Canon Maxify GX2020 - Review 2023

simply the mannequin numbers, you’d most likely guess that the Canon Maxify GX2020 all-in-one (AIO) printer is the following step up in Canon’s Maxify GX line from the GX1020 and presents extra performance. And you would be proper. You’d most likely additionally assume that it is one step down from—and has fewer options than—the GX3020, however that is solely half proper. Though it sits between the 2 in worth, at $379.99, it is the one one of many three that faxes and the one one that gives an automated doc feeder (ADF) for scanning as a substitute of being restricted to a flatbed. That makes it the apparent greatest decide among the many three if it’s essential to scan, copy, or fax multi-page paperwork.

Design: Roomy Flatbed, Loads of Paper Capability

Except for pace, the place the GX3020 has the benefit over each the GX1020 and GX2020, all three of those fashions share a lot of the similar print options. For paper dealing with, every presents a single 250-sheet drawer that may deal with as much as legal-size paper, and every helps automated duplexing (two-sided printing). Having just one tray generally is a drawback if it’s essential to swap paper sort or dimension steadily, however for many who use the identical paper for all or most printing, the 250-sheet capability means you’ll be able to print 1,000 sheets monthly and never must refill the tray extra typically than about as soon as each five-day work week.

The GX2020’s major benefits over the opposite two fashions are for scanning and copying, due to the ADF. It is also clearly your best option when you do a whole lot of faxing, which the opposite two fashions do not supply in any respect. The 35-sheet ADF helps you to scan multipage paperwork simply, and it holds as much as legal-size paper, which is just too large to suit on the opposite two printers’ flatbeds. The ADF additionally helps guide duplexing for copying and scanning, which suggests it scans one aspect of a stack of pages, waits so that you can flip the stack over, then scans the opposite aspect and interfiles the pages in the correct order. (For faxing, you’ll be able to scan a two-sided doc to a file, then fax the file from the pc.)

When copying, you may also set the printer to simplex (one aspect) or duplex individually, providing you with the selection of printing each simplex and duplex originals to single or double-sided copies. A pleasant contact once you’re scanning in duplex is that the printer’s 2.7-inch coloration touch-screen management panel clearly reveals how you can reinsert the stack of pages for the second move.

Bodily setup is normal for the class. The GX2020 weighs 17.8 kilos, making it gentle sufficient for one individual to maneuver into place simply. It is also sufficiently small, at 8.9 by 14.8 by 15 inches (HWD) with the output tray closed, to maintain it in your desk the place it is in attain for inserting originals for scanning, in addition to for giving instructions on the colour contact display screen. As soon as the printer’s in place, the remainder of the setup course of consists of little greater than inserting the print heads, loading paper, and pouring the ink into the tanks. As is typical, the cyan, yellow, magenta, and black bottles are every keyed, so you’ll be able to’t pour the ink into the mistaken tank. Whenever you end loading ink, the printer runs an automatic alignment routine.

Software program set up can also be straightforward due to the included Fast Begin directions. You go to Canon’s web site and work by means of the clearly defined steps there, which in my assessments discovered the printer with out issues and put in the driving force and scan utility. Connection choices USB, Wi-Fi, and Ethernet, which I used for testing. You may also obtain a Canon app to your Android or iOS telephone or pill for cell printing and scanning.

As with all tank printer, low working prices are a key characteristic. The GX2020 makes use of the identical ink bottles because the GX1020, and claims the identical yield. Canon says it comes with sufficient ink to print 3,000 normal mono pages plus 3,000 normal coloration pages. After that, based mostly on claimed yield and present ink costs, a full set of substitute bottles will print mono pages at 0.25 cent per web page plus coloration pages at 1.25 cents per web page. (Whereas Canon estimates that mono pages price twice that a lot and coloration pages are 1 cent every, an organization spokesperson was unable to verify how the corporate calculated these numbers.) Regardless of the precise price, remember the fact that—as we talk about in our information to How you can Save Cash on Your Subsequent Printer—once you examine printers, it is best to take a look at the whole price of possession (the working price plus the preliminary price).

