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The Canon Color imageClass MF753Cdw ($649) is a midrange all-in-one (AIO) color laser printer that’s designed for small-to-midsize offices or workgroups. It offers a significant boost in printing speeds over the previous Canon Color imageClass MF746Cdw. The print quality is top-tier, and it has a large 5.0-inch color touch screen with icon-based functions that you can customize with a simple drag-and-drop gesture. Plus, the toner cartridges include a built-in drum mechanism, so you’ll never have to replace a drum unit, as is usually required with laser printers. On the downside, the toner costs are somewhat high with this model, especially when printing color pages. If you can absorb that extra toner cost, the outstanding print quality and mix of user-friendly features may be strong enough to win you over. Design: Removing an Old BottleneckA recent trend with midrange workgroup AIO printers is the shift to smaller and lighter models. At 17.0 by 16.8 by 18.2 inches (HWD), the MF753Cdw is only slightly smaller than the previous MF746Cdw, which measured 18.4 by 18.8 by 18.8 inches (HWD). However, at 48.5 pounds, the MF753Cdw is significantly lighter than its predecessor, which weighs in at a hefty 64 pounds.
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For comparison, the Brother MFC-L3780CDW is even smaller and lighter at 15.8 by 18.2 by 16.1 inches (HWD) and 47.8 pounds. And the HP Color LaserJet Pro MFP 4301fdw is yet another notch smaller and lighter at 15.1 by 16.6 by 17.1 inches (HWD) and 45 pounds. Keep in mind that lightweight printers may not necessarily be a good thing. It could indicate a more efficient design, but it could also mean less structural metal and more plastic inside.
(Credit: Canon)
Despite their differences in size and weight, these models have similar capacities. All four have a 250-sheet input tray and a 50-sheet automatic document feeder (ADF). The Canon models and HP model have a 50-sheet multipurpose tray, while the Brother model lags behind slightly with its 30-sheet multipurpose tray. One issue with the MF746Cdw has been its less-than-generous 75-sheet paper output bin. The MF753Cdw removes that bottleneck by doubling the capacity of the output bin to 150 sheets. That’s the same as both the Brother and HP models, and it’s pretty much standard these days for medium-volume AIO laser printers.
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Because these models are designed for small-to-midsize offices or workgroups, all four have the same 4,000-sheet maximum monthly page volume. If you plan on printing anywhere close to that maximum number, you should consider expanding the printer’s onboard paper input capacity. With the MF753Cdw, you can add the PF-K1 Optional Cassette ($249.99). It attaches to the bottom of the printer to add another 550 sheets, for a maximum capacity of 850 sheets (or 900 sheets if you include the 50-sheet ADF in the total). The HP Color LaserJet Pro MFP 4301fdw has a similar attachment that adds 550 sheets, and the Brother MFC-L3780CDW has one that adds 250 sheets. If you need an even larger onboard paper capacity, check out the Brother MFC-L9570CDW, which can be expanded all the way up to 2,380 sheets.Wi-Fi Setup Made EasyCanon keeps the setup process relatively simple. In addition to a well-illustrated setup guide, you’ll find a printed QR code that lets you quickly download a more comprehensive user’s guide to your phone. The toner cartridges are preloaded in the unit, so all you need to do is load in some paper, plug in the power cord, and configure the printer for its basic settings. You’ll also need to wait until you install the software on your computer before you connect it via USB to the printer. A removable warning strip covers the USB connector as a helpful reminder that you should wait until then.If you’ve ever encountered difficulties setting up your printer with your Wi-Fi network, you’ll be especially pleased with Canon’s new streamlined process. In addition to supporting Wi-Fi Direct, this model is much better than previous models at finding the available Wi-Fi networks and figuring out which kinds of security measures are being used. It’s now a simple four-step procedure: Press the Wireless LAN Settings button on the control panel, select the Wi-Fi network that you want to connect to, enter the encryption key/password, and close out the process.
