Canon PIXMA TS7720 Cost to Run: Far From the Cheapest in Its Class
The Canon PIXMA TS7720 is a color inkjet all-in-one with a touchscreen, automatic duplex, and Wi-Fi, printing, copying, and scanning. It sells for $162 and runs at $10.00 per 100 pages in black and $25.00 in color. The black figure traces to Canon's CN-PG285XL-BK cartridge, priced at $40 for a 400-page yield.
The nearest rival from outside Canon is the Epson Expression Home XP-5200, another color all-in-one with duplex and Wi-Fi. It sells for $150, undercutting the TS7720's $162, and its black cost of $7.27 per 100 pages beats the TS7720's $10.00. Color, though, is essentially a wash — $25.09 against $25.00 per 100 pages. The Epson also lacks the touchscreen built into the TS7720.
Within Canon's own PIXMA line, stepping down to the TS6420a saves money twice: it sells for $141 against the TS7720's $162, and runs cheaper too, at $8.88 per 100 pages in black and $23.21 in color, against $10.00 and $25.00 per 100 pages for the TS7720. That same black-and-color rate turns up on two other Canon inkjets, the PIXMA TR4720 and PIXMA TS3722, priced even lower at $108 and $60. The TS6420a keeps Wi-Fi and duplex but drops the TS7720's touchscreen.
Among the 31 inkjet printers InkTax tracks, the TS7720 ranks 22nd on black cost per page and 19th on color, short of the running-cost floor held by the Canon MAXIFY MB2720. The MB2720 sells for $216, more than the TS7720's $162, but runs at $4.17 per 100 pages in black and $13.16 in color, against $10.00 and $25.00 per 100 pages for the TS7720. It also adds fax and Ethernet to the print, copy, scan lineup, and prints faster, at 24 ppm against the TS7720's 15 ppm.
For heavier printing, the Canon PIXMA G3270 swaps the TS7720's cartridges for refillable ink tanks. It costs $249 up front but runs at just $0.38 per 100 pages in black and $0.97 in color, far below the TS7720's $10.00 and $25.00 per 100 pages. The G3270 does without duplex printing and a touchscreen, though both machines keep Wi-Fi.