Testing the Canon Maxify GX2020: Good-Sufficient Output High quality and Velocity

For our efficiency assessments, I in contrast the GX2020 with the GX1020, the GX3020, and the Epson WorkForce WF-2960. The Epson is a cartridge-ink mannequin that has a decrease paper capability than the Canon printers, however is in any other case equal in options to the GX2020, providing a equally succesful ADF, a decrease preliminary price, and a better working price.

The GX2020 delivered primarily the identical pace on every of our take a look at information because the GX1020 did. For our 12-page Phrase file, each tied the GX3020 for slowest first-page-out (FPO) time. For pages 2 by means of 12, and for the complete doc, they tied one another for final place. The WF-2960 provided the quickest FPO time, which was sufficient of an edge to eke out a primary place general, but it surely was really an in depth second behind the GX3020 for pages two by means of 12.

Notice that the whole distinction between quickest and slowest for the complete 12-page file was simply 14 seconds. For longer information, the GX3020’s quicker print pace after the primary web page ought to transfer it to first place, and the variations between each first and second place and between second and the tied third place will develop bigger and extra noticeable for longer paperwork.

Relative speeds had been related for our full enterprise purposes suite. The WF-2960 was quickest, the GX3020 second-fastest, and the GX1020 and GX2020 had been primarily tied general for an in depth third. Of the 5 paperwork apart from the Phrase file—most of which embody graphics and pictures—the WF-2960 was in first place or an in depth second place, no less than partly as a result of its quick FPO time gave it a small benefit on every quick file, whereas every of the Canon fashions had been just a few seconds behind for many particular person paperwork. The one obvious exception was the PowerPoint file, the place the GX3020 was considerably slower than the remainder of the group. You may see the whole time and pages per second outcomes for the complete enterprise suite within the chart under.

Textual content high quality was good for an inkjet, however a bit under absolutely the high tier. All of the fonts in our assessments that you simply’d doubtless use in a enterprise doc had been readable at 4 factors, however some characters at that dimension appeared light in some areas to the bare eye. A loupe revealed uneven widths in traces at these spots, and considerably ragged edges. Very a lot on the plus aspect, two fonts with heavy strokes held up unusually properly, due to the areas between characters tending to fill in lower than with most printers. The one which’s tougher to render properly was simply readable at 8 factors. The opposite was simply readable at 4 factors.

For graphics on plain paper, the default settings delivered saturated coloration together with properly shaded gradients, and so they additionally held skinny traces on a black background. Nonetheless I noticed apparent banding in fills on some graphics. Images utilizing Canon Photograph Paper Plus Shiny II had been usually drugstore high quality. I noticed some extraordinarily delicate banding in gentle grays within the one mono photograph in our assessments, however I needed to look intently to see them.

On our water-resistance assessments, each black and coloration ink smudged solely barely on plain paper. On photograph paper, I did not see any smudging or water stains after drying for black or coloration ink. Textual content on plain paper did not present any smudging when utilizing a highlighter.

Low cost Ink Plus an ADF: A Successful Combo for Small Places of work

The GX2020 presents the trifecta of a low working price, an ADF, and faxing. The primary helps make it a sensible choice for moderate- or heavy-duty printing by private or small- and home-office requirements. The second makes it way more succesful for scanning than the 2 printers mentioned above which might be restricted to a flatbed. And the faxing might be important when you fax often, or just be useful for infrequent use.

For those who do not fax and by no means must scan multipage paperwork, a lot much less scan two-sided paperwork, you would possibly wish to contemplate one of many different Canon fashions as a substitute. The GX1020 offers you the identical print functionality because the GX2020 at a lower cost. The GX3020 offers you related print functionality—together with a low working price and the identical paper dealing with for printing—plus it provides a barely quicker pace.

For those who do not print sufficient for the low working price of a tank printer to totally pay for the excessive worth in contrast with cartridge-based equivalents, you’ll want to contemplate the WF-2960. It lacks the GX2020’s skill to scan each side of a stack of pages simply, but it surely in any other case presents a lot the identical print, scan, and fax functionality. It is also quicker and cheaper upfront, and though it has the best price per web page on this group, it might nonetheless provide the lowest complete price of possession relying on how a lot you print.

That stated, the GX2020 delivers the entire key strengths that every of the opposite printers talked about right here presents, aside from a low preliminary worth. And when you print sufficient pages, the low working price will translate to a low complete price of possession in the long term.