(Credit: Canon)
The MF753Cdw can also operate as a standalone printer, copier, scanner, or fax machine. A built-in USB thumb drive port on the front of the unit allows for walk-up document printing and scan saving. You can scan a document and fax it over a phone line or send it as an internet fax (I-Fax). You can access many of the printer’s functions through its internal IP address, though the IP-connected device will need to be on the same network. On the mobile side, this model supports Apple AirPrint and Mopria Print Service. You can also display a QR code on the control panel to quickly pair the MF753Cdw with the Canon Print Business app on your iPhone or Android device.That QR code would be viewed on the MF753Cdw’s 5.0-inch color touch screen, which is located on the left-front side of the chassis. The touch screen is sufficiently bright and detailed, and the entire control panel can be tilted vertically to optimize the viewing angles. It’s not any bigger than the screen on the preceding MF746Cdw, but it’s larger than the 4.3-inch screen on the HP Color LaserJet Pro MFP 4301fdw or the 3.5-inch screen on the Brother MFC-L3780CDW.Drag-and-Drop IconsThe control panel on the MF753Cdw is especially easy to customize. It comes pre-configured with seven tabs, with each tab having as many as eight icon-based functions You can swipe left or right to navigate through the tabs. Want to change things around? Perhaps move the often-accessed functions to the front and the seldom-used functions to the back? Just press and hold an icon, and you’ll be able to drag and drop it wherever you want.
(Credit: Canon)
It’s good that you can customize the placement of the various icons, because you’ve got a dizzying array of icon options. Our review unit shipped with 33 pre-configured icons, and you can create new ones that pair a function with a specific destination. For example, you might have a departmental button that routes copies to an FTP server. Or you might have an invoice button that sends invoice-related scans to a dedicated network folder.The unit itself feels solidly constructed, except for the multipurpose tray, which doesn’t secure as tightly as it should when closed (perhaps two built-in magnets would have helped). The placement of the power button is also problematic, in that it’s too easy to accidentally press when opening or closing the multipurpose tray.On the plus side, there’s an extendable hinge on the ADF that allows it to be raised for scanning books, magazines, or other thicker-than-usual documents. You can easily access the toner cartridges from the front of the unit. They’re in a pull-out drawer, which is cleverly hidden behind the multipurpose tray. Each cartridge has a built-in drum mechanism, so you won’t have to periodically replace the drum unit, as you have to with many other laser printers.When installing the software to connect this printer to your PC via a USB or Ethernet cable, be sure to include the MF Scan Utility as part of the installation. Canon provides a handy OCR feature with this model that lets you scan your documents directly to searchable PDFs. That capability could be useful if you need to do keyword searches of scanned materials.Testing the MF753Cdw: Fast Text OutputCanon rates the MF753Cdw’s print speed at 35 pages per minute (ppm) in simplex (one-sided) mode. That’s relatively fast for a medium-volume laser-class AIO. It’s also significantly faster than the previous MF746Cdw, which is rated at 28ppm. For comparison, the HP Color LaserJet Pro MFP 4301fdw is also rated at 35ppm, while the Brother MFC-L3780CDW is rated at 31ppm. To see if the MF753Cdw could live up to its billing, I tested it over an Ethernet connection from our standard Intel Core i5 desktop testbed running Windows 10 Pro. The MF753Cdw comes out of the box configured to print two-sided (duplex) pages. In that scenario, we time and record both a printer’s one-sided (simplex) and two-sided performance. When printing our standard 12-page Microsoft Word text document (excluding the first page), I clocked the unit at 32ppm in duplex mode and 34.7ppm in simplex mode. That simplex result was just 0.3ppm shy of its rated speed. Given the potential margin of error when testing, that’s essentially the same speed.That 34.7ppm result was considerably faster than the 28.7ppm that the MF746Cdw scored on the same test, and it surpassed the 32ppm test result of the Brother MFC-L3780CDW. However, while the MF753Cdw’s speed is impressive, it didn’t quite match the performance of the HP Color LaserJet Pro MFP 4301fdw. Both are rated by their manufacturers at 35ppm, but the HP model was able to edge just beyond that to reach 36ppm in our simplex test.
