Canon PIXMA TR8620a Cost Per Page: How It Stacks Up
The Canon PIXMA TR8620a is an inkjet all-in-one that prints, copies, scans and faxes, with automatic duplexing, Wi-Fi and a touchscreen built in. It sells for $216. Running costs land at $7.75 per 100 pages in black and $21.50 per 100 pages in color.
That black rate traces to Canon's CN-PGI280XL-PGBK cartridge, $31 for a rated 400 pages. Among the 31 inkjet printers InkTax tracks, the TR8620a ranks 13th on black cost per page and 12th on color cost per page — solidly mid-pack rather than a standout in either color.
Canon's own MAXIFY MB2720 matches the TR8620a's $216 price and its full function list — copy, scan, fax, duplex, touchscreen, Wi-Fi — yet runs far cheaper, at $4.17 per 100 pages in black and $13.16 in color, the running-cost floor among inkjet printers InkTax tracks. It also prints faster, at 24 ppm against the TR8620a's 15.
Stepping down Canon's own PIXMA line saves money up front but not in ink. The PIXMA TR4720 ($108) and PIXMA TS3722 ($60) both run at $8.88 per 100 pages in black and $23.21 in color, above the TR8620a's own rates. Both drop the touchscreen; the TS3722 also skips auto-duplex and fax, while the TR4720 keeps duplex and fax but loses Ethernet.
For color-heavy printing, Canon's PIXMA G3270 tank printer costs more up front, at $249, but cuts running costs to $0.38 per 100 pages in black and $0.97 in color — a fraction of the TR8620a's rates — by refilling from ink bottles instead of cartridges. It trades away fax, auto-duplex and the touchscreen to get there.