Canon imageCLASS MF743Cdw Printer Review

The Canon MF743Cdw has outstanding build quality. It's made entirely of solid and sturdy-feeling plastic. The input tray has sliders to accommodate different paper sizes. The hinges for the scanner lid raise to accommodate thicker items like books or manuals. Also, the scanner lid automatically stays open. It also has a very user-friendly design, with easy access to the toner cartridges and paper jams. The power cable can be unplugged and replaced if it gets damaged. Unfortunately, the display screen sticks out on the right side, which means you can't have the printer pressed against a wall from this angle. That said, this is a minor issue.

The Canon MF743Cdw is large and bulky. It weighs more than the Canon imageCLASS MF644Cdw and isn't an ideal choice if space is limited. The display screen sticks out on the right-hand side, preventing you from pressing the printer flush against a wall on this side.

The Canon MF743Cdw's display screen is remarkable. It's a very large touchscreen with physical buttons on either side for different features. The screen has good sensitivity and responds fast to touch commands, and there's easy access to the printer's status reports. Unfortunately, it may be hard to see in a bright room because there's a lot of glare.

• Getting Started guide
• Power cable
• Phone cable
• Main paper tray cover for legal paper size
• Canon 055 toner and drum kit unit
• 1x 055 Black
• 1x 055 Cyan
• 1x 055 Magenta
• 1x 055Yellow

The Canon MF743Cdw has an exceptional cartridge system. Each cartridge has an integrated drum unit, so you won't have to buy one separately when you replace the toner. The page yield for both black and color printing is very high. Also, the printer is available with higher-yielding cartridges but won't accept third-party toner.

The Canon MF743Cdw has excellent scanning features. It has an automatic document feeder that can duplex scan, and a flatbed for scanning thick or fragile items, such as large books and old photos. While the scan resolution isn't as high as others on the market, it should still be high enough for office use or casual photo scanning.

Note: We could only get the scanning software, the Scanner MF Utility App, to work via USB and not over a wireless connection. If you've also been unable to scan wirelessly with the native software, let us know in the discussions.

The Canon imageCLASS MF743Cdw's cost-per-print is excellent. This printer is ideally suited for printing in black and white since the overall costs remain low as volume increases. The cost of printing in color can rise quickly the more you print, and the cost of replacing the three color toner cartridges is expensive. That said, the cartridges have high yields and won't often need replacing, which keeps costs down.

The Canon imageCLASS MF743Cdw has great printing speed. It prints color documents much faster than it does black documents, and it prints color photos very quickly. The first page of a print job does take a bit longer than the subsequent pages, but not by much.

The Canon MF743Cdw's color accuracy is impressive. It's high enough for those who are printing photos casually or want to add a splash of color to a document but won't be good enough for those in graphic design or print media.

The Canon MF743Cdw has passable photo printing quality, especially for a laser printer. The colors have good detailing, but appear muted. The test was done with 8.5" x 11" glossy paper, as the printer doesn't accept 5" x 7" pages. Also, Canon doesn't recommend printing on glossy paper with this model.

While the Canon MF743Cdw's paper tray can be manually adjusted to accommodate most paper formats, there aren't any presets in the settings for photo paper, since printing photos isn't recommended with a laser model.

The Canon MF743Cdw has outstanding connectivity options. You can connect to the printer over Wi-Fi, USB, or Ethernet, and there's support for Apple AirPrint and Mopria Print Service. Also, there's NFC capability and external storage support for printing off USB flash drives. Unfortunately, you can't connect via Bluetooth.

The Canon MF743Cdw is compatible with the outstanding Canon PRINT Business app. It prints almost all file formats and allows you to print and scan directly from your app. That said, the scan resolution from the app is reduced to 300 DPI from 600.