Canon Color imageClass MF731Cdw Review - Review 2022

The Canon imageClass MF731Cdw ($489) is a color light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation multifunction printer (MFP), designed for use in a small role or workgroup. Like the Editors' Choice Samsung Multifunction Printer ProXpress C3060FW , the MF731Cdn prints well at decent running costs, merely unlike the Samsung, its automatic document feeder (ADF) is not auto-duplexing, nor does it support near-field communication (NFC). Even so, expandable input capacity and born Wi-Fi make the Canon MF731Cdw a viable, slightly less expensive culling to the C3060FW for depression-to-moderate volume printing and copying in a small, micro, or abode-based function.

Pattern and Features

Measuring 18.ane by 17.8 past 18.5 inches (HWD) and weighing 58.3 pounds, the MF731Cdw is close to the size and weight of the Samsung C3060FW (xix.viii by 17.8 by 14.4 inches and 58 pounds), simply a petty smaller and lighter than both the Xerox WorkCentre 6515/DNI ($339.00 at Dell) (19.7 by sixteen.v by nineteen.9 inches and 67 pounds) and the OKI MC573dn (16.viii by eighteen.vi past 22.6 inches and 68 pounds). None of these color laser MFPs are small enough to share the boilerplate desktop with.

Fortunately, you accept some flexibility in your placement of the MF731Cdn due to its diverseness of connection choices. You tin can connect information technology to a LAN via Ethernet or Wi-Fi, to a unmarried PC via USB, or utilise Wi-Fi Direct (a peer-to-peer protocol assuasive yous to print from or browse to a mobile device without either it or the printer being on a network). Other mobile connectivity features include: AirPrint, Mopria, Google Cloud Impress, and Canon Print Business. The Samsung C3060FW comes with like connectivity features, including Wi-Fi and Wi-Fi Direct, simply, as mentioned, information technology also supports NFC, another peer-to-peer protocol that allows yous to impress from your mobile device by touching it to a hotspot on the printer.

All of the color laser MFPs mentioned hither so far come with 50-sheet ADFs for sending documents to the scanner automatically, but the Catechism MF731Cdw is the only ane of the agglomeration with a non-duplexing ADF for scanning two-sided multipage documents automatically. Its maximum monthly duty cycle is 50,000 pages (with a recommended monthly impress book of 750 to 4,000 pages), every bit is the Xerox 6515/DNI's, compared to the Samsung C3060FW's and the OKI MC573dn'south sixty,000-page duty cycle. Out of the box, the MF731Cdw's newspaper capacity is 300 sheets, carve up betwixt a 250-sheet cassette and a 50-sheet multipurpose tray. Y'all can aggrandize that to 850 sheets with an add together-on 550-sheet cassette ($199). The Samsung C3060FW's standard input capacity is likewise 300 sheets, which you can expand to one,400 sheets via ii additional 550-sheet trays. Both the Canon and Samsung models back up scanning to and printing from USB thumb drives.

Security features include managing upwardly to 300 department IDs for bookkeeping purposes and Secure Print for assigning PINs to print jobs, as well as basic SNMP and an SSL (HTTPS) secure Web server for configuring and managing the printer over a network or the Net. You tin can too configure and perform walkup tasks, such as making copies or press from the cloud, from a spacious 5-inch color touch screen, surrounded past a handful of buttons: Sleep, Home, and Offset (for initiating copies).

Setup and Software

Nowadays, the hardest role of setting up a 60-pound MFP like the MF731Cdw is ordinarily hoisting it out of the box. Even with two people, finding a identify to grab on to and lift such a big awkward machine is difficult, just some manufacturers, Canon included, are designing their boxes to make the job easier. Canon designs its boxes and so that the sides can easily exist detached from one another and folded out of the mode, so that you don't accept to accomplish down into the box itself. In addition, the plastic bag in which the printer is packed is thick plenty to allow yous to elevator the automobile with it, without kickoff having to take information technology out of the bag. Otherwise, aside from press a test page and afterward scanning it to calibrate the imaging mechanism (which is unusual for laser MFPs), setup was straightforward and pretty much routine. These days, though, with most new laser printers (the MF731Cdw included) you lot don't even have to remove the toner cartridges to unseal and shake them anymore.

Catechism Color imageClass MF731Cdw

The installation program found the MF731Cdw on our network right away and installed the appropriate drivers and utilities. In all, the entire set up procedure took about 15 minutes. In addition to the printer, scanner, and fax drivers, the other arranged software includes: Network Scan Utility, MF Scan Utility, AddressBook Tool, and Toner Status. Network Scan Utility and Toner Status speak for themselves. MF Browse Utility is a fairly robust scanning interface that allows you to, among other things, perform optical character recognition (OCR) on scanned text. And AddressBook Tool is a unproblematic database for establishing (and faxing to) lists of fax recipients.

