Canon Maxify GX7020 - Review 2021 - PCMag AU

The $899.99 Canon Maxify GX7020 inkjet all-in-one printer delivers a lot of capability, but its major claim to fame is its small size.

The considerably faster and somewhat larger Epson EcoTank Pro ET-5850 ($849.99) remains our Editors' Choice for a midrange color AIO, but if you need a printer with a 600-page capacity and don't have much space, the GX7020 could be just the right fit.

A key strength for the GX7020—and its even smaller sibling, the Canon Maxify GX6020 ($799.99)—is that saving pennies per day can add up to big bucks over time.

But the M479fdw's printing costs are 2.2 cents for a black text page and 13.9 cents for a color page, compared with Canon's estimate of a flat 2 cents per page for the GX6020 and the GX7020.

Print 5 text pages with each, and the Canon models will save you a penny over the HP.

For color pages, a single page saves 11.9 cents.

The GX7020 gets its low cost per page by supplying ink in bottles instead of cartridges, and providing large tanks to pour it into.

The black tank holds only one bottle's worth of ink, but the presumption is that you'll be printing many more pages with black text than with color.

Canon rates the GX7020 at 24 pages per minute (ppm) for simplex printing in black and 15.5ppm for color.

For text output, I timed the GX7020 at 20ppm, not including the first page out, using our 12-page Microsoft Word text document.

When I tested duplex printing, the GX7020 delivered the Word text document, not including the first page, at 12.2 images per minute.

Full-page graphics tended to leave the paper feeling damp immediately after printing; once it was dry, the color inks did a better job than the black ink of resisting smudging from wet fingers.

If you're more concerned with running costs than paper capacity, the ET-5850 and ET-5880's cost per page is just as low, and they're much faster than the GX7020, though neither is as fast as the M479fdw.

That said, the Canon Maxify GX7020's small size and light weight makes it particularly well suited for homes and small offices that are tight on space, need to print up to 120 pages or so per day, and count low running costs as a key requirement.

If you want an even smaller AIO and can make do with a lower paper capacity, somewhat lesser scanning capability, and no faxing, you should consider the Canon Maxify GX6020.

If not, the Canon Maxify GX7020 may be in your Goldilocks zone, literally and figuratively the best fit.