Large-volume ink is cheap, if you can do without ADF

Canon’s Pixma G3260 wireless MegaTank all-in-one machine is not fast, and its scanner does not have a document feeder, but this bottled inkjet printer provides high-quality output at an ultra-low operating cost.

Canon's Pixma G3260 wireless MegaTank all-in-one printer, priced at $199.99, is an upgraded version of the Pixma G3200 reviewed here in early 2017. Overall, apart from being faster and cheaper by $100, this Pixma is not much different from its predecessor. It prints impressive documents and, as a high-capacity ink machine refilled with bottles instead of ink cartridges, produces snapshot-sized photos for a few cents, and has some of the lowest operating costs in the industry. Unlike many ink cartridge printers, its lower list price makes it a very high value at the front desk or at the checkout counter. In terms of features, printing speed, and capacity, the G3260 is mediocre, but the cost of printing documents is only a fraction of a cent-no matter how slow it is-it is very cost-effective for homes and home offices.

Pixma G3260 measures 6.5 x 17.6 x 13 inches (HWD), with the tray closed, weighs 14.1 pounds, and is compact and lightweight. It is the same size as its G3200 ancestor, but weighs about one pound. Its size and circumference are also close to several Epson EcoTank competitors, including EcoTank ET-2720 one-piece super tank and EcoTank ET-2760 one-piece super tank. HP’s closest competitor to Canon is its Smart Tank Plus 651 all-in-one, and Brother offers some entry-level AIOs in its INKvestment Tank series, such as MFC-J805DW.

What makes the printer an all-in-one machine is of course the inclusion of a scanner, and the proficiency of the scanner depends on whether it has an automatic document feeder (ADF) for processing multi-page documents. Like its predecessor, the Pixma G3260 does not have an ADF, which means you must place long documents one page (or one page) at a time on the scanning glass. Among the above machines, only Brother MFC-J805DW and HP Smart Tank Plus 651 provide ADF.

In this price range, another common feature of cartridge-based AIOs is that many of them have color LCD touch screens. However, among the high-capacity ink models mentioned here, only HP has a touch screen, and it is monochrome.

There is nothing to say about Pixma’s old, low-tech control panel, but the good news is that you can check the ink levels by simply scanning the inspection window for each color on the front of the printer, as shown below. The cyan, magenta, and yellow ink tanks are on the right, and the larger black ink tank is on the left.

In terms of paper handling, the G3260 can hold up to 100 sheets of plain paper or 20 sheets of high-quality photo paper of snapshot size in the tray pulled out from the back of the chassis. Epson ET-2720 and ET-2760 have similar trays, but neither Canon nor Epson has announced the maximum and recommended monthly print volume or duty cycle of their consumer inkjet printers.

The HP 651 can also hold up to 100 pages. Although it does not have a maximum duty cycle rating, HP does quote a recommended monthly print volume of 500 pages. In contrast, the MFC-J805DW can hold up to 150 pages. Brother sets its monthly duty cycle at 5,000 pages, and recommends a monthly print volume of up to 1,500 copies.

The standard interfaces of the G3260 are USB 2.0 for connecting to a single PC and 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi for wireless networks and connecting mobile devices. Mobile support includes a series of Android and iOS apps, including Apple AirPrint, Mopria Print Service, Canon Print app, Canon Print Service for Android, and Pixma Cloud Link.

You can also use Canon's Easy-PhotoPrint Editor software to edit and enhance photos, create albums, apply filters, etc., and use PosterArtist Lite to lay out posters, collages, and other documents that use your images.

Like most Pixmas and other modern consumer printers, you can send basic commands via Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant, such as "Print to-do list" or "Scan to [cloud site name]".

Canon rated the Pixma G3260 at 10.8 monochrome pages per minute (ppm), which is 2ppm faster than the 2017 G3200 model. I tested the printer via USB with a standard Intel Core i5 test bench PC running Windows 10 Pro. The first test involved timing our 12-page Microsoft Word text document when it was generated by Pixma. After an average of several runs, I calculated that its speed is 11.4ppm, which is slightly faster than its rated value and 3.7ppm faster than its predecessor. Canon also beats the other models mentioned here, although in most cases it is less than one page per minute (although the Epson ET-2760 only reaches 8.9ppm).

The next part of the test involves printing our collection of colorful, complex full-page business documents and presentations. These include Adobe Acrobat documents composed of embedded graphics and colored fonts of different weights and sizes, Microsoft Excel spreadsheets with charts and graphs, and colored charts and graphs with dark and gradient fills and backgrounds PowerPoint lecture notes.

