Reviews You Can Rely On

Canon Pixma MG3620 Review

Don't be fooled by the low purchase price - this printer does a decent job, but maintenance comes at a cost
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canon pixma mg3620 home printer review
Credit: Canon
Price:  $100 List
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Manufacturer:   Canon
By Alex Hocevar-Smith and Genaveve Bradshaw  ⋅  Jun 14, 2022
55
OVERALL
SCORE


RANKED
#12 of 12
  • Text Quality - 25% 6.8
  • Operating Cost - 25% 2.3
  • Ease of Use - 20% 6.9
  • Graphics and Photos - 15% 6.8
  • Printing Speed - 15% 5.3

Our Verdict

As one of the least expensive printers available on the market, the Canon Pixma MG3620 fills a niche for consumers whose main priority is to own an affordable printer and be able to print. It doesn't excel at any metric, but its text quality, ease of use, and photo printing ability are above average. The biggest drawbacks to the MG3620 are its operating costs and printing speeds, which both tested poorly and brought the printer's overall score down quite a bit compared to other models we tested. Ultimately, it's an inexpensive machine that performs okay, but it's hard to recommend due to its very high operating and estimated lifetime costs. Check out our lineup of the best printers to see which ones came out on top.
REASONS TO BUY
Decent photo quality
Small size and lightweight
Decent text quality
REASONS TO AVOID
No display screen
Difficult to troubleshoot
Costly to maintain
Sluggish printing speeds
Editor's Note: We updated this review for the Canon Pixma MG3620 on June 14, 2022, with an unbiased assessment of value and recommendations for other comparable products that may better suit your needs and budget.

