Canon fires another salvo in the world of small office/home office (SoHo) printers with two models that suit different budgets and requirements. The Japanese company’s Pixma G3770 and the imageCLASS LBP361dw are inkjet and laser printers, respectively, that aim to make your SoHo experience a more productive one.
Canon Pixma G3770
Canon’s Pixma G3770 is a wireless inkjet printer with a refillable ink tank for added convenience. There is no need to pop in new ink cartridges when the old ones run out; simply top up the ink tank and you are good to go.
Take advantage of wireless printing from your smartphone by installing the Canon PRINT app. After installation, you are free to print any document or photos from your smartphone without having to connect to a computer. Neat, no?
The app also includes the manual, and even comes with the option to order ink/consumables when you are close to running out.
You can also copy (in black and white or colour) and scan your documents or photos, though the latter activity requires compatible software on your computer or your phone camera while using the app.
The Pixma G3770 has a print speed of up to 11 pages per minute in monochrome and six pages per minute in colour, with a recommended monthly print volume of up to 1,500 pages. The high-page-yield ink bottles can print up to 7,600 pages (mono) and 8,100 pages (colour) in Economy mode.
Refilling the ink tanks is an easy affair: you will not accidentally mix the colours as the nozzle of each ink bottle’s nozzle can only fit its specific tank.
Canon imageCLASS LBP361dw
While this is the era of going paperless, a paper trail is still needed in certain situations. A dot-matrix printer is insufficient for enterprises, leaving a laser printer as the only choice for speedy high-volume printing.
In this regard, Canon’s imageCLASS LBP361dw is a robust workhorse for growing enterprises and small workgroups. This monochrome printer brings together high performance and minimal maintenance, with the option to scale its capability to increase business productivity.
Capable of churning out 61 pages per minute, it has a maximum print resolution of 1,200 x 1,200 dpi and can store up to 4,3000 sheets of paper.
With a maximum recommended monthly print volume of 16,000 pages, you will certainly not find it lacking when it comes to churning out your business documents in style.
Connectivity options are aplenty. There’s Gigabit Ethernet for the fastest, most stable connection within the same network, and you can also connect via Wi-Fi to print from your computer or smartphone.
Alternatively, if this is solely going to be your personal printer – as unlikely as this might seem, given its 23kg weight and price point – you can hook up to it directly via the integrated Access Point Mode.
Meanwhile, those who are big on saving the environment will be chuffed to discover the imageCLASS LBP361dw lets you print on both sides (up to A5 size media).
A five-line LCD display lets you configure the settings easily, and the navigation buttons offer solid haptic feedback. All relevant information can be seen at a glance on the LCD display.
Data sent to the printer is encrypted using the latest TLS 1.3 protocol, and the printer also monitors system integrity with its “Verify System at Startup” feature.
So, which printer should you get? It truly depends on your budget and your needs: the Pixma G3770 retails for RM809, while the imageCLASS LBP361dw has an asking price of RM8,390.
The former will cater to smaller companies and individuals who deal with colour prints, and the latter is a no-nonsense enterprise workhorse that churns out hundreds of pages without missing a beat.
Learn more about the Pixma G3770 here, and the imageCLASS LBP361dw here.
The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of FMT Lifestyle.
Edwin Kee dreamt of being a pro-gamer only to have circumstances mould him into a programmer in a past life. He has since moved on to write about consumer electronics and other topics.