I combined these results with the results of printing a 12-page text document to get a total score of 3.1ppm. This is actually the slowest in this group, with the HP 651 leading with 5.1ppm.

Finally, I timed the G3260 because it printed two colorful and detailed 4 x 6 inch snapshots, which took an average of 47 seconds. This is similar to the printer in this course. Only Brother MFC-J805DW takes more than one minute per photo (1 minute and 4 seconds to be precise).

The print quality is exactly what I expected for the four-color ink (cyan, magenta, yellow and black or CMYK) Pixma, not the five-color or six-color ink model centered on the photo like the Pixma G620. The text appears at attractive spacing, with well-shaped, legible characters, and commercial graphics printed with solid color fills and backgrounds and uniform flowing gradients. Small details, such as thin lines (the rule below 1 point) are intact and easy to recognize.

But Pixmas is famous for its photos, and G3260 provides these photos. Its documents and graphics may be slow to print, but if you start with high-quality images, you can expect beautiful output without surprises. The colors are bright and accurate, the details are precise, and there is almost no pixelation. Like most consumer Pixmas (as opposed to dedicated 8 to 12 ink photo printers), the G3260 may be slow, but its photo quality should be less affected.

There is no doubt that the most attractive feature of this and all other Canon MegaTank printers (Epson EcoTank and HP Smart Tank Plus models are the same) may be its lowest operating cost. For example, the cost of each monochrome page is about 0.3 cents—yes, less than one-third of a penny—while the cost of color pages is about 0.9 cents per page.

The operating costs of MegaTank, Smart Tank Plus, and EcoTank (excluding EcoTank Pro) printers are very close to each other, so further discussions are meaningless. On the other hand, Brother’s INKvestment Tank AIO is a hybrid or cross between ink cartridges and ink cartridge machines—their ink comes from the ink cartridges and can be unloaded into the internal reservoir—the cost of use is higher, less than a dollar per black page Points, and the color is slightly lower than nickel.

In any case, the operating cost of Pixma G3260 is the lowest. Canon made the transaction sweeter by adding two additional bottles of black ink, increasing the number of potential black pages in the box to 18,000 pages. That should keep you busy for a while.  

It is true that this compact Pixma is equipped with a scanner and can be called an all-in-one machine, but it does not have an ADF and brings almost no benefits in terms of speed, size, productivity or convenience. However, if you only want to print hundreds of documents and photos a month, without having to copy or scan multiple pages of documents or piles of originals, the G3260 will perform well. Not only is it one of the cheapest consumer printers for ink-based use, but its price has been reduced by $100 compared to previous generations, making it one of the cheaper bulk ink models to purchase. However, if you are looking for top-notch photos, we recommend that you spend an extra $100 on the six-color Pixma G620.

Canon’s Pixma G3260 wireless MegaTank all-in-one machine is not fast, and its scanner does not have a document feeder, but this bottled inkjet printer provides high-quality output at an ultra-low operating cost.

Sign up for the lab report to get the latest reviews and top product recommendations sent directly to your inbox.

This newsletter may contain advertisements, transactions or affiliate links. By subscribing to the newsletter, you agree to our terms of use and privacy policy. You can unsubscribe from the newsletter at any time.

Your subscription has been confirmed. Pay close attention to your inbox!

William Harrel is a contributing editor, focusing on printer and scanner technology and reviews. He had been writing articles about computer technology long before the Internet appeared. He has authored or co-authored 20 books-including the popular "Bible", "Secret" and "Fools" series-about digital design and desktop publishing software applications such as Acrobat, Photoshop and QuarkXPress, and prepress imaging technology. His latest work is HTML, CSS and JavaScript Mobile Development for Dummies (a manual for creating websites for smartphones and tablets). In addition to writing hundreds of articles for PCMag, over the years, he has also contributed to several other computer and business publications, including Computer Shopper, Digital Trends, MacUser, PC World, The Wirecutter and Windows Magazine, and he has served as Printer and scanner specialist on About.com (now Livewire).

PCMag.com is a leading technical authority, providing independent laboratory-based reviews of the latest products and services. Our professional industry analysis and practical solutions can help you make better buying decisions and get more benefits from technology.

© 1996-2021 Ziff Davis. PCMag Digital Group

PCMag, PCMag.com and PC Magazine are federally registered trademarks of Ziff Davis and may not be used by third parties without express permission. The third-party trademarks and trade names displayed on this website do not necessarily indicate any affiliation or endorsement with PCMag. If you click on an affiliate link and purchase a product or service, the merchant may pay us a fee.