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Price $100 List
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Bottom Line An inexpensive printer that does the job, but is costly to operateA great budget-friendly printer that performs well in every metric and excels at affordable, high quality photo printingA fast, monochrome laser printer with a small footprint, but limited in connectivity optionsEasy on the wallet up front will get you very capable printer, but long-term operational costs might upset those initial savingsA compact pick for casual home printing needs
Rating Categories Canon Pixma MG3620 Epson Workforce Pro... Brother HL-L2300D HP DeskJet 2755e HP DeskJet 4155e
Text Quality (25%)
6.8
8.0
7.8
8.3
7.3
Operating Cost (25%)
2.3
7.5
8.0
3.0
1.5
Ease of Use (20%)
6.9
7.9
4.6
7.8
7.7
Graphics and Photos (15%)
6.8
8.7
5.7
7.3
8.5
Printing Speed (15%)
5.3
8.5
9.3
6.8
7.4
Specs Canon Pixma MG3620 Epson Workforce Pro... Brother HL-L2300D HP DeskJet 2755e HP DeskJet 4155e
Type all-in-one inkjet all-in-one inkjet laser all-in-one inkjet all-in-one inkjet
Capabilities print, scan, copy print, scan print print, scan, copy print, scan, copy, fax
Resolution (Black) 600 x 600 4800 x 2400 2400 x 600 1200 x 1200 1200 x 1200
Resolution (Color) 4800 x 1200 4800 x 2400 unspecified 4800 x 1200 4800 x 1200
Supported Paper Sizes 4 x 6", 5 x 7", Letter, Legal, U.S. #10 Envelopes 3.5 x 5", 4 x 6", 5 x 7", 8 x 10", Letter, Legal, A4, A6, Half Letter, Executive, user-definable (3.5 — 47.2"L), Oficio 9; 8.5 x1 3"; Mexico Oficio Tray 1: A4; A5; A6; B5 (JIS); Oficio; 16K; 16K 16K ; Japanese Postcard; Double Japan Postcard Rotated; Envelope #10; Envelope Monarch; Envelope B5; Envelope C5; Envelope DL; Custom Size; 4 x 6", 5 x 8"; Statement; Tray 2 & Tray 3: A4; A5; A6; B5 (JIS); Oficio; 16K ; 16K ; 16K, Custom Size; A5-R; 4 x 6"; B6 (JIS) Letter; legal; 4 x 6"; 5 x 7 "; 8 x 10"; No. 10 envelopes, Letter; HP envelopes; HP cards; HP 4 x 6" photo paper Letter, Legal, Executive, A4, A5, A6, B5, B6
Dimensions (excludes extensions) 17.7" x 12.0" x 6.0" 16.7" x 15.3" x 10.9" 16.5" x 15.4" x 12.7" 16.7" x 12" x 6" 14.0" x 14.2" x 7.2"
Weight 11.9 Ibs 22.5 Ibs 27.8 lbs 7.7 Ibs 15.0 Ibs
Paper Handling Input (sheets) 100 sheets plain paper or 20 sheet 4 x 6″ photo paper 250 sheets 100-sheet tray 1, 250-sheet input tray 2; 50-sheet Automatic Document Feeder (ADF) 60 250 sheets
Monthly Duty Cycle light-duty use (does not specify beyond this) 33,000 10,000 1,000 1,000
2-Sided Printing yes yes yes yes (manual, no duplex printing) yes (manual, no duplex printing)
Ink Cost per Ream: B/W $52.75 $28.56 $16.66 $49.98 $66.63
Ink Cost per Ream: Color $69.42 $13.40 NA $62.48 $84.95
Estimated Lifetime Cost of Ownership $921 $583 $410 $872 $1,174
Claimed Pages Per Minute 8 25 (black) or 12 (color) 27 7.5 (black)
5.5 (color)
20
Measured Pages per Minute: Single-Sided B/W 5 10 22 4 8
Connectivity Hi-Speed USB PictBridge (Wireless LAN)10 Wireless LAN (IEEE 802.11b/g/n) WiFi, Ethernet, USB 2.0 USB 2.0 - no wireless connection Wireless 802.11a/b/g/n; 1 Hi-Speed USB 2.0 1 Wireless 802.11a/b/g/n with Bluetooth® 4.2; 1 Hi-Speed USB 2.0
Operating System Compatability Windows:19 Windows® 10, Windows® 8, Windows 8.1, Windows 7, Windows 7 SP1, Windows Vista® SP1, Vista SP2, Windows XP SP3 32-bit
Mac:20 Mac OS® X v10.7.5 - 10.10
Windows® 10, Windows 8, 8.1 (32-bit, 64-bit), Windows 7 (32-bit, 64-bit), Windows Vista® (32-bit, 64-bit), Windows Server® 2003 SP27 — Windows Server 20197 Mac® OS X® 10.6.8 — macOS® 10.15.x8 Windows Server®
2008 R2 Mac OS X
10.7.x, 10.8.x,
10.9.x Windows® XP
Home Edition
Windows® XP
Professiona
Windows 11; Windows 10; Windows 7; macOS 10.12 Sierra; macOS 10.14 Mojave; macOS 10.15 Catalina; macOS 11 Big Sur; Chrome OS Windows 11; Windows 10; Windows 7; macOS 10.12 Sierra; macOS 10.14 Mojave; macOS 10.15 Catalina; macOS 11 Big Sur; Chrome OS
Google Cloud Print yes yes no yes yes

Our Analysis and Test Results

The Canon Pixma MG3620 is an attractive package. On the one hand, its initial purchase price is extremely affordable, which will attract a lot of attention from potential buyers who just want a printer and don't care much about its performance. On the other hand, its low initial costs are a bit of a red herring, pulling consumers' attention away from the fact that cartridges are very expensive for the number of pages you're able to print per refill and its lifetime ownership costs are quite high, even compared to the most expensive printers on the market. It performs decently enough at its basic functions, but it's hard to say who might get the most value from this machine.

