Canon PIXMA MG3620 Wireless All-In-One Inkjet Printer Review: The Budget Workhorse That Defies Expectations

There’s a specific kind of modern-day frustration that comes from needing to print something—a concert ticket, a shipping label, a child’s homework assignment—and being met with a blinking error light from a dusty, unused printer. For years, my home office was haunted by the ghost of a bulky, unreliable machine that seemed to demand a fresh, gold-plated ink cartridge for every single page. The cost was prohibitive, the connection was spotty, and more often than not, I’d give up and drive to a local print shop. The problem is simple: in a digital world, we still have analog needs. We need a device that can effortlessly bridge that gap, a reliable home hub for printing, scanning, and copying that doesn’t require a technical degree to operate or a second mortgage to maintain. This isn’t just about convenience; it’s about reclaiming time and eliminating a common source of household stress.

What to Consider Before Buying an All-In-One Inkjet Printer

An All-In-One Inkjet Printer is more than just an item; it’s a key solution for consolidating tasks and saving space in a home or small office. It elegantly combines the functions of a printer, scanner, and copier into a single, compact footprint. The primary benefit is efficiency—handling everything from printing high-quality family photos to scanning important documents for digital archiving and making quick copies of receipts or forms without needing three separate machines. This multi-functionality is the cornerstone of its value, making it an indispensable tool for students, families, and remote workers.

The ideal customer for this type of product is someone facing the need for versatile document handling on a regular, but not necessarily industrial, scale. Think of a university student who needs to print essays, scan textbook pages, and copy notes; a family managing school projects, printing travel documents, and preserving children’s artwork; or a home-based professional who handles contracts, invoices, and shipping labels. Conversely, it might not be the best fit for those who print thousands of monochrome pages a month, as a laser printer would be more cost-effective in the long run. Similarly, professional photographers needing gallery-quality prints would likely look towards more specialized, high-end photo printers.

Before investing, consider these crucial points in detail:

• Dimensions & Space: Printers can be deceptively large, especially with their paper trays extended. Measure your intended space carefully, accounting for ventilation and access to ports and the scanner lid. The compact, space-saving design of many modern all-in-ones is a huge selling point for those in apartments or with limited desk space.
• Capacity/Performance: Look beyond just the purchase price. Consider the printer’s resolution (measured in DPI), which affects print quality, and its print speed (PPM, or pages per minute). Crucially, investigate the ink system: what is the cost per page? Does it use individual color cartridges or a single tri-color one? The latter can be wasteful if you use one color more than others.
• Materials & Durability: While most consumer-grade printers are made of plastic, the build quality can vary significantly. Look for a sturdy chassis that doesn’t feel flimsy, with robust paper trays and a solid scanner lid. Longevity is a key factor, as a printer that lasts for years provides far greater value than one that fails after its warranty expires.
• Ease of Use & Maintenance: How simple is the setup process, particularly the wireless connection? A printer with a straightforward app and intuitive controls will save you immense frustration. Maintenance involves replacing ink and clearing the occasional paper jam; check how accessible the ink compartment and paper path are for these routine tasks.

Keeping these factors in mind, the Canon PIXMA MG3620 Wireless All-In-One Inkjet Printer stands out in several areas, particularly its balance of performance, durability, and exceptional value. You can explore its detailed specifications here.

While the Canon PIXMA MG3620 Wireless All-In-One Inkjet Printer is an excellent choice, it’s always wise to see how it stacks up against the competition. For a broader look at all the top models, we highly recommend checking out our complete, in-depth guide:

First Impressions: A Compact and Capable Contender

Unboxing the Canon PIXMA MG3620 Wireless All-In-One Inkjet Printer, the first thing we noticed was its refreshingly compact and unobtrusive design. In a world of oversized office equipment, its sleek black chassis (measuring 44.96 x 30.48 x 15.24 cm) is designed to fit comfortably on a shelf or under a desk without dominating the space. The build is entirely plastic, as expected at this price point, but it feels solid and well-constructed, not at all cheap or flimsy. Inside the box, we found the printer itself, a power cord, a set of starter ink cartridges (one PG-240 Black and one CL-241 Colour), and a setup CD-ROM—a nostalgic touch in 2023. One notable omission, confirmed by many user experiences, is a USB Type-A to Type-B cable. Canon is clearly pushing a wireless-first approach, which can be a double-edged sword during setup. The initial impression is of a no-frills, function-over-form device that prioritizes core performance over bells and whistles like a large LCD screen, which is entirely absent here.

A Deep Dive into the Canon PIXMA MG3620’s Real-World Performance

A printer’s true worth is only revealed through hands-on testing. We put the Canon PIXMA MG3620 Wireless All-In-One Inkjet Printer through its paces, moving beyond the spec sheet to understand how it performs as a day-to-day partner for a busy household. We focused on the entire user experience, from the initial unboxing to printing complex documents and scanning old photos, to see if its incredible price point comes with hidden compromises.

