Pros & Cons
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- Prints, scans, and copies
- Tank-based ink offers low running cost
- Included ink rated to print thousands of pages
- Supports mobile printing via Wi-Fi or Wi-Fi Direct
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- No ADF
- Scans up to letter size only, one page at a time
- Manual print duplexing only
- Paper capacity for printing is only 100 sheets
- Slow speed
Canon Pixma G3270 Wireless MegaTank All-In-One Printer Specs
| Color or Monochrome | Color |
| Connection Type | USB |
| Connection Type | Wi-Fi |
| Connection Type | Wi-Fi Direct |
| Cost Per Page (Color) | 0.8 cents |
| Cost Per Page (Monochrome) | 0.3 cents |
| Maximum Scan Area | Letter |
| Maximum Standard Paper Size | Legal |
| Monthly Duty Cycle (Maximum) | 3,000 pages per month |
| Monthly Duty Cycle (Recommended) | Not rated |
| Number of Ink Cartridges/Tanks | 4 |
| Number of Ink Colors | 4 |
| Printer Input Capacity | 100 |
| Printing Technology | Inkjet |
| Rated Speed at Default Settings (Color) | 6 ppm |
| Rated Speed at Default Settings (Mono) | 11 ppm |
| Scanner Optical Resolution | 600x600 pixels per inch |
| Scanner Type | Flatbed |
| Standalone Copier and Fax | Copier |
| Type | All-in-one |
The Canon Pixma G3270 Wireless MegaTank All-in-One Printer is similar in most ways to the Canon Pixma G2270, essentially matching it in everything from its print speed to its paper capacity to its small monochrome LCD. The key difference, however, is that it adds Wi-Fi and Wi-Fi Direct along with mobile printing and scanning. Its $30-higher list price, at $229.99, is small enough that if you can use either or both extras, it's the no-brainer choice between the two. The extras are also enough to make the G3270 stand up much better to competition like the Brother MFC-J4335DW, our current Editors' Choice pick for a light-duty inkjet all-in-one printer for personal or micro office use.
Cheap Ink Is the Prime Attraction
Setting up the G3270 is easy. For my tests, I connected it to our standard printer testbed PC via USB, but note that even if you prefer Wi-Fi, you'll probably want to keep the printer in easy reach. There's only one input tray, which means you'll have to swap out or add paper if you need to change from one type or size to another, as when printing an envelope. And the capacity is limited to only 100 sheets of up to legal-size pages, which means that if you print enough to take good advantage of the low running cost, you'll have to add paper fairly often.
Another good reason to keep the printer on your desk is that if you need to print on both sides of the page, the G3270 offers only manual duplexing, not automatic. This means it prints one side of a document, then waits for you to remove the pages from the output tray and reinsert them, with the driver taking care of printing the correct pages on the correct side of each sheet. The G3270 makes the manual step simple, both by putting illustrated instructions on your computer screen showing how to remove and insert the pages, and by positioning the input tray at the rear top, where it's easy to slip the pages in. But to move the stack, you have to be in reach of the printer.
Paper handling for scanning is strictly entry-level. It's limited to a letter-size flatbed, which means you can't scan a full legal-size page, and scanning requires putting each page on the scanner manually, a major chore if you need to scan many multipage documents.
Of course, low paper capacities and strictly flatbed scanning help make the printer small enough to be a comfortable size for a desktop companion. It measures just 7 by 16.4 by 13.3 inches (HWD) with trays closed, or 21.9 inches deep with the output tray open, and it weighs just 13.2 pounds. Physical setup is straightforward, but you need to go to Canon's website to get the step-by-step instructions for everything from removing the packing materials to installing the driver, with inserting the printheads and pouring ink from bottles into the printer in between. The setup skips taking you through printhead alignment, which involves printing an alignment page, then scanning it for an automatic adjustment, but it suggests that you run it.
One minor setup issue, which I've also seen with other Canon printers, is that the instructions end with an option to go elsewhere on Canon's website "for more information." Choose it, and you'll see a page relating to Canon's Print Plan for ink. Just ignore it. It's not relevant for tank printers.
Setup for mobile printing and scanning is also easy. For my tests, I download Canon's app to my Android phone, connected via Wi-Fi Direct, and was printing and scanning within a few minutes of starting. Printer menus let you show a QR code on the LCD for easy connection.
