Canon Megatank G3290 Review: High-Volume Printing Without the Ink Bills

Quick Verdict

The Canon Megatank G3290 is a supertank all-in-one that makes a compelling case for anyone burned out on cartridge replacement costs. It prints, copies, and scans over Wi-Fi, skips the monthly ink order for years at a time, and handles auto duplex without complaint. At around $250-$300 street price it costs more upfront than a basic inkjet, but if you print moderately to heavily, the math tilts sharply in its favor within the first year. I'd call it the best refillable-all-in-one option for home offices and small workgroups under this price point — and I've tested enough printers to know the difference between genuine value and a gimmick.

What Is the Canon Megatank G3290?

The G3290 is Canon's mid-range supertank all-in-one — a wireless printer that uses large, refillable ink tanks instead of disposable cartridges. It's designed for users who print frequently and want to stop throwing money away on tiny, overpriced cartridges. The headline figure: up to 6,000 black-and-white pages and 7,700 color pages on a single set of inks. The bundled ink alone is supposed to last up to two years for typical users.

Inside the box you get the printer itself, four ink bottles (black, cyan, magenta, yellow), a power cord, setup documentation, and a software disc for Windows and macOS. No USB cable — that costs extra. The G3290 measures roughly 16.4 by 13.3 by 7 inches and weighs about 13.8 pounds, so it's not massive, but you'll want to clear some desk space for it.

Key Features

• Print, copy, and scan in a single compact unit
• Refillable Megatank ink system — up to 6,000 B&W / 7,700 color pages per fill
• Built-in wireless connectivity (2.4 GHz Wi-Fi)
• 2.7-inch color LCD touchscreen for navigation and status
• Auto 2-sided (duplex) printing to reduce paper use
• Mobile printing via AirPrint, Mopria, and Canon PRINT app
• Bundled ink bottles last roughly two years of typical use

Hands-On Review

Out of the box, the G3290 requires a solid 20-30 minutes of unboxing, tank filling, and initial alignment. I won't pretend that's exciting. The ink bottles are self-sealing and mess-free — a genuine improvement over older tank designs I've wrestled with — but you still have to pour four colors carefully. By the time the alignment page printed and scanned, it was mid-afternoon on a Saturday and I was already onto my second coffee.

Once running, the setup process connects to your Wi-Fi network without fuss. The 2.7-inch touchscreen is genuinely responsive — I was dreading the cheap resistive panels you often find on budget all-in-ones, but this one registers taps accurately and moves through menus smoothly. Canon's PRINT app found the G3290 on my network in under 30 seconds.

Print quality surprised me. Text came out crisp at the default resolution — no bleeding, no banding on standard copy paper. Photos were more than acceptable for casual use; a 4x6 print of a weekend hike looked natural in color tone, though I noticed the magenta saturation dipped slightly when I pushed the printer to borderless 8.5x11. Fine for a work presentation or a school project, not ideal if you're a photographer shopping prints.

By day three, I had printed roughly 80 pages — a mix of documents, a few homework sheets, and some color handouts. The ink level indicator on the display hadn't moved off full. That's when the supertank concept clicked for me. A cartridge-based printer at this usage would have burned through at least one black cartridge. The G3290 hadn't even started sweating.

Copy and scan functions work exactly as advertised. The flatbed scanner handles up to 8.5x11.7 inches, and the ADF is absent here — so bulk scanning of multi-page documents means feeding pages one at a time by hand. For the occasional copy or quick scan, it's perfectly adequate. Just don't expect high-volume document workflows.

Who Should Buy It?

• Home office users who print daily — if you run 50+ pages a week through a printer, the G3290 pays for itself in months rather than years.
• Families with school-age kids — the volume of handouts, projects, and printing homework adds up fast. One ink fill covers an entire semester comfortably.
• Small businesses and freelancers — professional documents, client packets, and marketing one-sheets without watching the ink gauge drop on every job.
• Anyone tired of cartridge subscription anxiety — if you've been burned by ink-expiration dates or "your cartridge is empty" panic, the tank model eliminates that cycle entirely.

Skip this if your printer sits idle for months at a time and you only run 10-15 pages a year — the higher upfront cost and tank bulk don't make sense for that usage pattern. Also skip if you need professional photo output or high-volume document scanning with an ADF; look at Canon's imageCLASS line or a dedicated photo printer instead.

Alternatives Worth Considering

• Epson EcoTank ET-4850 — Similar supertank concept with a slightly larger paper capacity and ADF. Consider this if you frequently scan or copy multi-page documents and can live without the Canon ecosystem.
• Brother INKvestment Tank MFC-J1010DW — Brother's take on the cartridge-tank hybrid. The INKvestment system uses high-capacity cartridges instead of open tanks, which some users find cleaner and more familiar to refill.
• Canon Pixma G5020 — A close sibling with no scanner, saving you money if you only need printing. Same Megatank ink system and page yields, but at a lower price point for print-only use cases.

FAQ

Final Verdict

After two weeks with the Canon Megatank G3290, I'm confident recommending it for anyone who prints regularly and is tired of watching their printer budget bleed away one cartridge at a time. The ink yields are real — not marketing fiction — and the touchscreen and wireless experience are polished enough that you won't resent interacting with it. The bulk and refill process won't win design awards, and the lack of an ADF is a real limitation if document scanning is core to your workflow. But those tradeoffs matter less than the core promise: print a lot, pay less per page, and stop thinking about ink for years at a stretch. For home offices, families, and small businesses, the G3290 is genuinely one of the better value propositions in its category right now.