Setup and Connectivity: A Tale of Two Experiences

The setup journey with the MG3620 can be either a five-minute breeze or a frustrating, multi-hour ordeal, and it all hinges on your home Wi-Fi network. Physically, it’s incredibly simple. After removing a few pieces of protective tape, you plug it in, lift the main panel, and the ink cartridge carriage slides neatly into view. The PG-240 black and CL-241 color cartridges click into place with a satisfying firmness. This part of the process is foolproof.

The challenge begins with the wireless connection. Lacking an LCD screen, the printer communicates its status through a series of flashing lights, which requires referring to the manual (or a helpful online infographic, as one user noted) to decipher. The core issue, and the source of most user complaints, is the printer’s strict requirement for a 2.4GHz Wi-Fi band using WPA2 security. Many modern routers broadcast in both 2.4GHz and 5GHz, sometimes under a single network name (SSID). The MG3620 can get confused by this, failing to connect repeatedly. We had to manually log into our router’s settings to temporarily disable the 5GHz band to force a connection. As one user on Reddit discovered after half a day of trying, this is often the only solution. For a non-technical user, this is a significant hurdle. However, once connected, the connection is stable. A more straightforward alternative, which many users opt for, is purchasing a USB-A to USB-B cable separately. It’s a baffling omission from Canon not to include this one-dollar cable, but using a wired connection completely bypasses the Wi-Fi headache and delivers a plug-and-play experience, as we confirmed in our testing.

Print Quality and Performance: The Everyday Workhorse

Once connected, the Canon PIXMA MG3620 Wireless All-In-One Inkjet Printer truly begins to shine, delivering performance that punches well above its weight class. For its primary purpose—printing documents—it is outstanding. Black text is sharp, crisp, and clean, with no smudging or bleeding, even on standard copy paper. We printed everything from multi-page reports to shipping labels and forms, and the quality was consistently excellent. This aligns perfectly with feedback from users who praise it for “everyday work documents.”

Color printing is also surprisingly capable. While it won’t satisfy a professional photographer, it does a very respectable job with school projects, colorful charts, and casual 4×6 photo prints on glossy paper. Colors are vibrant and reasonably accurate, making it a great all-rounder for family use. One of its standout features, especially at this budget-friendly level, is automatic duplex printing. The ability to print on both sides of a page without manually flipping it over is a fantastic time and paper saver. The print speed is moderate; it’s not a speed demon, but it’s certainly not frustratingly slow for home use. The pages come out at a steady, reliable pace. The mobile printing options, including the Canon PRINT app, Apple AirPrint, and Google Cloud Print, all worked flawlessly in our tests. Sending a document from a phone or tablet to the printer from another room is a seamless experience, adding a layer of modern convenience that we came to rely on.

Scanning, Copying, and All-in-One Functionality

The “All-In-One” promise is fully delivered here. The flatbed scanner on top of the unit is a simple yet effective tool. Accessing it is as easy as lifting the lid, placing your document or photo on the glass, and initiating the scan from your computer or the Canon PRINT app on your phone. We found the scans to be clear and detailed, perfectly adequate for digitizing old family photos, creating PDF copies of important documents, or scanning receipts for expense reports. The lack of an Automatic Document Feeder (ADF) means you have to scan pages one by one, but this is a standard limitation for compact, budget-oriented models and isn’t a dealbreaker for typical home use.

The copy function is brilliantly straightforward. With the printer on, you simply place a document on the scanner glass and press either the “Black” or “Color” button on the top panel. The machine whirs to life and produces a copy without needing any interaction with a computer. This standalone functionality is incredibly useful for those quick, one-off copy jobs. Overall, the integration of these three functions into one device is executed well, making the Canon PIXMA MG3620 Wireless All-In-One Inkjet Printer a truly versatile hub for a home office.

Longevity, Durability, and the Ink Conundrum

Perhaps the most surprising and impressive aspect of the Canon PIXMA MG3620 is its reported durability. It’s common to be skeptical of budget electronics, but user testimonials paint a picture of a remarkably resilient machine. We were struck by one user who has had theirs for eight years and reports it “still functions as good as the day I got it.” Another owned one for five years of trouble-free use before a major paper jam (caused by user error) led them to simply buy the exact same model again. Our own hands-on experience supports this; the printer feels robust and has survived several moves for some users, a testament to its solid construction.

