Hands-On Competitive Test Report and Videos: Canon MAXIFY vs. HP Officejet Pro Inkjet AiO’s — Which Brand is Best for Your Business?

 With their rich feature sets and low Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) and energy consumption, we’ve always maintained that in many way, business-inkjet printers represent the cutting edge in a sea of change. More recently, inkjet printers have attained a level of performance and manageability to the point where they can replace laser printers for micro- and small workgroup use in nearly any office, business, or enterprise. While these products are available from multiple vendors such as Brother, Canon, Epson, and Hewlett-Packard, we decided to test and compare three pairs of competitive models from the two vendors with the most experience in the business world, Canon and HP.

Naturally, there’s more to business-class printers than feeds-and-speeds or a rich feature set – they must also be easy to use, deploy, manage, and support as well as be able to withstand the rigors of daily use by casual users. This means that maintenance must also be top-notch, with easy media handling procedures (loading/changing media and accessing/removing of misfeeds), with easy-to-change high-capacity supplies.

About Business-Class Inkjet

Hewlett Packard Company (HP) introduced its first inkjet printer (Thinkjet) in 1984, and has been producing desktop and console inkjet printers and All-in-Ones (AiOs) targeted at the office environment for over 10 years. In fact, based on HP internal sales figures, two out of three Fortune 500 companies use HP Officejet Pro printers and AiOs for their office-printing needs.

Canon, Inc. introduced its first desktop inkjet printer (BJ-80 [Bubble Jet]) in 1985, and until the introduction of its MAXIFY series of printers and AiOs in late 2014, has concentrated for the most part on the consumer market with its PIXMA series of inkjet printers and AiOs. The MAXIFY series is Canon’s first entry into the office desktop-inkjet printer market, and the imaging technology it employs is largely based on existing PIXMA designs. While its desktop inkjet-printing technology offers no new innovation or technology, the MAXIFY line is supplemented by marketing and support plans that are tailored for the U.S. business market.

Printer Models Tested

Following are the key specifications of the models that we chose for this Hands-On Competitive Test. For more details including Total Cost of Ownership, Cost Per Page, test results, and a detailed feature-set comparison, you can view or download the full Hands-On Competitive Test Report here.

Specification	MAXIFY MB2020	Officejet Pro 6830	MAXIFY MB2320	Officejet Pro 8610	MAXIFY MB5020	Officejet Pro 8620
MSRP	$179.99	$179.99	$199.99	$199.99	$299.99	$299.99
Mo. Duty Cycle	15,000 pages	15,000 pages	15,000 pages	25,000 pages	30,000 pages	30,000 pages
Inking System	Thermal inkjet	Thermal inkjet	Thermal inkjet	Thermal inkjet	Thermal inkjet	Thermal inkjet
Ink Type	Pigment CYMK	Pigment CYMK	Pigment CYMK	Pigment CYMK	Pigment CYMK	Pigment CYMK
Max. Resolution	600 x 1,200 dpi	4,800 x 1,200 dpi	600 x 1,200 dpi	4,800 x 1,200 dpi	600 x 1,200 dpi	4,800 x 1,200 dpi
ISO Print Speed (Black/Color)	16.0/11.0 ppm	18.0/18.0 ppm	23.0/15.0 ppm	18.0/13.0 ppm	23.0/15.0 ppm	21.0/16.5 ppm
Duplex Printing	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Borderless Printing	No	Yes	No	Yes	No	Yes
Draft Mode	No	Yes	No	Yes	No	Yes
Mobile/Remote Printing	Yes/Yes	Yes/Yes	Yes/Yes	Yes/Yes	Yes/Yes	Yes/Yes
Mobile Scanning	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Duplex Scanning	No	No	No	No	No	Yes
Flatbed Size	8.5” x 11.7” (A4)	8.5” x 11.7” (A4)	8.5″ x 11.7″ (A4)	8.5” x 14” (Legal)	8.5” x 11.7” (A4)	8.5” x 14” (Legal)
Scan to Cloud	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes