly higher upfront price of the printer itself, you make up for that over time with extremely cheap ink costs per page.

In conclusion, if you want the absolute lowest cost per print to save money month after month, the Canon MegaTank G3270 delivers big time.

Our Verdict

The Canon MegaTank G3270 is a very capable printer for high volume home and small office users focused on maximizing cost efficiency. You sacrifice some features like automatic two-sided printing, ethernet connectivity, and faster color speeds in exchange for incredible savings on ink costs.

But if you print frequently and want to save money in the long run, the MegaTank bulk ink printer system does an amazing job on both print quality and affordability over time. For general home and office tasks, the Canon MegaTank G3270 checks all the key boxes making it easy to highly recommend. I Sincerely hope you find this “Canon MegaTank G3270 pros, cons & reviews” article helpful.