Canon imageCLASS MF656Cdw - Wireless Duplex Color Laser Printer, All-in-One with Copier, Scanner, Fax, Auto Document Feeder, Mobile Ready, 3 Year Limited Warranty, 22 PPM, White

I forgive this printer for being bulky, tricky to set up, and noisy. Color laser printers are overall superior to inkjet printers; they are both faster and more reliable. It's a fair comparison given that this model is inexpensive, almost in the price range of inkjet printers. The ink supply lasts a lot longer, and even the color quality is as good as most inkjet printers. This particular model is also dependable with many sizes and types of paper, not just regular paper but also index cards, adhesive label sheets, etc.

I had a Cannon MF644cdw for a few years and it worked great. This one is just the newer version. My mf644cdw started putting black streaks on the prints and then just started running the paper through without no printing at all. Toner was good and new just no printing. Then started making a funny noise. While looking up trouble shooting tips online i came across this newer version. Well being a Tech junkie and my wife not so much, Ummmm, well the old printer became unrepairable and honey we need a new printer. Print quality has been great on both the 644 and 656 but I will have to say a bit better on this 656. time from sleep to print has greatly improved as well. I will also say that this printer has the cheapest toner cartridges to replace of most all color laser printers. I work from home so it does get alot of use. Document feeder work great and to tell the truth I dont remember ever having a paper jam from either printer on the feeder or printer. Cant say much about the fax feature as I have never used it on either printer. Setup is very easy right out of the box. Just plugged it in went through a few setup questions on the display and bam it was hooked to my wifi and up and running as network printer. Scan to email can be a bit tedious to set up but I got the below instructions from another reviewer and worked perfectly. So Hopefully this will help someone (wish I would have found earlier). This type of information should have been in the manual in some way. I found this in the Canon community discussion. Note that this setup is configured for using a gmail email address to configure- so you need a gmail for this to work correctly (otherwise a few steps will need changed like the SMTP server and port number...) 1- If you are using GMail, you have to setup an 'App Password' for your Canon to work. 2- Go to Google.com and click on your picture (upper right hand corner) and select 'Manage Your Google Account'. 3- Click on 'Security on the left hand side'. 4- Scroll down to section that says 'Signing in to Google'. 5- Make sure '2-Step Verification' is setup. If it is not, add 2-step verification now. 6- Click on 'App Passwords' to setup a password for your Canon. You may have to sign into your Google account again. 7- Under the 'Select App' down arrow, select 'Other (custom)' 8- Enter a name for your Cannon. I put my model number in the field: MF644Cdw 9- Select the 'Generate' button. This will generate a password. Copy/Paste this password or write it down. 10- Find your Cannon's IP Address. I selected 'Status Monitor' on my Cannon; then selected 'Network Information'; then selected 'IPv4'; take down the numbers listed under 'IP Address'. 11- Open up Chrome and enter the IP Address from step 10. 12- Select 'System Manager Mode' option and select 'Log In'. If you have setup a 'System Manager ID' and 'System Manager PIN', enter that information and then select 'Log In'. 13- Select 'Settings/Registration' button on the right hand side. 14- Select 'TX Settings' on the left hand side. 15- Select 'E-mail/I-Fax Settings'. 16- Select 'Edit' button on the upper right hand side. 17- SMTP server = smtp.gmail.com 18- Email Address = [enter your email address] 19- Check mark 'Use SMTP Authentication (SMTP AUTH)' 20- User Name = [enter your email address] 21- Check mark 'Set/Change Password' 22- Password = [enter the password generated from step 9 above] 23- Check mark 'Use TLS for SMTP' 24- Check mark 'Verify Certificate' 25- Check mark 'Add CN to Verification Items' 26- Check mark 'Use TLS for POP' 27- Check mark 'Verify Certificate' 28- Check mark 'Add CN to Verification Items' 29- Scroll up to the top of the page and select the 'OK' button to save these settings. 30- Select 'Network Settings' on left hand side. 31- Select 'Port Number Settings' 32- Select 'Edit' button in upper right hand side. 33- Change 'SMTP' field to = 465 34- Scroll up to the top of the page and select the 'OK' button to save these settings. 35- Select 'To Portal' link in the upper right hand corner. 36- Select 'Address Book' button on right hand side. 37- Click on '01' link and select 'Edit' button. Add your email as the first email address. (Later go back and add what other email addresses you may like to scan to in the future) 38- Scroll up to the top of the page and select the 'OK' button to save these settings. 39- Go to your Cannon and test the Scan to Email function. 40- Check email to see if you received the email. If you didn't get email, check 'Status Monitor/Cancel' button under the 'TX Job Log' section for Error Code specifics.