Performance Comparison


canon pixma mg3620 home printer review - the mg3620 is sleek and small.
The MG3620 is sleek and small.
Credit: Laura Casner

Text Quality


The MG3620 performed pretty averagely in this metric. We saw consistently good quality text, with occasional faintness and fuzziness when printing thinner fonts. Overall, not a bad performance for such an inexpensive printer. But you can get better text quality and all-around performance from several other printers in our lineup for much less money if you plan on keeping them around for a few years.

canon pixma mg3620 home printer review - we saw decent performance in our text quality testing, albeit a bit...
We saw decent performance in our text quality testing, albeit a bit fuzzy with thinner fonts.
Credit: Laura Casner

Operating Cost


This is the biggest drawback of the MG3620. Every 180 pages of black and white text prints cost about $19. That's $52.75 for a ream of slightly above-average quality text prints. For reference, the most cost-friendly printer in our lineup can print the same amount of pages for only $1.33 a ream, and it scores identically for text quality. That's nearly 40 times the cost for the same performance. The MG3620's color cost per ream isn't great either, at around $69.42.

canon pixma mg3620 home printer review - outside of error resolution, the mg3620's interface is no-fuss and...
Outside of error resolution, the MG3620's interface is no-fuss and very straightforward.
Credit: Laura Casner

While the initial purchase price is extremely low, the MG3620's estimated lifetime costs are some of the highest of the printers we tested, coming in at around $905 per three years of ownership. Even the most initially expensive printers in our lineup provide a better cost-to-value ratio if you plan on owning the machine for a few years.

canon pixma mg3620 home printer review - a look at the general features and fit and finish of the mg3620.
A look at the general features and fit and finish of the MG3620.
Credit: Laura Casner

Ease of Use


This is another area where the MG3620 struggled a bit. The initial setup is very simple; we had no complaints, but downloading the appropriate software is a time sink. The Canon website is easy to navigate, albeit slow. The real issue comes from the printer's lack of onboard display or lights to indicate what sort of error may be occurring. That means that anytime something goes wrong, you have to pull the manual out and consult the mobile app to try and decipher what's awry and how to fix it. So, while overall ease of setup and use is not terrible, there are some potentially serious time sinks to consider when owning this machine.

canon pixma mg3620 home printer review - minimalist controls can lead to frustrations when trying to resolve...
Minimalist controls can lead to frustrations when trying to resolve errors.
Credit: Laura Casner

Graphics/Photos


The MG3620 performed fairly well in this metric. Its images have subtle striping, but otherwise, the color display is good, and there's a discernible array of textures. Business graphics look pretty good, with vibrant colors, sharp text, and only some faint striping here and there. Overall image resolution lacked a bit with decent clarity. There is some fuzz where the color display was inaccurate, and color quality suffered from faint pink tinting in lighter colors and obvious striping in darker ones. Overall, for a sub-$100 printer, the MG3620 does better than expected in this metric.

canon pixma mg3620 home printer review - while vibrant colors stand out, general fuzziness and some pink...
While vibrant colors stand out, general fuzziness and some pink tinting in lighter colors detract from the MG3620's overall performance.
Credit: Laura Casner

Printing Speed


The MG3620's performance wasn't very good, resulting in it receiving the lowest speed score in our lineup. While the print quality is okay, the MG3620 took its time to produce prints. A 9-page mixed photo and text document took about 3 minutes and 40 seconds to print. High-resolution photos took 88 seconds per, and it took nearly 5 minutes to print a 10-page duplex document and 2 minutes to print a 10-page simplex document.

canon pixma mg3620 home printer review - you can see some of the washing out in lighter areas and lack of...
You can see some of the washing out in lighter areas and lack of sharp resolution in complex textures.
Credit: Laura Casner

Should You Buy the Canon Pixma MG3620?


The Canon Pixma MG3620 has one of the lowest initial purchase prices of any printer that we tested and performs decently. But its operating costs are extremely high, making it hard to recommend to anyone outside of individuals who rarely print anything.

What Other Printers Should You Consider?


Beyond its initial low purchase cost, many other printers in our lineup perform better over time, even for less money. If you don't need to print in color, the monochrome Brother HL-L2300D is a solid option at a very similar price point. But your money is likely better spent on the Brother MFC-J4335DW, a model that offers a great combination of value and performance.

Alex Hocevar-Smith and Genaveve Bradshaw