This is the Canon Pixma G7070. We don’t usually do printer reviews, but yes, you’re reading one on The AXO. I’ve never been a fan of print, and I grew up without having one. Even in college days, all my printing was done at a print shop and not with a printer at home.
So when Canon reached out to me for an Inkjet printer review, I thought I’d give it a try.
Canon Pixma G7070
The Canon Pixma G7070 is part of the company’s SOHO (small office/home office) refillable ink tank lineup. This particular lineup focuses on the lowest possible ink cost per page when compared to a traditional cartridge-based Inkjet printer.
What’s In The Box?
The printer comes with 4 separate ink bottles – Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and of course, black. According to Canon’s lab tests, it is capable of printing up to 6,000 mono pages, 8,300 mono pages on economy mode, and 7,700 colour pages. There’s also a phone line cable, black and colour cartridge, USB-B 2.0 cable, and a power cable, along with the usual user guide and manual.
How Cost Efficient Is It?
When you calculate the cost per page with a set of ink bottles (CMYB) priced at RM145.80:
- 7,700 coloured pages – RM0.018/page
- 6,000 mono pages – RM0.024/page
- 8,300 mono pages – RM0.017/page
That’s 2 cents for a coloured page and 1 cent for a black and white print!
When it comes to cost of ownership, the Canon Pixma G7070 printer is priced at RM1,679 and it already comes with a full set of ink bottles. Comparing that to a low-cost cartridge Inkjet, you’re looking at saving 10 to 30 cents per page. When you print even more, your cost would be cheaper. Not to mention, the cheaper printer has less features, slower, and might not even last that long.
Who Is This For?
Putting everything together, the Canon Pixma G7070 printer is best for someone who owns a business and prints up to one or two reams of paper each month. On top of its printing features, let’s not forget the G7070 is a multi-function printer which also includes scan, copy, and fax capabilities built right in.
Setting Up
Setting the Canon Pixma G7070 is easier than I expected. On my PC, I just needed to type in a shortlink, and the website tells me what I need to do. In about five minutes, the software I needed was download and the on-screen instructions got me connected right away. But on my Honor V30 Pro, it took me a little longer to connect because my phone didn’t have Google services, so the connecting part wasn’t as smooth. I had to change to my ROG Phone 2 with Google services for it to work. The Canon PRINT Inkjet app was intuitive and easy to use, though Canon could improve on its speed and smoothness.
The printer has a 2-line display that isn’t easy or comfortable to look at. But this is understandable because if Canon added a touchscreen panel to the printer, it would be priced higher.
After everything’s set up, it would print a test page and you’re ready to go.
How Does It Perform?
Printing
When Canon quotes their print speed from the lab, most of the time they aren’t real life figures. We put the printer to the test by printing 10 single-sided sheets, as well as 10 duplex sheets (20 prints). Here are the timed results:
- B/W Single – 53 seconds per page (9 minutes total)
- B/W Duplex – 72 seconds per page (21 minutes total)
- Colour Single – 92 seconds per page (16 minutes total)
- Colour Duplex – 110 seconds per page (38 minutes total)
When it comes to Photo mode, the print took less than a minute, and an A4 borderless photo print takes a little longer. I also noticed that photo prints tend to leave repeated lines in the photos, but that might just be because I was using plain paper, and not glossy photo papers.
When we did the B/W test, it was a page that had half and half of image and text. When we printed a sheet that had only text, it took about 48 seconds.
Ink Tanks
The ink set that comes with the printer should be able to print 6,000 (pigment) or 7,700 (dye) prints. But, you still have to consider that the printer would take up more ink to fill up the lines for first use. This is a printer that you would want to keep switched on at all times.
The tanks themselves are easy to recognize as they are all colour-coded and well labelled. Even without reading the manual, I knew which bottle goes where and how to pour it in. Just pop the tank lid open, unscrew the bottle, poke the bottle into the inlet, and the ink will naturally go in. The black and colour cartridges are also easy to install. Just unlock the hinge, it will pop up and you just put in the cartridges to align the holes. Close them and lock it in, and you’re ready to go.
Paper Feed
- Paper Tray – 250 sheets 65gsm / 200 sheets 80gsm
- Output Tray – 50 sheets
- Manual Feed – 75 sheets 300gsm depending on weight
The output tray though extended can still be a little short, and if you’re printing more than 50 sheets, you’re going to want to stand by and pick up the paper so it doesn’t get too heavy.
It is also worth noting that auto duplex print only works from the paper tray with plain paper setting. As for the auto document feeder, it is only single-sided.
Desk Real Estate
Approx. 403 x 369 x 234 mm x 9.6KG
The Canon Pixma G7070 printer itself is rather small, but quite heavy. Seeing the rear paper tray is where you feed manual paper, and the paper comes out the front, the depth is close to 600mm. This printer is best placed on a large desk or a wider cabinet for ease of access.
Maintenance
From the app and the display itself, you can start a print head alignment or perform a clean or deep clean too.
When moving the printer, Canon has some special instructions for it. You need to set the printer into transport mode and turn off the ink lever. Once that’s done, close all trays and transport it in flat in the supplied plastic bag. This is to prevent ink leaks, and trust me, you wouldn’t want them on your fingers. I accidentally got some on mine, and it took two days to fully disappear even after washing.
Conclusion
What We Like
Priced at RM1,679, the Canon Pixma G7070 multi-function printer is a great all-rounder printer that has an incredibly low cost of print. Print speeds may be slow, but the print quality is great. Blacks are solid and texts are perfectly crisp. Scanning and copy functions works well, and the output is better than expected as they match the sRGB gamut.
What We Didn’t Like
The 2-line LCD should be improved to maybe a 3-line so on-display text doesn’t have to scroll and you have to wait for the entire sentence to be shown. Print speeds should also be improved, but when each print is low cost, it’s somewhat a fair trade-off.