As already suggested, the G3270's key strength is its low running cost. Enough ink is included with the printer for nearly 6,000 mono text pages and 7,700 standard color pages. And for any ink you buy beyond that, the cost per page works out to 0.3 cent per mono text page and 0.8 cent per standard color page. However, don't get too carried away with the low running cost. The number that matters is the total cost of ownership. The low ink cost will save money overall only if you print enough for the savings in ink to make up for the higher initial cost compared with an equivalent printer that has a lower initial price and a higher cost per page.
Keep in mind also that, as with any tank printer, it's easy to find other choices that cost about the same or less that deliver faster print speed, better paper handling, and more features, but a higher cost per page. Both the MFC-J4335DW mentioned earlier and the HP OfficeJet Pro 8035e offer automatic duplex printing and automatic document feeders (ADFs) for scanning, for example. But the extra few cents for printing each page means that you could wind up paying a lot more in the long run for those features.
Testing the Canon Pixma G3270: Entry-Level Speed, Good-Enough Quality
On our performance tests, the G3270 was tied (within each test's error range) with the G2270, as expected, since both use the same printer engine. Both were the slowest (or tied for slowest) of all the printers mentioned here.
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For our full 12-page Microsoft Word file test, the Brother printer had the fastest first page out (FPO) time, but the 8035e tied it for the rest of the file, which translates to the MFC-J4335DW being noticeably faster for text files of only a page or two, but not for longer files. So if you print mostly text and mostly long files, there there isn't enough difference between the two to matter.
That said, both the 8035e and MFC-J4335DW were faster than the Canon printers for both the Word file and for every file that included color graphics, with the 8035e notably faster than the Canon printers overall and the MFC-J4335DW the fastest of the four by far.
For 4-by-6-inch photos, the G3270 averaged 53 seconds each.
The G3270's output quality is suitable for an entry-level printer. Black text wasn't as dark as with laser-printed output, but all the fonts that you'd likely use in a business document were well-formed enough to be easily readable at 5 points, and most were easily readable, despite slightly ragged edges, at 4 points. Of the two heavily stylized fonts in our suite with thick strokes, the one that's harder to render well was easily readable at 12 points. The other was easily readable at 8 points.
Using default settings for graphics on plain paper, some colors were a little less vibrant than they should be, one gradient showed minor posterization (shading changing suddenly where it should change gradually), and some fills showed banding in dark colors and darker shades in gradients. However, thin lines held nicely—including a one-pixel-wide line on a black background, and all the graphics conveyed the information they were meant to show. Photos were at the high end of drugstore quality, using the Standard quality setting and the Canon's matte photo paper.
On our ink smudge tests, black text on plain paper smudged slightly from water, but stood up to a highlighter without smudging at all. Color inks in graphics resisted smudging from water, but showed obvious water stains after drying.
Verdict: A Great Choice...If You Print Enough
The Canon Pixma G3270 offers entry-level speed and output quality combined with a low running cost and support for both Wi-Fi connections and mobile printing and scanning. If you want more printing and scanning capability, and you're willing to pay a higher running cost to get it, you may prefer the HP 8035e or Brother MFC-J4335DW. Both feature automatic print duplexing and an ADF for scanning multipage documents, plus faster printing and higher paper capacities than the G3270 offers.
Between the two, the 8035e has the higher-capacity tray. The MFC-J4335DW has the lower cost per page and the faster print speed overall. It's also the only AIO mentioned here that adds a one-sheet bypass tray, making it easy to print an envelope or the like without having to swap out the paper in the tray.
That said, if you can do without these extra features, and expect to print enough for the G3270's low ink cost to save money in the long run, it's well worth considering. Keep in mind also that if you plan to connect via USB cable to one PC, and don't need mobile printing, you can save a little by getting the G2270, which offers the same low running cost and all the same features except Wi-Fi.
Final Thoughts
Canon Pixma G3270 Wireless MegaTank All-In-One Printer
The Canon Pixma G3270 AIO is a touch above entry-level for a tank-based printer, thanks to its support for printing from mobile devices. A good fit for a home or home office, it offers a flatbed for scanning and a low running cost even for color pages.