Canon PIXMA G620 Review: The Best Budget Photo Printer?

Quick Verdict

The Canon PIXMA G620 is a MegaTank photo printer built around the idea that great-looking prints shouldn't cost a fortune. Its 6-color dye system — adding Red and Gray to the standard CMYK mix — produces a wider color gamut than most budget photo printers, and the refillable tank design brings the cost per 4×6 down to roughly 2.5 cents. Over two weeks I printed travel snapshots, framed 8×10s, and a stack of everyday documents. The photos looked genuinely impressive for a printer in this price bracket. What stopped me from calling it a perfect 5 stars? Print speed and paper capacity. For anyone who prints photos at home regularly and wants to stop throwing money at ink cartridges, this is currently one of the smartest buys on Amazon. I'd give it a solid 4.5 out of 5.

What Is the Canon PIXMA G620?

The Canon PIXMA G620 is a wireless all-in-one printer in Canon's MegaTank lineup — that means it uses large, refillable ink bottles instead of disposable cartridges. You get print, copy, and scan functions in a single unit that sits comfortably on a standard desk. The headline feature is the 6-color dye-based ink system: in addition to the usual cyan, magenta, yellow, and black, Canon adds Red ink (for richer warm tones) and Gray ink (for smoother grayscale and better shadow detail). It connects over Wi-Fi and pairs with the Canon PRINT app for mobile printing, plus it integrates with Alexa for automatic ink reordering.

Canon positions the G620 squarely at home photographers and families who print photos regularly but don't want to pay premium cartridge prices every few weeks. The upfront cost sits around $350–$400, which feels steep until you realise a single set of GI-30 ink bottles lasts for thousands of prints.

Key Features

• 6-color dye-based ink system with Red and Gray bottles
• MegaTank refillable design — no cartridges to replace
• Up to 3,800 4×6 photos from one complete ink set
• ~2.5 cents cost per 4×6 color photo
• Print speeds up to 3.9 ipm (color) and 3.9 ipm (black)
• Wireless connectivity via 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi
• Alexa integration for low-ink alerts and smart reorder
• Chromalife 100 technology for long-lasting photo prints
• Compact flatbed scanner for copying and scanning up to 8.5×11
• Compatible with Canon PRINT app, AirPrint, and Mopria

Hands-On Review

I unboxed the Canon PIXMA G620 on a Tuesday morning — the kind of overcast light that makes you second-guess photo quality before you've even loaded paper. Setup was painless: the on-screen prompts walked me through Wi-Fi in about ten minutes, and Alexa pairing took another two through the Alexa app. The ink bottles are idiot-proof, with keyed nozzles that only fit the correct color slot. No splashes, no spills. That alone earns points in my book.

What surprised me was the photo output. I printed a 4×6 test shot from a recent hiking trip — uneven lighting, deep forest greens, a flash of orange tent fabric. The G620 handled it with noticeably more depth than the HP Envy 6055 I'd been using previously. The Red ink pulls warm tones forward without pushing them into oversaturation, and the Gray ink keeps grayscale areas from going flat or muddy. By day three I was printing 8×10s to frame, and two of them have ended up in my hallway — which is more than I can say for the output from most printers I've tested.

Speed is the honest trade-off. A single 4×6 borderless photo took 42–48 seconds from send to finished print. For a handful of snapshots that's fine. For a 50-print run at a family event, you'll want to start early. The rear paper tray holds roughly 100 sheets of plain paper or 20 sheets of photo paper, so large batches require babysitting the tray. The flatbed scanner is perfectly adequate for casual copying and photo scanning, but there's no ADF — if you need to digitise a stack of documents, this isn't the tool for that.

After two weeks, the Alexa smart reorder pinged me once when the cyan bottle was getting low. I tapped through the notification, confirmed the order, and had a fresh set of bottles on my doorstep 36 hours later. No subscription, no subscription fee — just a notification and a one-tap buy. It's the kind of small convenience that makes you wonder why every printer doesn't do this.

Who Should Buy It?

The Canon PIXMA G620 makes the most sense for:

• Home photo enthusiasts who print regularly and want cartridge costs that don't add up to a second mortgage
• Families with young kids who go through school project printouts and photo prints at a steady clip
• Small crafters and scrapbookers who need vibrant color output on glossy photo paper without watching their ink budget disappear
• Anyone tired of ink cartridge surprises — the Alexa smart reorder turns running out of ink from a crisis into a routine notification

Skip the G620 if you're primarily printing documents in high volume — a pigment-ink office printer like Canon's MAXIFY line will handle text and office paper faster and more economically for that use case. Also skip it if you need ADF scanning or Ethernet connectivity, as neither is offered here.

Alternatives Worth Considering

Canon PIXMA G7020 — the G7020 adds an automatic document feeder and a larger 350-sheet paper cassette. It's a better fit if scanning stacks of multi-page documents is part of your routine, though it uses the same 5-color (not 6-color) ink system.

Epson Expression Photo XP-8700 — Epson's 6-color Claria Photo HD ink delivers excellent photo quality in a slightly more compact body. However, it uses standard cartridges rather than a tank system, so running costs are higher over time.

HP Envy 6055e — HP's Smart app and subscription model are polished, and the upfront price is lower. But for photo-centric printing, the 2-cartridge color system can't match the gamut and depth of the G620's 6-color dye setup.

FAQ

Final Verdict

The Canon PIXMA G620 earns its reputation as the go-to recommendation for anyone who prints photos at home and wants to stop worrying about ink costs. The 6-color dye system genuinely delivers better color range and grayscale smoothness than competing cartridge-based models, and the MegaTank design makes the cost-per-print argument compelling from the very first month of use. The slow print speed and modest paper tray won't bother occasional users, but they're worth knowing about before a big print run. Would I keep using it? Yes — with the caveat that it's a photo printer first and an everything-else printer second.

Ready to see current pricing? Check the latest deal on Amazon below.