Canon PIXMA TS3720/TS3722 Printer Review

The Canon TS3720's build quality is sub-par. The plastic for the housing is generally fine, but there's a lot of flex in the extendable parts, like the input and output trays. Design-wise, this printer is a mixed bag. There's a single front access to the inside of the printer, which is quite small and narrow. As a result, accessing the ink cartridges or removing a paper jam may be difficult for anyone with larger hands. Even if you have smaller hands, smaller sheets like photo paper will be very difficult to access in the case of a paper jam; you may not have access to grab onto the sheet and pull it out depending on where the jam occurs. Also, as there's only a rear input tray, paper capacity is limited, and your paper stack isn't protected like with a cassette tray. Things aren't all bad, however. On the bright side, there are big stickers that clearly indicate which slot is for black and color ink, making it easy to identify when changing both ink cartridges at the same time. The input and output trays are retractable when you aren't using the printer, making it more compact to store. Similarly, the power cable is removable, so it's easy to replace if it gets damaged. The scanner lid has a foam backing, which helps to smooth out uneven documents and prevent damage to items you're scanning. Finally, the hinge on the scanner lid is extendable, allowing you to easily scan thicker items like textbooks.

This printer requires frequent maintenance. Most of the maintenance involves changing the ink cartridges, as they have a very low yield and will need frequent replacement if you print regularly. Accessing the ink cartridges is quite difficult. The only access to them is via a narrow front door where the cartridges are recessed in a small cavity, making it difficult for anyone with larger hands to access them. Similarly, you can only access the sheet rollers via the same narrow door on the front. You'll have to refill the paper tray often since it only holds 60 sheets. Beyond this, as an inkjet printer, there's a risk of clogging if the printer sits unused for extended periods. If you experience clogging or other print quality issues, there are a few maintenance functions that can help resolve them, like cleaning, deep cleaning, printhead alignment (with both an automatic and manual setting), nozzle check, bottom plate cleaning, and roller cleaning. You can access these maintenance tasks through the printer's user interface or through the printer settings on the computer. If these maintenance tasks don't work to unclog the printer, you can simply buy new ink cartridges, as the printheads come with the ink cartridges themselves.

See the user manual here.

The display is bad on this printer. It's a small LCD with nine physical buttons for managing printer functions. Some buttons only use a symbol to indicate their function, but they aren't always clear. For example, the antenna/phone button toggles the connection mode between Wi-Fi and Wi-Fi Direct. Other buttons, like the Black and Color buttons, also have multiple functions without those functions appearing on them. While these buttons initiate copies, they also function as Start and OK buttons for the printer. There are also two ink alert lights to indicate low ink levels or cartridge problems. There's no tilt or swivel adjustment for the display, and while viewing angles are good, the display is quite dim.

There are other difficulties when navigating the user interface. In the case of an error code, a readout appears with the letter E and number between 2 and 65 or P02 to P34; users will have to refer to the user manual to know what to do. Similarly, if you want to start some maintenance procedure from the printer, you must repeatedly scroll through numbers 1 to 17, each associated with a different maintenance task. You will again need to refer to the user manual to know which task corresponds to the numbers. There's no clear list of all numbers and their associated tasks.

This printer's ink cartridge system is awful. Both the black and color page yields are extremely low, so you need to replace the cartridges very frequently, even if you have moderate print loads. Also, since this printer uses a tri-color cartridge, you need to replace the whole color cartridge even when one color runs out. You can increase the yield somewhat with high-yield cartridges (PG-275XL for black and CL-276Xl for color) to around 300 black or color prints; however, even with the high-yield cartridges, there are other budget all-in-one printers that yield significantly more, like the Brother MFC-J1205W/MFC-J1215W. A light illuminates on the printer when ink is low, and you receive a warning message on your computer with a preview of your remaining ink level.

Using the Canon Scan Utility, you can produce a searchable PDF or output scans as text documents. If you need a simple print-only unit, consider the Canon PIXMA TS202.

The scan quality is mediocre. While text and larger images are clear, the colors are overexposed. Moreover, the image processing removes many fine details and background elements, resulting in scans appearing noticeably different from their source materials. You can use the 'Photo' preset in the Canon Scan Utility to restore the missing elements, but there's a catch: the scanner also includes the texture of the paper in the scan.

• Getting Started guide
• Power cord
• Starter ink cartridges:
• 1x PG-275 black
• 1x CL-276 color

The product page states that this printer should also come with three sheets of Canon's 4" x 6" Photo Paper Plus Glossy II. Unfortunately, our model didn't include these sheets.

Black-and-white documents look okay from this printer. While the text is clear, the print quality is quite fuzzy and grainy due to the amount of noise throughout. Printing in high quality doesn't improve the noise or graininess of the printed image, but it does remove printhead lines.

Color documents look good from this printer. The text is clear and easy to read, and the colors are vibrant without being oversaturated. Fine details are visible, but overall, they appear grainy and faint.

This printer has a bad cost-per-print. Each cartridge has an awfully low page yield, so you'll have to change them frequently if you print with any regularity. If you just need to print the occasional black-and-white document, like return labels or your taxes, consider a monochrome laser printer like the cheapest variant of the Brother HL-L2460DW.

There's an odd behavior with this printer when printing with black ink only. The printer will spool the job as if it were printing, but then pause; a pop-up appears on your computer warning you that the print quality may deteriorate if you only use black ink. Printing won't resume until you click 'OK.' There's no way to mitigate this warning and save your preferences for future prints.

This printer's input tray has a small capacity of 60 regular sheets or 20 glossy 4" x 6" (101.6 mm x 152.4 mm) photo sheets.

You can set a wide range of custom sizes for regular paper, ranging from 3.5" x 5" (88.9 mm x 127 mm) to 8.5" x 26.6" (215.9 mm x 675.64 mm).

The color gamut is okay. This printer has trouble reproducing dark and saturated colors. Although it isn't noticeable in the sample photo, color transitions aren't very smooth. On the upside, there's no banding at all.

The Canon TS3720's color accuracy is decent. Its biggest weakness is grays and skin tones. While some colors are noticeably different from the originals, photos still look good enough for casual use. However, professional photographers or enthusiasts should look elsewhere.

This printer is great at producing small details in photos. Fine elements are sharp, and background objects appear in sufficient detail to differentiate them from one another.

While you can print sheet sizes larger than 5" x 7" (127 mm x 177.8 mm) when using regular paper, the print settings for glossy paper doesn't include options for larger sizes.

This printer is compatible with the Canon Print app. You can use this app to order ink or manage your ink subscription, create 'photo items' (i.e., editing photos using the Easy-Photo Print Editor app), print from social media or photo sharing sites, scan with the printer and send the scan to your phone, scan with the camera on your phone, initiate maintenance tasks, and access manuals and help for the printer.

Printing Microsoft Office files on the iOS version of the app is tricky; if you try to print directly from the app, it alters the document's formatting. However, if you initiate printing from a Microsoft Office application, it sends this request to the Canon Print app and completes it without issue.

To use the printer, you need to install drivers on Windows devices. Neither macOS nor Chrome OS devices require drivers.