Next, I timed the MF753Cdw as it printed our collection of colorful and complex business documents consisting of Adobe Acrobat PDFs, PowerPoint handouts, and Excel spreadsheets and graphs. When I combined those results with the scores from printing the 12-page Word document. I came up with an overall rating of 15.7ppm in simplex mode.That score is slightly below average among the other AIOs mentioned here. It did surpass the Brother MFC-L3780CDW by just over 2ppm. However, it lagged behind the HP Color LaserJet Pro MFP 4301fdw by 1.5ppm and the MF746Cdw by 1.7ppm.
The MF753Cdw is not a photo printer, though I did time it as it printed some of our 4-by-6-inch snapshots. It averaged about 7 seconds per image, which is relatively fast for a color laser printer.In summary, the MF753Cdw is comparatively fast when printing text-based documents. It falls back to more average speeds when dealing with graphics-heavy business documents, but is able to pick up the pace when printing photos.MF753Cdw Print Quality: Looking ProfessionalAlmost any laser-class printer can produce near-typesetter-quality text that’s suitable for most business text documents. The MF753Cdw is no exception. I was able to read its typical business fonts down to a very small 4-point size. I saw no stray marks or extraneous lines, and everything was clean and well-defined. The Excel charts and PowerPoint handouts I printed showed consistent colors, smooth gradations, and solid fills. The blacks were appropriately dark and rich. The colors were bright and distinct with no bleed-throughs or muddied areas.
(Credit: Canon)
The printed photos from the MF753Cdw looked particularly good. The colors were lively without being oversaturated. The photos showed a fair amount of detail and a pleasing amount of contrast. As with any laser printer, you won’t be able to print border-less pages as you can with an inkjet printer. However, the MF753Cdw’s photo print quality should be more than adequate for newsletters, brochures, real estate flyers, or similar business documents.As you might expect, Canon gives you a choice of buying regular- or high-yield replacement toner cartridges. You’ll want to opt for the latter, as toner costs are a weak point for the MF753Cdw. Even when using the high-yield cartridges, your running costs would be about 14.7 cents per color page and 2.4 cents per black-and-white page. With the regular-yield cartridges, those costs would soar to about 23.0 cents per color page and 4.7 cents per monochrome page. That’s quite a difference. On the other hand, you’ll have to pay significantly more upfront for the high-yield cartridges.For comparison, the HP Color LaserJet Pro MFP 4301fdw is only slightly less expensive than the MF753Cdw. When you choose its high-yield toner cartridges, your toner would cost about 14.1 cents for a color page and 2.3 cents for a monochrome page. The Canon MF746Cdw would cost you about 13.3 cents per color page and 2.5 cents per monochrome page, and the Brother MFC-L3780CDW would set you back about 12.3 cents for color and 2.3 cents for black-and-white pages.
(Credit: Canon)
While the MF753Cdw’s toner costs are somewhat high, it does have a secret weapon that could help keep your maintenance costs down. Most laser printers have a drum unit that needs to be replaced periodically. Drum units aren’t usually included in cost-of-page calculations, because they tend to have a long life and they may never have to be replaced in some light-duty situations.The MF753Cdw is unusual in that it doesn’t need a dedicated drum unit. Each toner cartridge has its own built-in drum mechanism. That built-in drum mechanism is probably adding a small extra cost to each cartridge, but you’ll—in effect—be getting a refund each time you don’t have to replace a costly drum unit with this model.Verdict: Speed That’s User-FriendlyThe Canon Color imageClass MF753Cdw is considerably faster than the previous model Canon Color imageClass MF746Cdw. It produces top-notch printed output, and it has a broad range of connectivity options, including a streamlined Wi-Fi setup process. You can easily customize the control panel’s interface using simple drag-and-drop gestures. This model also includes an OCR feature that converts scanned documents to searchable PDF files, and higher-volume users will benefit from not having to regularly replace a costly drum unit.While it does print faster, the MF753Cdw’s higher toner costs keep it from replacing the Brother MFC-L3780CDW as our Editors’ Choice pick for best mainstream color laser. On the other hand, if the higher print costs are less important than faster print speeds and user-friendly features, the MF753Cdw could be a better fit for your situation.And if you really like the MF753Cdw, but need to save some extra money up front, you might consider the Canon Color imageClass MF751Cdw ($599) as an alternative. It’s almost identical to the MF753Cdw, except it doesn’t include any fax functions and it’s limited to scanning only one side of a page at a time.
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