Canon's imageClass MF264dw ($199.99) is the latest in the company's long line of entry-level monochrome all-in-one laser printers designed for light- to medium-duty printing and copying in a small or home-based office.
It's similar in performance and capacity to the Editors' Choice Canon imageClass MF269dw, but it lacks some of that higher-end model's features like an auto-duplexing automatic document feeder (ADF) and fax capabilities.
If your small office can live without those perks, the MF264dw is a less costly alternative to its MF269dw sibling.
Measuring 14 by 15.4 by 16 inches (HWD) and weighing one 27.3 pounds, the MF264dw is the same size and slightly leaner than the MF269dw.
That's also close in size and girth to the Lexmark MB2236adw, a similarly configured monochrome AIO, and a little smaller and lighter than the HP LaserJet Pro MFP M148fdw.
Despite an inch or a couple of pounds here and there, though, these entry-level models are designed to save space and therefore reside comfortably on most desktops, counters, or shelves.
The MF264dw ($199.00 at Best Buy) comes with a 35-page manual-duplexing ADF, which means instead of the machine flipping and scanning the second side of two-sided documents, this AIO leaves that up to you, as do the 35-page ADF on the HP M148fdw and the 50-page feeder on the MB2236adw ($149.99 at Dell Technologies) .
The MF269dw's 50-page ADF, on the other hand, scans and copies the second sides for you.
Like the MF269dw and the other AIOs mentioned here so far, the MF264dw is a no-frills machine devoid of a fancy touch-screen control panel.
Instead, what you get is a somewhat busy collection of buttons, a keypad, and a five-line monochrome LCD, as shown here.
Also, as with most business-oriented printers, you can configure, monitor, generate and print reports, and more from the control panel.
The MF264dw also has a built-in website that Canon calls the Web Portal.
The MF264dw's paper handling consists of a 250-sheet paper cassette and a one-sheet bypass tray for printing envelopes, labels, and other one-off documents that would otherwise require you to empty and reconfigure the main cassette.
Lexmark's MB2236adw input paper capacity is the same, as is the Canon MF264dw's, and the HP M148fdw holds 260 sheets split between a 250-sheet main cassette and a 10-sheet override tray.
There are many entry-level monochrome AIOs available these days; the few mentioned here are a mere smattering.
Not all are laser-based machines, either.
Epson, for instance, offers its WorkForce Pro WF-M5799, an inkjet alternative.
It holds up to 330 sheets and is expandable to 830.
Typically, business-oriented AIOs come with two volume ratings: the maximum monthly duty cycle and the recommended monthly print volume, with the latter being the most relevant.
The maximum monthly duty cycle is the number of prints the machine could do if it must, now and then—in a pinch.
The recommended monthly print volume is how many pages the manufacturer says you can print month in and month out without causing undue wear on the printer.
Canon has chosen to publish only the recommended monthly volume for the MF269dw, which is up to 2,500 pages.
That's 500 pages more than the HP M148fdw and the same as the Epson WF-M5799 and Lexmark MB2256adw.
Making Connections
Connectivity options on the MF264dw are more than adequate.
The standard interfaces include 100 Base-T Ethernet, Wi-Fi, connecting to a single PC via USB 2.0, and Wi-Fi Direct.
That last one lets you connect your mobile devices to the printer without either it or them being linked through a router or an intermediary network.
Other mobile connectivity options include Apple AirPrint, Google Cloud Print, Mopria Print Service, and Canon Print Business, which is a free Android or iOS app that enables you to print documents and photographs, upload to cloud storage services, read scanned data, and more on a Canon laser AIO or laser printer from your Android and iPhone smartphones and tablets.
Respectable Performance
Canon rates the MF264dw at 30 pages per minute (ppm).
However, as the company does with most of its business-oriented printers and AIOs, this one is configured to default to two-sided (duplex) printing out of the box.
In these instances, we time and record both of the one-sided (simplex) and duplex scores.
(I tested the MF264dw over an Ethernet connection on our standard Intel Core i5 testbed PC running Windows 10 Professional.) The MF264dw churned out our standard 12-page Microsoft Word test document at the rate of 28.7ppm in simplex mode and 18.2ppm in duplex mode.
See How We Test Printers
Those scores were 1.2ppm (simplex) and 0.1ppm (duplex) behind the MF269dw.
The other models mentioned here so far do not default to two-sided printing; hence, we have only their simplex mode speeds in our database.
The Lexmark MB2236adw and the HP M148fdw both beat the MF264dw by a mere 1.2ppm, while Epson's WF-M5799, which is rated at 6ppm slower than these laser AIOs, came in 4.3ppm behind the MF264dw.
In the next phase of our test regimen, I timed the MF264dw as it printed a collection of complex Adobe Acrobat documents, Excel spreadsheets and charts and graphs, as well as PowerPoint handouts containing several different types of business graphics.
Then, I combined those scores with the results from printing the 12-page text document in the previous test and came up with a score of 17.2ppm for reproducing our entire suite of test documents.
That score either tied or fell slightly behind all of the competitors mentioned here.
Quality Output
As Canon monochrome printers go, there's nothing unusual to report about the MF264dw's print quality.
The text in my test documents came out crisp, well-shaped and easy-to-read at small point sizes (around 5 and 6 points), and the graphics were detailed and attractive, with no noticeable toner distribution issues.
In other words, output was better than acceptable for most in-house business settings and suitable for many external circulation scenarios.
Grayscale photograph output wasn't bad, either, at least up to newspaper print quality.
Overall, I have no complaints about the MF264dw's print quality.
Run-of-the-Mill Running Costs
Like most entry-level monochrome laser printers in this price range, the MF264dw's ongoing running costs are right around 3.5 cents per page, which is acceptable if your monthly print and copy volume is about 100 to 200 pages.
The more you print, though, the less economic sense spending that much per page makes.
(Both the Lexmark MB2236adw and the HP M148fdw deliver comparable running costs of 3.4 cents per page.)
If your application doesn't require laser output, though, you can hold your ongoing costs down with the Epson WF-M5799 inkjet model.
Its cost per page, when you choose its highest-yield (40,000 pages) ink containers is less than 1 cent per page.
If your circumstances do require laser output, you can escape high running costs by paying a little more up front for a higher-volume printer like Brother's MFC-L6700DW (1.5 cents per page).
The Right Machine for the Right Job
Typically, these little monochrome printers are designed for printing and copying text, such as in-house reports, external quotes, receipts, and invoices.
They're not often called upon for churning out marketing material.
Canon and its competitors go to great lengths to match their machines to specific scenarios.
The company doesn't envision the buyer of the MF264dw, for example, scanning or copying many two-sided multipage documents or sending faxes.
If you do need those functions, it's worth spending $80 more on the Editors' Choice Canon MF269dw ($263.69 at Walmart) .
Otherwise, the MF264dw is a solid and more affordable pick.
The Bottom Line
The Canon imageClass MF264dw is a fast entry-level monochrome laser AIO printer that produces quality output, even if it lacks a few higher-end features.
