Canon PIXMA TS6420a Review: The A3-Inkjet Question, Real TCO Numbers, and a Procurement Manager's Calculator Rule

If you don't need A3, the Canon PIXMA TS6420a all-in-one wireless inkjet printer is the best office printer we've bought since 2019. If you do need A3, it's not for you—and no amount of cost-per-page math will change that.

Here's the number that matters: our two-year total cost of ownership came to $412. The printer itself cost $99. The rest went to ink, paper, power, and one third-party cartridge mistake. In other words, a Canon printer isn't one purchase; it's an ongoing supply contract.

Why You Should Trust These Numbers

I'm a procurement manager at a 42-person marketing agency. I've managed our office print budget—roughly $38,000 a year for internal printing and client collateral—for six years. I've negotiated with 17 equipment and supply vendors, and every invoice gets logged in a cost tracking spreadsheet. I don't get paid to like a product; I get paid to know what it costs.

The A3 Inkjet Review Rabbit Hole

Early in 2024, I read a stack of Canon A3 inkjet printer reviews because our creative team insisted they needed A3 for moodboards. The pattern was clear: a Canon A3 inkjet printer is a purpose-built tool. The hardware price is high, and the ink consumption is higher. Many owners reported spending more on ink in the first six months than on the printer itself.

We also had a communication problem. I kept saying 'A3' to the creative team and hearing 'A3' back, but they meant posters and I meant oversized spreadsheets. We were using the same word with different expectations. Discovered this when the first A3 test print arrived and the designer said it was 'not what I wanted'—or rather, it was exactly what they asked for, but not what they meant.

We didn't need that. Most of our A3 jobs went to an outside print vendor—like 48 Hour Print, which handles our annual reports and posters. So we kept big-format work out of the office and bought the TS6420a for daily printing. That split alone saved us more than the printer cost.

The Calculator Rule That Changed How I Buy Printers

I keep a scrap gold calculator and a rent calculator in my bookmarks. The first came in handy when we sold a bin of old electronics and wanted a sanity check on the buyback quote. The second helps when we compare renewing our office lease against a hybrid setup. They look unrelated to printers, but the logic is the same: an estimate is only as good as its inputs. A rent calculator that ignores utilities and parking is useless. A scrap gold calculator that ignores purity and market prices is worse. So for printers, I built a running cost-per-page spreadsheet that captures everything a product page doesn't show.

Here is what actually showed up in our spreadsheet over 24 months:

• Printer purchase: $99 (street price in January 2025; I've seen it at $79 around holiday promos)
• OEM ink—the initial setup cartridges plus three refills: $186
• Third-party cartridge experiment: $18 for the cartridge, plus about $31 in wasted time and paper
• Paper and basic supplies: $78
• Estimated power: $10
• Shipping and repairs: $0 (no issues after the cartridge incident)

Total: $412. That's about $0.043 per page if my print count is right—or rather, $0.041 if I count duplex pages as one full page. I might be misremembering the exact count, but the ratio is close enough to guide the budget.

The Counterintuitive Part: Cheap Ink Was the Most Expensive Mistake

I said, 'Let's buy the $18 compatible cartridge and save $54.' The upside was a lower cost per page. The risk was a clogged printhead. I kept asking myself: is $54 worth potentially $150 in service calls? I answered yes, and I was wrong. Looking back, I should have stuck with OEM ink. At the time, the savings looked too real. I'm not saying third-party ink is always bad; I'm saying the savings won't show up in a rent calculator or a scrap gold calculator, because those calculators don't include the cost of a failed experiment.

Why I Don't Trust the 'Low Cost Per Page' Claim

Per FTC guidelines (ftc.gov), advertising claims like 'lowest cost per page' need to be truthful and substantiated. But substantiated does not mean universal. The box's claim comes from a lab test page, not our actual layouts with heavy color blocks. My spreadsheet includes our real jobs, so it's less pretty and more accurate.

Shipping is another quiet cost. USPS rates as of January 2025: a 1-oz First-Class Mail letter is $0.73, and a large envelope is $1.50. Ink cartridges often ship in padded flats, so that $1.50 matters—especially when you reorder every few months. Small line items add up in ways the manufacturer doesn't list.

What's Changed Since 2020

What was best practice in 2020 may not apply in 2025. Five years ago, buying a laser printer for office text was almost automatic. Laser is still cheaper for high-volume black-and-white printing. But for a small agency with mixed content, the TS6420a's ink efficiency has improved enough to make a compact inkjet worth a second look. The fundamentals haven't changed—calculate total cost, not sticker price—but the execution has transformed.

When This Printer Isn't the Right Answer

A review without limitations isn't useful. Here are the boundaries:

• If you truly need A3, this is not your printer. Look at Canon A3 inkjet printer reviews and budget for ink accordingly, or outsource your A3 work.
• If you print more than 3,000 pages a month, a managed print service or a laser printer will almost certainly beat the TS6420a.
• If your office is fully remote and paperless, skip the printer altogether.
• If you arrived here searching for a scrap gold calculator, a rent calculator, or how to get dry erase marker out of clothes—this isn't that page, but I won't pretend I've never searched for the last one after a whiteboard meeting.

As of Q1 2025, pricing and firmware can change. Check current prices and your actual print volume before treating my numbers as your budget.