Design: Printer First, Scanner Second
The GX1020 printer does printing, scanning, and copying, but you might want to consider it a printer that can do some basic scanning in emergencies. The biggest limitations for scanning and copying are that the paper handling for scanning is limited to manually placing pages on a letter-size scanner bed. This is fine for documents that are one or two pages long, but it’s not suitable for scanning documents that are much longer, especially if they are printed on both sides of the paper.
The paper handling for printing consists of a single tray, which can accommodate legal-sized paper and provides automatic duplex printing. The single tray, without having a flatbed for single-sheet passing, means that any time you want to change the type or size of paper, you’ll need to replace the paper in the tray. With a capacity of 250 sheets, you can print up to 1,000 sheets a month without having to refill the tray frequently, as you can print roughly once a week for five working days.
The setup of the actual device is standard for a tank printer. Weighing 15.4 pounds and measuring 7.4 × 14.8 × 15 inches (H × W × D) with the output tray closed, or 20 inches deep when opened, the printer is easy to move to the right location. It is also small enough to fit comfortably on your desk for swapping or loading paper in the tray, as well as for entering commands on the 2.7-inch color touch control panel and its surrounding buttons. The setup consists of inserting the print heads, loading the paper, and pouring ink into the cartridges, with each ink bottle – cyan, yellow, magenta, and black – being distinctly marked so you can’t accidentally pour it into the wrong tank. Once completed, the printer conducts a full automatic calibration.
Software installation is very straightforward. For my tests, I connected an Ethernet cable, followed the included instructions to go to the Canon website, and executed the installation procedure, which requires little explanation other than selecting English and the U.S. as the location and confirming that the software found the correct printer before installing the driver and scanning utility. Other connectivity options are USB and Wi-Fi. For mobile printing and scanning, you can download the Canon app on your Android or iOS phone or tablet.
The main attraction of tank printers is that their low operating cost will compensate for the higher initial cost compared to ink-based printers. Canon states that the GX1020 comes with enough ink to print 3,000 standard black and white pages as well as 3,000 standard color pages. After that, a full set of replacement ink bottles will cost 0.25 cents per black and white page and 1.25 cents per color page based on supported yield and current ink costs. (Canon curiously estimates to double those quantities for black and white pages according to the color pages at only 1 cent, and the company spokesperson could not explain how they calculated those figures.) As always, you shouldn’t focus too much on the low ink cost. A better approach is to look at the total cost of ownership – operating costs plus initial price – as we discuss in our guide on how to save money on your next printer.
Testing the Canon Maxify GX1020: Acceptable Speed, Better Output Quality
To compare performance tests, I included the GX1020, the GX3020, and the Canon Maxify GX5020 tank-based models along with the Epson WorkForce WF-2960. The Epson is an ink-based model that costs less than the other printers in this group and has somewhat lower paper capacity than the GX1020, but it adds an automatic document feeder (ADF) for easily scanning multi-page documents.
Provides
GX5020, the only single-function printer in the group, is our fastest performer for Word files, whether for the first page or for printing pages two through twelve. Among the three printers, the difference from fastest to slowest for the entire file is only 13 seconds. However, the differences would be more apparent if you were printing longer files. The faster speed of the GX3020 for pages after the first makes it the fastest printer for long documents. The GX1020 was associated with the slowest time for the first page and was the slowest for the remaining pages, making it the slowest printer in the group for any text document of any length.
The relative speeds were similar across the full range of business applications. The GX5020 ranked first in most individual tests. However, it took much longer for our PowerPoint file, placing it second overall based on the total time to print the complete set. The WF-2960 ranked second for most files, but it tied for first place on the PowerPoint file, making it the fastest in total time, at 3 minutes and 17 seconds (8 pages per minute). Here too, the GX1020 was the slowest overall, but it was only 30 seconds slower than the WF-2960. With six files in the group, that averages out to 5 seconds slower per file.
For 4 × 6 inch photos, the GX1020 averaged 39 seconds per image.
The text quality in our tests was a clear step below that of higher-end commercial inkjet printers, with smaller font sizes lacking sharp edges. A look through a magnifying lens at the smaller sizes showed uneven symptoms of the fonts and somewhat jagged edges. However, all the fonts in our tests that are likely to be used in standard business documents remained readable even at 4 points. Two unusually heavy-weight fonts significantly struggled due to filling in the spaces between the characters being less than most printers. The font that was difficult to render well was still easily readable at 8 points. The other was easily readable at 4 points.
Using default settings, graphics on plain paper produced rich colors and beautifully shaded gradients. The printer excelled at maintaining a one-pixel-wide line on a black background. However, while solid fills using bright colors were adequately smooth, I noticed clear lines in the fills with gray and dark black colors. Most images on Canon’s Photo Paper Plus Glossy II were very good quality, but I saw some light gray fills in the monochrome image in our tests.
In our water tests, the black and color inks were only slightly distorted on plain paper. On the recommended photo paper, I saw no distortion of black or color ink, nor did I see any water spots after drying. There was no distortion of the text on plain paper when using a highlighter.
Conclusion: A Worthy Option for Small Offices or Homes
Any of the four printers mentioned here could be the right choice as a personal printer in an office of any size, or as a printer for small offices or home use. If you prefer the low operating costs of a tank printer and don’t need scanning or copying at all, consider the GX5020 because of its paper tray and quick speed. On the other hand, if your printing needs are less than most of these printers are intended for but you need a more capable scanner—including an ADF for legal-sized multi-page documents—consider the WF-2960 based on ink. It has the highest operating cost in the group, but if you don’t print enough to offset the lower cost of ink packaged in bottles against the higher initial cost of the tank printer, it may have a lower total cost.
If
The scanner’s flatbed size is all you need for scanning and copying, so either the GX1020 or GX3020 could be the right choice. Between the two, the GX3020 was slightly faster in our tests, and its two trays plus single-sheet feeder give it a big advantage if you need to switch between different types or sizes of paper frequently. But if you’re printing almost everything on the same paper, the single paper tray in the GX1020 can be perfectly adequate. It also costs less; adds an Ethernet port; and its small size makes it less obtrusive on a shared desk. This compatibility is enough to make it exactly the right printer in a non-trivial share of small offices.
Source: https://me.pcmag.com/en/migrated-20242-printers/21001/canon-maxify-gx1020
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