Canon MX922 Review

The MX922 is discontinued. You can still find them online for close to $200. Considering the features and cheap ink, some people consider it worth the price. You can also look for Canon printers which take the PGI270/CLI271 cartridges also available for about $1.

MX922 Review

I have never seen a printer with these features at a low price which also uses cheap cartridges.

Pros: duplex printing and scanning, fabulous photos, cheap ink, DVD printing, 250-sheet paper tray, 35-page auto document feeder, switch automatically between photo and regular paper, can handle heavier paper than most printers.

Cons: a little slower than most inkjet printers. Though the printer specifications appear to support printing directly from a cell phone with no router present, I have been unable to find any instructions and Canon tech support wasn't helpful. I was able to connect to google cloud print but I suspect that was because I had a router. You can print directly from a camera if it has pictbridge. The printer also has a usb port which can read flash drives. You can buy a USB smartmedia card reader or a cable which connects your camera to a usb port and feed your digital images from your camera to the printer with no computer needed.

I bought this printer at the end of April 2016 for my son to print photos of my grandson. The decision was based on an article about the top ten photo printers. This was the only printer on the list which could also be used as a regular printer and was not terribly expensive. I then bought another one for myself and when the price dropped to $40, I picked up another. So this review is based on two printers we have owned for over two years (plus many more, since I have told many others to buy it).

Setup was fairly simple. You insert the cartridges and a light goes on as each is recognized (nice touch - I wish Epson had this). I used only our own brand of compatible cartridges (available for $1.00, depending on quantity). I sold the genuine Canon cartridges which came with it to someone who believed they were worth so much more. You must insert a special alignment page and let it run for about 7 minutes. It found my wireless network and I manually entered the password. I installed the software on my PC and was up and running in minutes.

I printed photos in several sizes on Canon photo paper and plain paper. Even full page photos on plain paper looked good. On photo paper they were stunning. Print speed was surprisingly good. Some reviewers claimed this printer is slow. While it may be slower than the Epson Workforce 3620/3640, it is not by much. I don't find the speed a problem and I use it daily. It does have the slightly annoying habit that the first time you print after a long period of inactivity, it goes through some sort of process for about 15-20 seconds, but once it gets going, speed is acceptable. My son prints hundreds of pages a day. He starts the process going and comes back to pick them up when the printer is finished. He has no complaints about the speed either. He has a laser printer but he says it can jam when the output try is full. The Canon simply stops printing and waits for the output tray to be cleared,then resumes. It has become my main printer. It prints both sides of the paper.

The printer can hold both photo paper in several sizes and regular paper at the same time and will automatically switch between them. Canon often has incredible sales on photo paper, with prices as low as $10 for 10 packs. Sign up for our newsletter and we'll let you know when they have the next one. When you place an order for ink, let us know you're looking for photo paper since we stocked up. Canon photo paper works great with Epson, Brother and HP printers as well.

I also used it to print the addresses on heavier stock wedding invitations. I was able to load about 15 envelopes at a time in the tray and the printer zipped through them quickly and flawlessly.

Scanning and copying is fast and easy, particularly since this has a 35-page sheet-feeder. Put a stack of pages in it and it will feed them through. No need to lift up the lid and put them in one at a time. It can also print on CDs and DVDs.

I recently had to call Canon twice, once for a neighbor's MX922 which would not print at all and recently for my own printer which started displaying "the print head is not compatible to this printer." Both times, I was on the line with a support person in under 5 minutes. The people spoke clear English and were knowledgeable about the issue. They were not from some call center just reading off a script, like Epson and HP. For my neighbor's machine they determined it needed repair which was not under warranty. For mine they determined the head had gone bad and immediately offered to send a new one, though I wasn't sure it was under warranty. The new print head arrived 2 days later via Fedex. Replacing it was wonderfully simple (unlike Epson). The printer works again. So I am impressed.