Brother

Brother DCP-L2640DW

Mono laserTonerBrother Refresh EZ Print

A 50-sheet document feeder is the headline, and it is the largest ADF on any machine here under three hundred dollars — bigger than what most four-hundred-dollar tank all-in-ones carry. Behind it sits the same 36 ppm duplex laser engine as the HL-L2460DW plus a flatbed scanner and copier, with Ethernet and dual-band Wi-Fi. There is no fax, which is what separates it from the MFC-L2820DW, and no touchscreen, which is the other thing that money buys. For a household that has to digitise paperwork in stacks and print black-and-white documents quickly, this is the least compromised shape in the catalogue at the price. Toner economics are Brother's usual: a 700-page starter, then $98.29 for 3,000 pages, about 3.3 cents each.

Approx. price: ~$209
Cost per mono page: 3.3¢
Cost to own, 5,000 pages: ~$373
Print speed, mono: 36 ISO ppm

Best for

Scanning paperwork in stacks and printing black-and-white documents fast, without paying for fax or a touchscreen.

marks an estimate. Computed from the consumable's ISO page yield and its list price. An estimate. Purchase price plus ink or toner over the pages shown, assuming four mono pages for every colour page. Price is an approximate snapshot from our last catalogue update.

What it costs to own

Black consumable: Brother TN830XL high-yield toner · 3,000 ISO pages · ~$98.29
Cost per mono page: 3.3¢
Cost to own, 5,000 pages: ~$373
Cost to own, 200 pages/month for 3 years: ~$445 (7,200 pages)

Computed from the consumable's ISO page yield and its list price. An estimate. How this is worked out

Cost to own · 5,000 pages

Brother DCP-L2640DW~$373
~$209 printer + ~$164 supplies
Brother HL-L2460DW~$343
~$179 printer + ~$164 supplies
Brother MFC-L2820DW~$433
~$269 printer + ~$164 supplies

purchase priceink or toner. An estimate: purchase price plus 5,000 pages at each printer’s computed cost per page, assuming 4 mono pages for every colour page. Printers whose consumable price we could not source are left out.

Specifications

Manufacturer-published figures. Cost lines are computed from the consumable figures above and are estimates.

Approx. price: ~$209
Cost per mono page: 3.3¢
Cost to own, 5,000 pages: ~$373
Cost to own, 3 years: ~$445
Technology: Laser
Ink system: Toner
Inks: 1
Black consumable: Brother TN830XL high-yield toner · 3,000 pages
Ink in the box: 700 pages
Third-party ink lock: No
Ink subscription: Brother Refresh EZ Print
Print speed, mono: 36 ISO ppm
First page out: 8.5 s
Functions: Print · Copy · Scan
Two-sided printing: Auto
Document feeder: 50 sheets
Two-sided scanning: No
Paper capacity: 250 sheets
Max paper size: Legal
Borderless photo: No
Resolution: 1200 × 1200 dpi
Connectivity: Wi-Fi · Ethernet
Mobile printing: AirPrint · Mopria
Display: Mono LCD
Dimensions: 16.1 × 15.7 × 12.5 in
Weight: 25 lb
Released: 2023

Features

50-sheet automatic document feeder
36 ppm printing with automatic duplex
Flatbed scanner and standalone copier
Wired Ethernet and dual-band Wi-Fi
1200 × 1200 dpi output

Document feeder Auto duplex No ink lock Ethernet

In its favour

The biggest document feeder under $250 in this catalogue
36 ppm with automatic duplex — as fast as Brother's quickest small laser
Ethernet and Wi-Fi together
Prints after long idle spells without maintenance, unlike any inkjet here

Against it

About 3.3¢ a page on genuine toner
Monochrome LCD rather than the MFC's touchscreen
No fax, and the feeder scans one side only
Black and white only — no colour at any price
700-page starter cartridge

What owners say

Distilled from owner discussions and long-term published reviews

The version of the standard Brother recommendation that scans. It takes the 36 ppm duplex engine everyone likes and adds a flatbed plus a 50-sheet feeder — larger than what most inkjet all-in-ones at twice the price carry.

Owners who bought it to digitise paperwork report it doing exactly that. The friction is the control panel: a monochrome LCD is fine for a copy button and awkward for scan-to-network-folder, and people who do that daily wish they had spent the extra on the MFC-L2820DW's touchscreen. The feeder being single-sided is the other regular disappointment for anyone archiving double-sided records.

What owners like

A 50-sheet document feeder at this price is larger than several four-hundred-dollar inkjet all-in-ones manage
Same fast, reliable 36 ppm duplex engine as the print-only HL-L2460DW
Ethernet and dual-band Wi-Fi together
Owners digitising paperwork describe the feeder as the feature that justified the purchase

Common complaints

Monochrome LCD rather than a touchscreen, which makes multi-step scan jobs more tedious than they should be
The feeder captures one side only, so double-sided originals need two passes
The same toner economics as the rest of the range: a genuine high-yield cartridge costs close to half the printer
Black and white only, with no colour option anywhere in this chassis

Questions that keep coming up

How does it compare with the MFC-L2820DW?

The MFC adds a fax modem and a 2.7-inch colour touchscreen, and gives up two pages a minute. Owners who scan to network folders or email regularly say the touchscreen is worth the difference. Owners who mostly press 'copy' say it is not. The feeder, duplexer, toner and connectivity are the same on both.

Can it scan both sides of a page automatically?

No. The 50-sheet feeder pulls a stack through and captures one face. Double-sided originals need a second pass and then re-sorting. If two-sided scanning is the job, the Brother MFC-L3780CDW and Canon MAXIFY GX7020 both do it in a single pass, at considerably higher prices.

Is a mono laser right if I occasionally need colour?

Owners in this position generally conclude it is, and handle the occasional colour page at a print shop. Colour laser toner runs close to nineteen cents a page and a colour inkjet needs regular use to stay unclogged, so buying a colour machine for rare colour printing tends to cost more than the printing is worth.

Computed from the consumable's ISO page yield and its list price. An estimate. Owner notes are a summary of what people who own the machine report, not a test result — there is no lab behind this site.