Brother

Brother HL-L2405W

Mono laserTonerBrother Refresh EZ Print

The trade Brother offers here is an odd one and worth understanding before you pick between this and the HL-L2400D beside it: the 2405W adds dual-band Wi-Fi and phone printing, and gives up automatic duplex to do it. Same chassis, same TN830 toner family, same 250-sheet tray, two pages a minute slower. For a household where three people need to print from laptops and phones, the wireless is clearly worth more than the duplexer. For one desk and one cable, it is not. Everything else that makes a cheap mono laser attractive is intact — nothing to dry out, 1200 dpi text, a first page in eight and a half seconds. The running cost is the same 3.3 cents a page on a genuine TN830XL, and the same 700-page starter cartridge ships in the box.

Approx. price: ~$139
Cost per mono page: 3.3¢
Cost to own, 5,000 pages: ~$303
Print speed, mono: 30 ISO ppm

Best for

A household printing from phones and laptops that would rather have wireless than an automatic duplexer.

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: ~$303
Cost to own, 200 pages/month for 3 years: ~$375 (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 HL-L2405W~$303
~$139 printer + ~$164 supplies
Brother HL-L2400D~$298
~$134 printer + ~$164 supplies
Brother HL-L2460DW~$343
~$179 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: ~$139
Cost per mono page: 3.3¢
Cost to own, 5,000 pages: ~$303
Cost to own, 3 years: ~$375
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: 30 ISO ppm
First page out: 8.5 s
Functions: Print
Two-sided printing: Manual
Document feeder: None
Paper capacity: 250 sheets
Max paper size: Legal
Borderless photo: No
Resolution: 1200 × 1200 dpi
Connectivity: Wi-Fi
Mobile printing: AirPrint · Mopria
Display: None
Dimensions: 14.0 × 14.2 × 7.2 in
Weight: 15.1 lb
Released: 2023

Features

Dual-band Wi-Fi with AirPrint and Mopria
30 ppm at 1200 × 1200 dpi
250-sheet tray plus a manual feed slot
No liquid ink to dry out
Uses the same TN830 toner family as the rest of the range

No ink lock

In its favour

Dual-band Wi-Fi, including 5 GHz, which many cheap printers omit
Prints from a phone with no app beyond AirPrint or Mopria
Laser reliability: months of sitting idle changes nothing
Sharp 1200 dpi text

Against it

No automatic duplex, which the cheaper USB-only HL-L2400D has
About 3.3¢ a page on genuine toner
700-page starter cartridge
Print only, black and white, with no control panel display

What owners say

Distilled from owner discussions and long-term published reviews

Brother's oddest product decision in this range: the wireless model gives up the duplexer, and the duplex model gives up the wireless. Owners who need both end up at the HL-L2460DW, which is what most of them do.

What this one does well is the thing every small laser does — sit unused and then print. What it does badly is the thing every wireless printer does badly. 'Printer offline' after a router reboot, having to re-enter a Wi-Fi password through a control panel with no screen, and connections dropping after firmware updates are the complaints that dominate discussion of Brother's small lasers, and they are not specific to this model.

What owners like

Dual-band Wi-Fi including 5 GHz, which owners in crowded flats specifically want
Prints from phones over AirPrint with no app to install
Laser reliability after long idle spells, the reason this class gets recommended
Same compact chassis as the rest of the small Brother range

Common complaints

No automatic duplex, and owners comparing it against the cheaper USB-only HL-L2400D find the trade baffling
Wireless dropouts and 'printer offline' states are the most-reported frustration with Brother's small lasers generally
Firmware updates are where owners report third-party toner starting to be rejected
The 700-page starter cartridge is small

Questions that keep coming up

Why does the wireless model not have duplex?

It is how Brother segments the range, and owners find it as odd as you do. The HL-L2400D has automatic duplex and no network at all; this one has dual-band Wi-Fi and manual duplex only. The HL-L2460DW has both plus Ethernet, and is where most people who compared the two ended up.

How reliable is the Wi-Fi?

Wireless reliability is the single most-reported frustration with small Brother lasers, and with home printers generally. Owners describe the printer showing as offline after router changes, and re-entering a Wi-Fi password through a panel with no screen being genuinely painful. A model with an Ethernet port removes the whole category of problem if a cable can reach.

Will firmware updates break third-party toner?

Owners report that a firmware update is the moment third-party cartridges stop being accepted on some recent Brother models. Behaviour varies by model and version and Brother does not document it. If you rely on compatible toner, the practical advice owners give is to weigh a firmware update carefully rather than applying it automatically.

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.