Canon

Canon PIXMA TR4720

Inkjet all-in-oneTricolor cartridge

Under a hundred dollars for a printer with a document feeder, a fax modem and automatic two-sided printing is genuinely unusual, and that combination is the only reason to look at the TR4720. It is built around the same two-cartridge ink system as the TS3520 — one black, one tricolour — which means the per-page economics are the worst in this catalogue, and the printer is effectively a subsidised host for the cartridges. Anyone who faxes a form once a quarter and prints a school newsletter in between will do fine. Anyone printing a hundred pages a month should read the cost-to-own comparison and then buy a tank printer instead; the difference pays for itself long before the first year is out.

Approx. price: ~$99
Cost per mono page: 13¢
Cost per colour page: 27¢
Cost to own, 5,000 pages: ~$892
Print speed, mono: 8.8 ISO ppm

Best for

The cheapest possible route to a fax modem and a document feeder in a house that barely prints.

marks an estimate. Computed from the consumable's ISO page yield and its list price. An estimate. Purchase price plus ink or toner over the pages shown, assuming four mono pages for every colour page. Price is an approximate snapshot from our last catalogue update.

What it costs to own

Black consumable: Canon PG-275XL pigment black cartridge · 300 ISO pages · ~$38.99
Colour consumable: Canon CL-276XL tri-colour cartridge · 300 ISO pages · ~$42.99
Cost per mono page: 13¢
Cost per colour page: 27¢
Cost to own, 5,000 pages: ~$892
Cost to own, 200 pages/month for 3 years: ~$1,241 (7,200 pages)

Computed from the consumable's ISO page yield and its list price. An estimate. How this is worked out

Cost to own · 5,000 pages

Canon PIXMA TR4720~$892
~$99 printer + ~$793 supplies
Canon PIXMA TS3520~$872
~$79 printer + ~$793 supplies
Canon PIXMA TR8620a~$691
~$199 printer + ~$492 supplies

purchase priceink or toner. An estimate: purchase price plus 5,000 pages at each printer’s computed cost per page, assuming 4 mono pages for every colour page. Printers whose consumable price we could not source are left out.

Specifications

Manufacturer-published figures. Cost lines are computed from the consumable figures above and are estimates.

Approx. price: ~$99
Cost per mono page: 13¢
Cost per colour page: 27¢
Cost to own, 5,000 pages: ~$892
Cost to own, 3 years: ~$1,241
Technology: Thermal inkjet
Ink system: Tricolor cartridge
Inks: 4
Black consumable: Canon PG-275XL pigment black cartridge · 300 pages
Colour consumable: Canon CL-276XL tri-colour cartridge · 300 pages
Third-party ink lock: No
Ink subscription: None offered
Print speed, mono: 8.8 ISO ppm
Print speed, colour: 4.4 ISO ppm
Functions: Print · Copy · Scan · Fax
Two-sided printing: Auto
Document feeder: 20 sheets
Two-sided scanning: No
Paper capacity: 100 sheets
Max paper size: Legal
Borderless photo: Yes
Resolution: 4800 × 1200 dpi
Connectivity: Wi-Fi
Mobile printing: AirPrint · Mopria
Display: 1.44" mono LCD
Dimensions: 17.2 × 11.7 × 7.5 in
Weight: 12.1 lb
Released: 2022

Features

20-sheet document feeder with fax
Automatic two-sided printing
Two-cartridge ink system: one black, one tricolour
Borderless photo printing to 8.5 × 11
100-sheet rear paper feed

Document feeder Auto duplex No ink lock Borderless photo Fax

In its favour

Nothing else here puts an ADF, fax and automatic duplex under a hundred dollars
Small and light enough to stow between uses
Automatic duplex, which printers twice the price sometimes skip
Borderless photo printing up to 8.5 × 11, unusual under a hundred dollars

Against it

Tricolour cartridge economics: an empty magenta throws away the cyan and yellow with it
A pair of XL replacement cartridges costs about eighty dollars, on a ninety-nine dollar printer
8.8 ISO ppm black, and duplex halves it
1.44-inch monochrome LCD for setting up a fax
The kind of printer whose head clogs because it sits unused for a month at a time

What owners say

Distilled from owner discussions and long-term published reviews

A hundred-dollar printer with a feeder, fax and duplexer looks like a bargain and, for a narrow group of buyers, is one. If you fax a form twice a year, print a school newsletter occasionally, and otherwise leave it switched off, the purchase price is the only number that matters and this wins on it.

For anyone else it is a trap, and owner discussion is blunt about why. The two-cartridge system means a tri-colour cartridge is binned when any one of its three inks runs out, and the cartridges are small. The other recurring complaint is the one this design invites: a printer bought because it is used rarely, running dye ink through a thermal head, will dry out. Owners describe cleaning cycles, then replacement cartridges, then giving up.

What owners like

Nothing else puts a document feeder, a fax modem and automatic duplex under a hundred dollars
Small and light enough that owners store it between uses
Owners who need a fax line occasionally and print almost nothing report it doing the job
Automatic duplex, which printers twice the price sometimes omit

Common complaints

The tri-colour cartridge is the worst ink economics in this catalogue: one empty colour throws away the other two
Owners report ink drying out between uses on a printer that by design is used rarely
Slow, and duplex halves an already modest speed
A 1.44-inch monochrome LCD for setting up a fax

Questions that keep coming up

Why is a tri-colour cartridge bad?

It holds cyan, magenta and yellow in one housing with one chip. When any one colour runs out the cartridge is dead, and the ink left in the other two chambers goes in the bin with it. Printing a lot of one colour — a blue letterhead, a red logo — is enough to do it. Printers with individual cartridges or refillable tanks do not have this problem.

Will the ink dry out if I barely print?

Very likely, and it is the trap in this particular design. It is sold to people who print rarely, and printing rarely is exactly what dries out a thermal inkjet head. Owners describe cleaning cycles that consume ink, then replacement cartridges, then the machine not being worth the cartridges. A small mono laser has no liquid ink and does not have the problem.

Is there a better cheap option?

It depends on what you actually need. For occasional black-and-white printing, a small mono laser costs more up front and does not dry out. For regular printing of any volume, a refillable tank printer costs two to three times as much and is dramatically cheaper per page. This one only makes sense if the fax modem is genuinely required.

Computed from the consumable's ISO page yield and its list price. An estimate. Owner notes are a summary of what people who own the machine report, not a test result — there is no lab behind this site.