Canon PIXMA TR8620a Printer Review

The Canon PIXMA TR8620a feels well-built, though some areas, like the output tray and rear input tray, feel a bit flimsy. The display panel can tilt upwards, meaning you can adjust the angle to your needs; however, because of the printer's design, the panel needs to be lifted if you want to open the output tray extender or print. Otherwise, it has a good lid dampener that keeps the entire scanner up well and slowly closes down on its own, so you don't need to worry about the top of the printer slamming down while you're replacing the cartridges.

Like all inkjet printers, the Canon PIXMA TR8620a needs maintenance to keep it running smoothly. There are some built-in tasks to prevent and resolve printhead clogging issues and banding due to misalignment. There are also some tasks to help you when cleaning certain parts of the printer, like the rollers and the bottom plate. You can easily access paper jams and sheet rollers by removing the front paper tray, removing the back input tray, then removing the rear cover, or you can even remove the transport unit if the paper is stuck farther back.

The cartridges are also very easy to access, but you need to make sure the printer is turned on so that the cartridge carriage moves to the center of the printer. When the printer is off, the carriage gets hidden into the sides of the printer, so you can't access them. Speaking of the cartridges, you can get a good 200-300 pages out of them, though you'll likely be replacing the black cartridge often if you print frequently. Likewise, the paper trays only hold 100 regular pages, so you'll be replacing this every few days if you print a lot and often.

The Canon TR8620a has a large touchscreen display. You can tilt the panel up to help you see the screen better if you're standing, but overall it has really good viewing angles from all sides. The menu is responsive and easy to navigate, and there are even instructional videos to show you how to do certain tasks, like change ink cartridges or load paper. Luckily, it doesn't have the same issues the Canon PIXMA TR8620 has with double clicks and unresponsiveness.

The Canon PIXMA TR8620a's page yields aren't exceptional, but it's about what you'd expect of a printer in this price range. It has four dye-based color cartridges for photo and color printing and one pigment-based black cartridge for monochrome document printing. It gives low ink warnings when it estimates ink is running out, but you can still get a few full pages out of it after that.

The Canon PIXMA TR8620a has a flatbed scanner and an automatic document feeder (ADF), so you'll be set whether you're scanning a single page, a multi-page document, or a page from a book. The flatbed scanner lid's hinges can lift slightly to accommodate thicker items; thanks to this, you won't have to worry about seeing black bars on the sides of the page where the lid didn't cover your scanned item. While the flatbed scanner's maximum size is 8.5" x 11", the ADF can scan up to 8.5" x 14" sheets.

The Canon PIXMA TR8620a's default scan resolution is 300DPI, which is fine for simple text documents. However, if you're planning on scaling or retouching your scan, you can increase the resolution up to 1200DPI.

• User manuals
• 4" x 6" Photo Paper Plus Glossy II (3-sheet sample)
• Power cable
• RJ-11 Telephone/modem cables
• Canon starter cartridges
• 1x PGI-280 Black
• 1x CLI-281 Cyan
• 1x CLI-281 Magenta
• 1x CLI-281 Yellow
• 1x CLI-281 Black

The Canon PIXMA TR8620a's cost-per-print is good. While the cartridges are relatively affordable, running costs can quickly add up if you print often since the page yields aren't very high. If you don't want to worry about buying new ink, you can sign up for Canon's Auto Replenishment Service, which automatically orders and sends you ink or toner when the printer detects you're running low.

The Canon PIXMA TR8620a's printing speed is similar to other printers in this price range, and it's nearly identical to its previous version, the Canon PIXMA TR8620. There are two adjustable paper trays: the front input tray can hold 100 plain sheets, and the rear input tray holds either 100 plain sheets, 20 sheets of 4" x 6" photo paper, or 10 sheets of 5" x 7" photo paper.

The Canon PIXMA TR8620a has presets for the most common paper sizes. While you can't select A6 as a preset printing size, you can still print by setting a custom size. You can print anything between 2.17" x 3.5" to 8.5" x 26.61".

The Canon PIXMA TR8620a's color gamut is decent. You can see the zig-zag line throughout most colors, but it doesn't show up in the cyan and green sections. In the green-to-yellow section, the line shows up as a lowlight instead of a highlight, meaning the printer tries to substitute saturated hues for a darker tone it can print. It's good at printing dark colors. However, it struggles with light colors (especially blues and oranges). Transitions from one color to another look mostly smooth, but some areas have an obvious separation, like from dark blue to light blue and green to yellow.

The Canon PIXMA TR8620a has decent color accuracy. It struggles most with blues and blacks, but they still look good. You don't need to worry about your printed photos looking too off from the digital originals.

Like the Canon PIXMA TR8620, the Canon TR8620a accepts SD cards, as well as various miniSD and microSD cards if used with an adapter.

The Canon PIXMA TR8620a is compatible with the Canon PRINT Inkjet/SELPHY app. You can print a range of files from the app and use the Easy-PhotoPrint Editor to create collages, calendars, and more. You can also scan and copy from your phone and manage your ink subscription.

You need to manually install drivers on Windows to print and scan with the Canon PIXMA TR8620a, but you don't need any drivers for macOS or Chrome OS.