Canon Pixma TR4720 Wireless All-in-One Printer

Canon’s $119.99 Pixma TR4720 Wireless All-in-One Printer has taken the place of the TR4520 that we reviewed in January 2019. The standard automatic document feeder (ADF) makes this inkjet printer/copier/scanner/fax a better bargain than comparable entry-level family and home office machines, and it prints well with attractive images like its predecessor and most Pixmas in its price bracket. Given its small paper tray and high per-page running costs, the TR4720 is clearly meant for low-volume printing and copying. Competition at this price point is fierce. If you don’t print more than 100 times a month, this Pixma should work fine for your household.

Canon Pixma TR4720 Wireless Specification

PROS

1. Great results when printing photographs in particular.
2. Light on the ground
3. Automatic duplex printing, 20-sheet automatic document feeder, and other powerful features.
4. Cost-effective software package.

CONS

1. To print documents slowly
2. Expensive to run due to its inefficient two-cartridge layout.
3. There is no help for flash memory devices.
4. The ADF is a manual duplexer.

Printer review: Canon Pixma

The TR4720 weighs 12.7 pounds and is 17.2 inches wide, 11.7 inches deep (16.2 inches with paper attached), and 7.5 inches tall. The printer, power cord, manuals, and “starter” (partially full) ink cartridges are included.

Set up

1. Setting up this printer took five minutes and was mercifully simple.
2. Start the printer and download the Canon Selphy app.
3. The app guides you through getting online and linking well. Sign into your home Wi-Fi network and install the ink cartridges.
4.  My laptop setup was simple: open the print window to print a document, then choose “add printer”.
5. I added the Canon printer to my list and printed right away.

To load paper

The front of this printer loads paper. I find the setup weird. One front flip-out tray holds blank paper, and the other is For printing the document. This design disappoints me greatly. A printer this huge doesn’t need a side tray. I’m shocked the paper tray isn’t in a drawer at the bottom of the printer and that Canon didn’t have the paper spill out the top where there’s a storage for scanned documents. Overall, this printer is too big for small offices.

Print: Features

The Canon PIXMA TR4720 can print one-sided, two-sided, borderless, and photos. Canon’s PRINT Inkjet/SELPHY app lets you print wirelessly or from the cloud. Canon reports that a borderless 4×6 photo prints in 2:15 minutes, while a normal black and white document prints at 4 pages per minute (two for colour). I found that printing 4×6 images took anywhere from 1 minute to over 2 minutes (2:15), depending on whether I used the native photos app or the Print-Selphy app (the latter being faster). Single documents print in 6–8 seconds, with a 12-second laptop-to-printer latency. You can print 4×6 to 8×10 photographs on letter- or legal-sized paper, but not 11×17.

My print tests showed crisp, legible text without blurring or smudging.

Two-sided printing saved paper and functioned nicely. Printing images was cumbersome since you had to remove the catch tray, remove the paper, squeeze the feeder closed to hold the photo sheets, load the paper, and flip the catch tray back in place. Despite being manual, the photographs print bright, colourful, and true to the originals.

Scanning

You can scan any document that meets printing requirements at one page per minute. Feed papers via the feeder or onto the flatbed and transmit them to your phone. I couldn’t locate an app to scan to my PC, so I had to scan to my phone and airdrop them to myself. It’s not perfect, but the feeder can handle 20 pages, even thicker ones, and scanning only works on one side. Scan a single page in 20 seconds; it worked well in my testing. Advanced settings can exceed 1,200 DPI, but 300 DPI is the default. The maximum scanner colour depth is 24 bits.

Display and controls

The TR4720 contains a numerical keypad, black-and-white or colour start buttons, and a stop button. Setup, fax, scan, and copy buttons are also present. The dot matrix LCD readout panel can be hard to read depending on your perspective and room lighting. Pull the door open and remove the output tray to reach the ink cartridges. All cartridge printers run out of ink more often than you’d want, and the colour cartridge is an all-in-one, so you’ll need to change it if you use up a colour.

Connectivity

The printer includes a wire to connect to your computer and can print through WiFi (via your router or directly). It works great with Apple AirPrint on my iPhone and MacBook.

Review overall

This printer has several positives, but its design is its biggest drawback. The printer is clear, prints well, and offers many paper sizes and photo printing. It was easy to set up, and the app works great. The design, with trays opening everywhere and an enormous footprint, takes up too much space, and I think a better, higher-capacity paper tray would be better. I also couldn’t scan documents to my computer during my brief testing. However, this printer works great, and I suggest it. The Canon Pixma TR4720 costs $99 on Amazon.