Canon PIXMA TS3520 vs HP DeskJet 2755e: The Cheapest Printers Compared Honestly

These are the printers people buy when they need a printer today and do not want to think about it. The Canon PIXMA TS3520 and the HP DeskJet 2755e are both about as cheap as a working all-in-one gets, and both make their money back on consumables. That is not a criticism, it is the business model, and understanding it is the only way to buy one sensibly.

Specifications side by side

They are close to identical in capability. Neither duplexes, neither has a feeder, neither holds much paper. The HP's scanner has the higher optical resolution; the Canon's ink architecture is the better one.

Running costs: the part that matters

At retail these are among the most expensive printers per page on the market. A colour page costs roughly 19 cents on the Canon and close to 28 cents on the HP. Printing 100 pages a month at those rates costs more per year than the printer did.

HP's answer is Instant Ink, and it is a genuinely good answer for this class of machine. Plans start around $1 a month for a handful of pages, scale up with rollover, and charge per page rather than per millilitre. If you print 50 to 100 mixed pages a month and stay subscribed, the DeskJet becomes far cheaper than the Canon. Photo printing in particular becomes almost free per page.

Our reduce printing costs guide covers the draft-mode and greyscale settings that reduce consumption on both, and ink tank vs cartridge explains why a refillable machine repays its higher price within a year at even modest volume.

Print quality and everyday use

Canon's PG-245 is a pigment black, which is unusual at this price. Text comes out dense and sharp with clean edges, and it resists water and highlighters. HP's 67 black is dye-based, which produces slightly softer characters that will smear if the page gets damp.

Colour is a wash. Both use a tri-colour cartridge, so both throw away usable cyan and yellow when the magenta runs out, and both mix black in photographs from three colours, giving muddy shadows. Photo output from either is acceptable for a fridge door and no more.

Speed is slow on both. Neither should be asked to produce more than a handful of pages at a time, and neither has automatic duplex, so double-sided printing means reloading by hand.

Who each printer suits

Choose the Canon PIXMA TS3520 if

• You print rarely and unpredictably, which suits cartridges better than a monthly plan.
• You want no account, no subscription and no online requirement.
• Text quality and water resistance matter, thanks to the pigment black.
• You want the cheaper retail cost per page of the two.

Choose the HP DeskJet 2755e if

• You will subscribe to Instant Ink and print a steady monthly volume.
• You print photographs and want per-page rather than per-cartridge pricing.
• You want the better scanner at 1200 dpi optical.
• You already use HP Smart and like its mobile scanning.

Setup, apps and drivers

Canon uses Canon PRINT for mobile setup and Canon IJ Setup on a computer. No account is required to finish setup, which is a real advantage if you want a printer and nothing else.

HP Smart is effectively mandatory for the DeskJet and doubles as the driver installer. It is the better-designed application, with good mobile scanning and document edge detection, but it requires an HP account and will offer HP+ and Instant Ink repeatedly. If HP Smart cannot find the printer, our HP Smart cannot find printer guide covers the network causes.

Both support AirPrint and Mopria Print Service, so basic printing works without either app.

Known weaknesses and common errors

Canon PIXMA TS3520

Canon's cartridges carry the printhead, so a clog is fixed by fitting a new cartridge rather than replacing the printer. That is a genuine advantage at this price. The trade-off is high cartridge cost, since you buy a printhead each time.

The waste ink absorber counter eventually produces error 5B00, though at typical low volumes that takes many years. Wireless dropouts after a router change are the routine ticket; see Canon printer will not connect.

HP DeskJet 2755e

The HP also uses cartridge-mounted printheads, so clogs are similarly recoverable. The common tickets are ink cartridge problem messages caused by contact contamination or a partially seated cartridge, and the printer dropping off the network as HP printer offline. A DHCP reservation solves the latter permanently.

HP+ lock-in and Instant Ink cancellation behaviour account for a large share of complaints about this model, and both are avoidable by reading the setup screens carefully.

Regional availability and model names

• United States and Canada: PIXMA TS3520 with PG-245 and CL-246 cartridges; DeskJet 2755e with HP 67 and 67XL.
• United Kingdom and Ireland: Canon sells the PIXMA TS3450 and TS3550i using PG-545 and CL-546 inks. HP sells the DeskJet 2720e, 2721e and 2723e using HP 305 and 305XL cartridges.
• Australia and New Zealand: Canon's local models are the TS3460 and TS3560 families; HP lists the DeskJet 2720 series with 305-series ink.

Cartridges do not cross regions. A US HP 67 will not authenticate in a UK DeskJet 2720e, and a UK PG-545 will not fit a North American TS3520.

Verdict

Choose the Canon PIXMA TS3520 if you print occasionally and want no strings. Its pigment black gives better text, its retail cost per page is roughly a third lower than the HP's, and you can buy a cartridge in a supermarket when you need one without thinking about a subscription.

Choose the HP DeskJet 2755e if you are going to subscribe to Instant Ink and stay subscribed. On a plan with steady volume it is the cheaper machine to run, and HP Smart is the better software. Off a plan, it is the most expensive way to put ink on paper that we regularly see.

The honest recommendation, though, is to spend more up front. A refillable tank printer costs three or four times as much and roughly one twentieth as much per page, breaking even inside a year at 100 pages a month. See our printer comparisons, or the Canon and HP support hubs.