Performance

Canon rates the MF731Cdw at 28 pages per minute (ppm) for one-sided (simplex) pages and 23ppm for two-sided (duplex) pages, for both monochrome and color pages. The default print fashion is duplex. I tested information technology over Ethernet from our Core i5 testbed PC running Windows 10 Professional. When printing our 12-page, only formatted monochrome Microsoft Discussion document, the MF731Cdw churned at 21.2ppm in duplex way, coming quite close to its rating, and 29.3ppm for single-sided pages, exceeding its rating. Since the Samsung C3060FW, the Xerox 6515/DNI, and the OKI MC573dn don't come up configured to impress in duplex mode past default, we didn't record their duplex print speeds; when printing the aforementioned document in simplex style, they managed 31.4ppm, 28.8ppm, and 31.4ppm, respectively.

When I combined the results from the above monochrome text page with those from press our discrete Acrobat, Excel, and PowerPoint documents containing color, photos, and graphics, as most printers do, the MF731Cdw'southward performance plummeted significantly. It printed our entire suite of examination documents in duplex mode at x.8ppm and single-sided pages at 14.4ppm, whereas the Samsung C3060FW churned at 14.7ppm; the Xerox 6515/DNI managed thirteen.1ppm; and the OKI MC573dn printed the same circular of documents at 14.2ppm. Since the MF731Cdw lists for at least $50 less than these other models, it held up respectably during our tests.

Canon Color imageClass MF731Cdw

Output Quality

The MF731Cdw'southward output quality is above boilerplate for a colour laser printer in its form. The text in our test documents came out crisp, well-delineated, and highly legible downwards to the smallest font we test (4 points), very nearly typesetter quality, making it more than suitable for most business organisation applications. Our Excel charts and PowerPoint handouts with gradients and solid fills were nearly flawless, with polish gradations from one color to the next and no other noticeable toner distribution problems. Blacks and other dark fills and backgrounds were uniform, and colors were bright and vibrant. On only one of our circuitous PowerPoint slides did we notice—subsequently close inspection—slight banding in a dark light-green gradient.

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Photos, too, looked good, with brilliant and accurate colors and fantabulous detail. Not often do we see laser photo output that rivals that of inkjet printers, and, granted, the MF731Cdw's colors were not quite as saturated and vibrant as what nosotros see from photo-axial inkjets, merely closer than almost other colour lasers we've tested. The drawback, of course, is that laser printers can't impress borderless pages, and photos (and another types of documents) look much more polished and professional person when the content bleeds all the way to the edges of the paper. Even so, the photos and graphics interspersed in our test document layouts looked quite good.

Canon Color imageClass MF731Cdw

Running Costs

At one fourth dimension, light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation printer output was, on a per-page ground, more economical than that of inkjet printers. Those days are over. Nowadays, in that location are laser alternative inkjet printers, such equally HP's PageWide Pro 477dw, that have significantly lower running costs than the Canon MF731Cdw and virtually of its competitors. That said, the MF731Cdw's running costs are about boilerplate for a color laser MFP in this toll range. When you utilize Canon's highest-yield cartridges, the MF731Cdw's monochrome cost per page (CPP) is well-nigh 2.2 cents, and the color CPP is 13.6 cents, compared to the Samsung C3060FW'southward 2.four cents monochrome and xiii.5 cents color. The Xerox 6515/DNI, on the other hand, delivers running costs of two.5 cents for blackness pages and 14 cents for color pages, and the OKI MC573dn'due south performance costs are 2.5 cents monochrome and 14.8 cents color.

You don't have to settle for these loftier CPPs, though. When y'all apply the highest yield ink cartridges with the PageWide Pro 477dw, for case, its running costs are 1.four cents for monochrome pages and 7.1 cents for color. To get comparable running costs from a color laser MFP, you'll have to go with a higher-volume, higher-priced model, such every bit the Dell Color Smart Multifunction Printer S3845cdn (1.4 cents monochrome, viii.nine cents color). Keep in mind that for every 10,000 pages you print, a one-cent difference in the CPP will cost yous an additional $100.

Determination

The Canon imageClass MF731Cdw prints relatively rapidly and very well, especially for an under-$500 color laser MFP. It doesn't come with an auto-duplexing ADF, though, similar most of its competitors. If you lot need to scan 2-sided multipage documents, with the MF731Cdw yous'll have to turn them over manually. Granted, all of the competing models discussed hither, including the inkjet laser alternative, listing for at to the lowest degree $50 more than the MF731Cdw, but if you demand to scan stacks of two-sided multipage originals, that's not much to spend for this highly user-friendly (ofttimes crucial) characteristic. Other than that, the MF731Cdw is a terrific MFP suited for low-to-medium book printing and copying in small offices and workgroups. It also makes an first-class personal color laser MFP for an private who needs to print or copy several hundred to a couple thousand pages each month.

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Source: https://sea.pcmag.com/laser-printer-reviews/15578/canon-color-imageclass-mf731cdw-review

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