There are printers and then there are printersWe all know the little cube-shaped laser printers that spit out a few bake-sale flyers or a school textbook report designed to sit on a shelf next to your desk at home. Then there are behemoths like Canon’s ImageClass MF743Cdw, a printer that floats right between the average home laser printer and the massive all-in-one machine in the office.
While this printer won’t sort and staple your projects, it will do almost everything else. It has a built-in scanner – just lift the lid on the top, drop your page, and use the built-in LCD screen to send the file to a mobile device, PC or, if you’re in 1996, a fax machine – and a pair of paper trays, one for custom sizes and one for Letter / Legal.
This man is big. It’s a heavy 64 pounds and is 43 inches high with a 21 x 29 inch footprint. It takes up a lot of space. Keep this in mind before you free up a spot on your desk for it.
The printer performs duplex in color or black and white and supports WiFi and Ethernet connectivity. You can also connect it to a computer via USB. The generous 5-inch screen allows you to choose different functions and settings and you can also use the built-in NFC function to connect phones to the printer with a single tap. There is also a USB port on the front of the device for fast printing of documents and photos.
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The speed was above average in my tests at about three seconds per black and white print and seven seconds for color prints. That last number was certainly affected by a system where the printer spewed out three color pages at once and then warmed up the color toner for the next three pages. Canon estimates about 3,000 prints with the included black toner cartridge and about 2,000 for the color cartridge, although mileage may vary.
As a standard printer, it works perfectly. It’s one of the few printers I’ve recently tested that connects seamlessly to my home network and was available for every device in the house, including phones and laptops. This was surprisingly refreshing, as I have experienced absolute frustration trying to get different printers to connect to my local network. The MF743 found my network and was constantly connected.
The speed, as mentioned above, is about average, and I was able to get pretty hefty prints in a few minutes – 50 pages or more.
The screen on the device is large enough to access the basic functions of the printer. Installation is best done in the remote management system, which essentially turns the printer into a web server, which allows you to enter address book entries for scanner emails and faxes, update user profiles and change settings. Unless you’re tasked with setting up this printer for a small office, you can use it right out of the box and easily ignore the more complex settings.
Canon does not recommend photo paper in this printer, so I tested all of these prints on normal Letter size printer paper. The black and white rendering was perfect, and you won’t find fault with this model for text documents. Color test prints were surprisingly crisp and clear, and I found the color accuracy to be acceptable. Again, this is not a photo printer, but photos sent directly to the printer from an iPhone came out crisp and clear.
The copy function was a bit of a letdown. I placed a printout of a color test page that I had previously printed and pulled it back through the copier. The result, as you can see, is quite frayed. Each color had an orange tone and there were many artifacts caused by the light shining through the print. I also tested the ID copier on a standard driver’s license and a few other cards. The copied results were below average but readable and, if you’re not picky, useful for record keeping. The printer scans at 600 DPI, which should have been more than enough, but it looks like the built-in scanning and printing system isn’t working as well as it could.
Scanning was a completely different story. The scanned images turned out beautifully on the computer and Canon includes the MF Scan Utility for scanning on Windows or macOS. Since the network is connected, you can start the scan from anywhere and the results are fantastic. In fact, scanning and printing from a computer is the only viable method of copying color documents with this printer.
But look, the best place for this printer is in a small office. It’s too much firepower for home use – the paper tray can hold 300 sheets, which is definitely way more than even a family with kids needs. For example, if you are scanning paperwork at a doctor or other professional situation, this is the perfect printer. Since it costs $ 400, with black and white and color toner replacements for just under $ 100 each, you’d spend less than a more powerful copier / printer combo, and this does almost everything you need for a small office. ID and passport scanning are nice add-ons (as long as you scan and don’t copy) and the fax feature is, as they say, the icing on the ’90s Pudding Pop.
There are some features that standalone devices could probably do better. For example, if you have bought these for the ID scanner and you plan to print the IDs immediately, then a separate ID scanner may be the best solution. Or, if you plan to copy a lot of color documents and graphics, there are obvious limitations for this printer. But if you’re fine with transferring scans to your computer and then saving or printing them as needed, you’re definitely in good hands.
Canon makes great photo printers. This is not one of them. This is a heavy workhorse of a printer for small to medium offices. Print quality is fast, economical and solid, and a definite upgrade to other multifunction printers I’ve seen in this price range.
README
- Great print speed.
- Heavy duty and design paper tray.
- Color copies aren’t great.
- Perfect for a small office.