Canon imageCLASS MF3010 Printer Review

The Canon MF3010 has a sturdy plastic build with no flimsy parts. However, its design isn't particularly user-friendly. The display panel is on the front of the printer and doesn't allow for tilt adjustments, so it's hard to see if you have it on a lower table. The scanner's lid stays open on its own, meaning you don't need to hold it, but the scanner's background is a solid piece of plastic, and the lid's hinges don't extend, which means you can't close the lid over thicker items like textbooks. Accessing paper jams is hard as you can only get to the sheet rollers by removing the toner cartridge or through the input tray, which is a very small opening. The input tray needs to stay open if there's paper in it, meaning there isn't a cover to prevent dust and debris from accumulating over time, and the output tray's length guide is hard to move as it gets stuck in the rail. On the upside, the power cord is removable, so it's easy to replace if it gets damaged.

The Canon imageCLASS MF3010 doesn't require much maintenance as, unlike inkjet printers, there's no risk of printhead clogging. Other than manually cleaning the inside and outside of the printer, there's a single function built-in to resolve any issue with streaks on printed pages called 'Cleaning the Fixing Unit'. You likely won't need to replace the toner cartridge often as it yields a large number of prints, and the drum is in the cartridge, so there's no need to replace it separately. Putting in a new toner cartridge is easy; you only need to lift the top of the scanner and the bottom of the output tray to access it. However, as mentioned in the build section, accessing paper jams is hard because you can only reach the sheet rollers by removing the toner cartridge or through the input tray's small opening. The input tray holds 150 sheets of paper, so depending on how much you print, you may need to refill it regularly.

You can see the online manual here.

The Canon imageCLASS MF3010 has a terrible display. The screen can only display a single digit or letter, and none of the icons have labels, so you have to refer to the manual to know what the icons mean. Navigating the settings is tedious as you have to press the 'Menu' button until a specific number or letter appears on the screen and confirm via the green button. Again, you need to refer to the manual to know what the letters and numbers mean. As for visibility, the display panel is in a fixed position on the front of the printer, so you may have trouble seeing it if you have the printer on a lower table.

The Canon MF3010 yields a large number of prints from a single toner cartridge, which means you won't need to replace it often unless you print a lot. The printer doesn't indicate when the toner level is low, and it continues printing even when it's out of toner. One thing to note is that because the overall print quality isn't great to begin with, it's hard to know if it's out of toner or simply a print quality issue. It's possible that we printed past what the ISO standard considers acceptable print quality, so you may get fewer prints than the number we could get during the test.

The Canon imageCLASS MF3010VP is a variant with an additional full-size toner cartridge, which typically yields more prints than the starter cartridge. We tested the yield with a full-size cartridge.

The Canon MF3010 only has a flatbed scanner with no ADF or duplex scanning capability, so scanning multi-page or double-sided documents can be time-consuming. That said, this printer uses the MF Tool Box software to scan, which will prompt you at the end of each scan to choose whether you want to scan something else, making the process much faster than starting a new scan for each page. Although the lack of wireless connectivity is inconvenient, the wired USB connection likely helps make scanning faster as there's less chance of slowdowns caused by network issues. You can scan documents into searchable files, but you need a third-party application to process the files and get the results.

The scan quality is great. The scanner captures fine details like the lines in the graph, and the colors look true to life. However, there are color artifacts in the gray title bar on the left and the background 'SAMPLE' text. Also, despite setting the scan to Letter size and placing the sheet properly on the glass, there's still a black line at the bottom of the page.

• Canon 125 black starter toner cartridge
• Power cord
• USB-A to USB-B cable
• User Software CD-ROM
• Starter guide

The print quality for black-and-white documents is mediocre. Although most fine details are present, the print looks pale overall, with a noticeable dotted effect in colored areas due to the use of halftones. There are also some artifacts around the borders of the page that make the print look dirty, which seems to be caused by toner residue. Unfortunately, the built-in 'Cleaning the Fixing Unit' function doesn't resolve this issue. If you want a monochrome laser printer with better print quality, check out the Brother MFC-L2820DW.

The Canon MF3010 can't print in color.

The Canon imageCLASS MF3010's cost-per-print is exceptionally low due to the toner cartridge's high page yield and relatively low price. Also, the cartridge includes the drum, so you won't have to spend extra to replace the drum separately.

The Canon MF3010 warms up quickly and prints black documents at a good pace, albeit slower than most laser printers. Unlike the Canon imageCLASS LBP122dw, it doesn't support automatic duplex printing, so you'll have to flip the sheets manually when printing double-sided.

You can set custom paper sizes from 127 mm to 356 mm (5" to 14") in width and 76.2 mm to 216 mm (3" x 8.5") in length.

The Canon MF3010 can't print in color.

Like most monochrome laser printers, the Canon MF3010 is terrible at printing small details in photos. The image quality is particularly bad because the printer needs to use halftones (dots) to simulate the different shades of gray.

Unfortunately, you can only use the Canon MF3010 printer via a USB wired connection, which is inconvenient if you don't have space to put the printer close to your computer.

The Canon MF3010 isn't compatible with any mobile companion app. Check out the Brother HL-L2460DW if you want a monochrome laser printer with a companion app.

You don't need to install any drivers or software to use the printer on macOS, but you do on Windows. You can get the drivers for Windows and the Canon Tool Box software (for scanning) from Canon's website or the included CD-ROM. Canon indicates that the driver package from their website includes the ScanGear software, but installing the package doesn't install the application, likely because it's an older application that's no longer supported.