Of course, no discussion of an inkjet printer is complete without addressing the ink. This printer follows the classic “razor and blades” business model: the hardware is inexpensive, but the proprietary consumables are where the profit is made. The printer uses PG-240 (black) and CL-241 (color) cartridges. While the included starter cartridges will get you up and running, you will eventually need replacements, and official Canon ink is not cheap. We highly recommend opting for the XL or even XXL high-yield cartridges, as they offer a significantly better cost-per-page value. While some users experiment with third-party or refilled cartridges, we’ve found that using official Canon ink consistently yields the best results and avoids potential issues with print head clogging. For moderate, intermittent printing, a set of XL cartridges can last several months, making the ongoing cost manageable for the average user.

What Other Users Are Saying

The general consensus among users is that the Canon PIXMA MG3620 Wireless All-In-One Inkjet Printer offers phenomenal value, provided you know what you’re getting into. The positive feedback overwhelmingly centers on its longevity and reliability. As one happy owner of five years stated, it’s an “Excellent home printer,” praising its compact size, wireless convenience, and consistent performance. Another user, who has purchased two—one for home and one for their shop—noted that this fact “in and of itself speaks wonders.”

However, the praise is often tempered with strong warnings about the setup process. The negative feedback is almost universally focused on the tricky wireless configuration. One user detailed spending half their day troubleshooting before discovering online that the printer requires a 2.4GHz WPA2 network, a technical detail many people wouldn’t know to check. This sentiment is echoed across multiple reviews, with another noting that while setup was “easy for me,” they could see “where some low-tech folk might get frustrated.” The other common complaint is Canon’s decision not to include a USB-B printer cable, which one user wryly noted they would have preferred over the “10 year old CD” that was included.

How Does the Canon PIXMA MG3620 Compare to the Alternatives?

The market for home printers is crowded, and while the MG3620 holds a strong position, it’s important to see how it stacks up against other popular options. Depending on your specific needs for portability, simplicity, or ink subscription models, a different printer might be a better fit.

1. Canon PIXMA TR150 Portable Printer

The Canon PIXMA TR150 is built for one thing: printing on the go. It is significantly smaller, lighter, and designed for portability, even offering an optional battery pack. If your “office” is a different location every day and you primarily need to print documents like contracts or invoices from a laptop, the TR150 is the superior choice. However, this portability comes at a premium price and with a major compromise: it is a print-only device. It lacks the scanner and copier functions that make the MG3620 an all-in-one workhorse. For a stationary home office, the MG3620 offers far more versatility and value.

2. Canon PIXMA TS205 Inkjet Printer

The Canon PIXMA TS205 represents the ultimate in budget simplicity. It strips the printing experience down to its absolute basics. Like the TR150, it is a print-only device, but unlike the MG3620, it has no wireless capabilities whatsoever; it relies solely on a wired USB connection. This makes it a potential choice for someone who needs the most affordable machine possible for infrequent document printing and is comfortable with a permanent physical connection to their computer. The MG3620, while slightly more expensive, is a massive step up in functionality, adding scanning, copying, and the immense convenience of wireless printing from any device in your home.

3. HP DeskJet 3760 All-in-One Colour Printer

The HP DeskJet 3760 is perhaps the MG3620’s most direct competitor in the compact all-in-one space. It boasts an even smaller footprint, achieved by using a “scan-through” feeder instead of a traditional flatbed scanner, which is great for single sheets but not for books or thick objects. The biggest differentiator is HP’s ecosystem, particularly the HP Instant Ink subscription service. For users who print a consistent number of pages each month, this service can simplify ink replacement and potentially lower costs. However, if your printing is sporadic, the subscription model may be less appealing. The Canon PIXMA MG3620 offers a more traditional ownership model with the benefit of a true flatbed scanner, which is more versatile for scanning a variety of media.

Final Verdict: The Best Budget Printer for Those with a Little Patience

After extensive testing and analysis, our verdict on the Canon PIXMA MG3620 Wireless All-In-One Inkjet Printer is overwhelmingly positive. It is a triumph of value, delivering reliable printing, scanning, and copying in a durable, compact package that defies its budget price tag. Its print quality is more than sufficient for all typical home, school, and small office tasks, and features like automatic duplexing add a touch of premium convenience. Its proven longevity makes the initial low investment feel even more remarkable.

The recommendation comes with one significant caveat: the wireless setup. If you are not comfortable tinkering with your Wi-Fi router settings or are easily frustrated by technology, we strongly suggest you purchase a USB-B printer cable along with it. Once you overcome that initial hurdle, you are rewarded with a machine that is a dependable, cost-effective, and surprisingly capable workhorse. For students, families, and anyone needing a versatile all-in-one without breaking the bank, the MG3620 is an absolutely fantastic choice.

If you’ve decided the Canon PIXMA MG3620 Wireless All-In-One Inkjet Printer is the right fit, you can check its current price and purchase it here.