Only thing it can reliably do is cause hypertension for the user. I made the mistake of trusting Canon and bought two of these printers for my business. That decision cost me time, productivity, and money. Both units exhibit the same fundamental failures, which tells me this is not a defective unit problem - it is a defective product line. Yes, print quality is acceptable when it actually prints, but everything related to networking and AirPrint is broken. • Printers randomly disappear from the network • Extremely unreliable Wi-Fi connectivity • Painful, inconsistent setup on Mac and Windows • Gaslights you into thinking you need unnecessary Canon software that still does not work • Goes to sleep and stops responding • AirPrint is advertised but does not reliably function At times, the only way to print reliably has been to download a file to a USB jump drive, physically insert it into the printer, and print directly from the device using the cumbersome, poorly responsive, unintuitive touchscreen. That is not an acceptable workaround in 2025 for a network printer marketed to businesses. And if you are thinking, “this guy just can’t manage IT stuff,” I caution you to think twice. Sometimes it will: • Print from one computer but not another • Print once and then never again • Print today after multiple retries and troubleshooting steps, then refuse to print tomorrow Nothing changes on the network. Nothing changes on the printer. It simply decides to stop working. I am not a casual home user. I spent hours troubleshooting: • Firmware updates • Factory resets • Router reboots • DHCP reservations and static IPs • Separate Wi-Fi bands • Driver reinstalls None of this fixes the core issue. Canon’s Bonjour/mDNS and network discovery implementation is fundamentally unreliable. This printer will gaslight you again and again, making you think you fixed it - until it fails the next time you need it. The fact that both printers behave identically confirms this is a design failure, not bad luck. Canon used to be a brand I trusted. This printer is not worthy of that reputation. If you value your time, sanity, or business productivity: do not buy this printer. I am replacing both with Brother laser printers and will not purchase Canon printers again. Avoid.

I had an old Epson workforce for years that really served me well. But as time went on it worked less and less reliably and seemed to lose functionality(good old planned obsolecense). Also everytime I would go to print I needed to do a nozzle clean and kept buying new cartridges. I wanted to get a laser printer because you don't have the hassle of nozzles and I also wanted a document feeder for doing large multi document scans. I got this printer for under $300 which I think is a great price for a machine of this caliber. It was very quick and easy to set up and while it was noisy during setup it runs pretty quiet for printing and scanning. I've read that people have had trouble setting this up and I'm not sure why. For my windows 11 machine it was litterly plug and play after downloading the drivers. It also scans and prints very quickly and the quality is very good. I haven't used the fax but I'm sure it's fine and I don't plan to do too much faxing anyway. The only things I think I can complain about are; 1)the size(it's big but not terribly so for a multi) and 2)I wish the scanning resolution was more than 600 dpi (especially for photos). Those are my only complaints and really, it's not a big deal. It's a great machine for general printing and scanning. If you primarily want to scan and print photos you may want to look at another machine because the limited resolution even using just the flat glass for scans. And also laser isn't the best for photo prints. But the scans it does do are great for documents and photos where you don't need a lot of resolution. It's a great do-it-all machine and an amazing price for a color laser printer.

