The Canon Pixma MG7120 BK Wireless Photo All-in-One Printer is an attractive multifunction printer (MFP) primarily for home use. It offers good output quality, ponderous document printing speed, and a solid if somewhat basic set of features.
The MG7120 can print, copy, and scan. It can print from and scan to memory cards, scan as an attachment to an email; to a PC; or a network drive. You can preview images on its 3.5-inch LCD touch screen. It has a memory-card reader, which supports formats in the SD/SDHC, Memory Stick, Microdrive, xD/Picture Card families, and even CompactFlash.
The MG7120 is glossy black with beveled front and sides. (A white version of the printer is also available.) The front panel's centerpiece is the 3.5-inch touch screen; the printer lacks physical buttons. A lid on top conceals the flatbed. It lacks an automatic document feeder for easily scanning multipage documents.
The MG7120 measures 5.9 by 18.4 by 14.6 inches (HWD) and weighs 18.1 pounds. It has a 125-sheet main paper tray plus photo tray that fits 20 sheets of 4-by-6 paper or 10 sheets of 5-by-7 paper; it can also print on optical disks. It has an automatic duplexer for printing on both sides of a sheet of paper.
The inkjet MFP is efficiently designed, with the two paper trays stacked together underneath the fold-open output tray. The MG7120 has 6 ink tanks: pigment black (for text printing); yellow; cyan; magenta; dye black; and gray; the latter two to enhance photo quality.
A program in the software suite lets you set the text and images for printing on optical disks, and offers a choice of layout templates. My Image Garden lets you organize photos and easily use them in creative projects.
Mobile Printing
This AirPrint compatible MFP also provides access to Pixma Cloud Link, which lets you print pictures from online photo albums, office templates, and more, even without a computer; and Google Cloud Print, which lets you send documents to your printer from any Web-connected computer, smart phone, or device. It supports PIXMA Printing Solutions (PPS), which lets you print and scan photos or documents from your mobile device.
With the cloud printing function you can print directly from select popular online Cloud services, such as Picasa Web Albums, Flickr, Facebook, Twitter, Dropbox, and more, either at the printer itself or with your mobile device using the free PPS app. You can also print from afar, by sending an email to a dedicated email address for the printer.
This printer offers Wi-Fi and USB connectivity; I tested it over a USB connection with its driver installed on a PC running Windows Vista.
Print Speed
The MG7120 printed out the latest version of our business applications suite (as timed by QualityLogic's hardware and software) at a speed of 2.5 effective pages per minute (ppm), which is slow for an inkjet MFP at its price. We timed the HP Photosmart 7520 e-All-in-One at 3.7 ppm; the lower-priced Canon Pixma MG5520 turned in a 2.6 ppm speed. The Editors' Choice Canon Pixma MX922, which despite its name packs in as many features for home use as for home- or micro-office use, tested at 2.4 ppm.
Output Quality
Overall output quality was above par for an inkjet, with average text and graphics quality and above-average photo quality. Text quality is fine for standard home, school, or business uses, though you probably wouldn't use it for documents such as resumes with which you seek to make a good visual impression.
As for graphics, although colors generally looked good, backgrounds were a bit muted in several illustrations. In one figure, thin colored lines were nearly lost. Many illustrations showed dithering in the form of graininess.
Photo quality was above par for an inkjet, better than what you'd expect from drugstore prints. A monochrome photo showed a hint of red, but subtle enough that few eyes would give it any heed; it only bears mention because among the 6 ink tanks, in addition to pigment black for text, are dye ink tanks for both black and gray. Prints showed good detail in both light and dark areas, except in one print where some detail was lost in a bright area. One print showed a bit of posterization, abrupt changes in color where they should be gradual. Consumers in general should be happy with the MG7120's print quality.
Running Costs
The cost per printed page for the MG7120, based on Canon's prices and yield figures for the most cost-effective cartridges, is 4.6 cents per monochrome page and 13.5 cents per color page.
The MG7120 is a handsome and capable home-centered MFP with solid output quality, led by good photo quality. It is slow for its price, though no more so than other Canon inkjet MFPs we've reviewed, including the Canon Pixma MG5520 and Canon MX922. It also shares with them solid output quality, with above-par photos.
For $50 more than you'd pay for the Canon Pixma MG5520 Wireless Photo All-in-One Printer, the MG7120 adds a larger, touch screen (the MG5520's screen is non-touch, controlled by buttons) plus the ability to print from memory cards, plus the gray ink tank (the Canon MG5520 has the standard color tanks plus a both pigment and dye blacks). For many users, those flourishes will be worth the extra cash.
While the MG7120 has a solid set of features, particularly for home use, the Editors' Choice Canon Pixma MX922 adds a raft of features, many of them good for either home, home-office, or micro-office use. These include Ethernet in addition to Wi-Fi and USB; a 35-sheet duplexing automatic document feeder (ADF); fax capability; and a 250-sheet main paper tray plus a 20-sheet photo-paper tray, while retaining home features like the ability to print on optical disks and superior photo quality. It does have a port for a USB thumb drive instead of the MG7120's memory-card reader, but in either case, it's easy enough to print from a thumb drive or memory card from a PC's port or card slot.
For some home users, the MX922's extra features will be overkill, and for them, the MG7120 may be a compelling choice. Although all three of the Canon MFPs mentioned here have above-average photo quality, the addition of the sixth ink tank could make a difference, particularly in rendering subtle shades of gray. It's a nice touch for a $150 printer.
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