Hopefully this will help someone (wish I would have found earlier). This type of information should have been in the manual in some way. I found this in the Canon community discussion. Note that this setup is configured for using a gmail email address to configure- so you need a gmail for this to work correctly (otherwise a few steps will need changed like the SMTP server and port number...) 1- If you are using GMail, you have to setup an 'App Password' for your Canon to work. 2- Go to Google.com and click on your picture (upper right hand corner) and select 'Manage Your Google Account'. 3- Click on 'Security on the left hand side'. 4- Scroll down to section that says 'Signing in to Google'. 5- Make sure '2-Step Verification' is setup. If it is not, add 2-step verification now. 6- Click on 'App Passwords' to setup a password for your Canon. You may have to sign into your Google account again. 7- Under the 'Select App' down arrow, select 'Other (custom)' 8- Enter a name for your Cannon. I put my model number in the field: MF644Cdw 9- Select the 'Generate' button. This will generate a password. Copy/Paste this password or write it down. 10- Find your Cannon's IP Address. I selected 'Status Monitor' on my Cannon; then selected 'Network Information'; then selected 'IPv4'; take down the numbers listed under 'IP Address'. 11- Open up Chrome and enter the IP Address from step 10. 12- Select 'System Manager Mode' option and select 'Log In'. If you have setup a 'System Manager ID' and 'System Manager PIN', enter that information and then select 'Log In'. 13- Select 'Settings/Registration' button on the right hand side. 14- Select 'TX Settings' on the left hand side. 15- Select 'E-mail/I-Fax Settings'. 16- Select 'Edit' button on the upper right hand side. 17- SMTP server = smtp.gmail.com 18- Email Address = [enter your email address] 19- Check mark 'Use SMTP Authentication (SMTP AUTH)' 20- User Name = [enter your email address] 21- Check mark 'Set/Change Password' 22- Password = [enter the password generated from step 9 above] 23- Check mark 'Use TLS for SMTP' 24- Check mark 'Verify Certificate' 25- Check mark 'Add CN to Verification Items' 26- Check mark 'Use TLS for POP' 27- Check mark 'Verify Certificate' 28- Check mark 'Add CN to Verification Items' 29- Scroll up to the top of the page and select the 'OK' button to save these settings. 30- Select 'Network Settings' on left hand side. 31- Select 'Port Number Settings' 32- Select 'Edit' button in upper right hand side. 33- Change 'SMTP' field to = 465 34- Scroll up to the top of the page and select the 'OK' button to save these settings. 35- Select 'To Portal' link in the upper right hand corner. 36- Select 'Address Book' button on right hand side. 37- Click on '01' link and select 'Edit' button. Add your email as the first email address. (Later go back and add what other email addresses you may like to scan to in the future) 38- Scroll up to the top of the page and select the 'OK' button to save these settings. 39- Go to your Cannon and test the Scan to Email function. 40- Check email to see if you received the email. If you didn't get email, check 'Status Monitor/Cancel' button under the 'TX Job Log' section for Error Code specifics. Edit 02/11/24 below is a fix for another quirk from this printer- thanks to Mailinator on the Canon forum for the fix. the error: Load Paper.LTR Error Message when printing On the printer go to: Menu>Function Settings>Printer>Printer Settings>Prioritize Driver Settings> Drawer 1. Set to "On", click "Apply". In Windows open the printer driver>Paper source> Set default to Drawer 1 and choose paper quality. The Windows driver should then override the printer settings and no error message should pop-up. Edit 2/29/24 I just noticed that Daniel trezil basically copied and pasted my review

So easy to set up and connect WiFi and devices. Printer scanner copier and fax all works as the add said. I work from home and it is great for my home office. It also prints in color.

Happy with the product so far. There were minor hurdles (default Win10 scanner driver provided by MS crashes, have to install Cannon variant, but that's OK), and I think if you put an scanned item flush with the scanner plastic bezel, several mm of the item will not be properly scanned, so it is hard to align the item, you have to give it couple millimeters margin. Printing and scanning quality is not necessarily suitable for photo printing, but that's expected. Specialized photo equipment has many times higher resolution -- but again, that's expected. For the small office printing and scanning, the quality is very good. Control LCD has many options and is quite flexible. Allows tweaking what's on the home screen which is quite convenient. Doesn't make any idle noises when sleeping (and it sleeps most of the time when not used). It does something for a couple of seconds once every several days, but not loud. Otherwise, so far works great, much better than other MFU I had from a different (weirdly popular) brand.

Excellent at scans, printing, and no problems. I appreciate the two-sided printing, color or monochrome.