Updated Researched and written by Elan HarpazHow we pick
We may earn a commission from links on this page, at no extra cost to you. Disclosure
Budget PickBrother HL-L2405W$139.99One person or a small household that only needs black-and-white pages, fast.
Best ValueBrother DCP-L2640DW$209.99A home office or small business that needs print, copy and scan in one machine.
Premium PickBrother MFC-L3720CDW$459.98A small office that needs color output, scanning, copying and fax all wireless from one printer.For most people the best laser printer is the Brother DCP-L2640DW, $209.99 when we checked it on Oct 26, 2026. A home office or small business that needs print, copy and scan in one machine.
Researched, not tested: we have not handled these products. Verdicts come from published specs, owner reviews read at volume, and our own weekly price record. No paid placements, and commissions never change our rankings.
Reddit has one answer for printers, and it's not close. When someone in r/BuyItForLife asked what to buy after throwing out their HP, the top comment across roughly 1,900 replies was just: "Brother." It pulled 4,902 upvotes on its own, and the second-place answer, another vote for Brother while telling people to keep smashing the HP, added 1,370 more.
We rebuilt this lineup off that thread in August 2026, three Brother laser printers at three different jobs. What separated the picks:
Best for: A home office or small business that needs print, copy and scan in one machine.
$209.99 observed
Check price on AmazonBuy the Brother DCP-L2640DW unless you have a specific reason not to. It is the editor's choice here because it does what most people actually need, print plus scan plus copy with automatic duplex, for about $210. That is roughly 50 percent more than the print-only HL-L2405W in exchange for two more functions and a faster engine.
Go cheaper with the Brother HL-L2405W if you only ever print black-and-white text and don't want to pay for a scanner you won't use. Go up to the Brother MFC-L3720CDW only if you actually need color pages or fax, since color toner is the recurring cost that never goes away. For a print-only body with auto-duplex added, the Brother HL-L2460DW in our catalog is the closer match to the budget pick's size at a slightly higher price. Anyone who wants a mono all-in-one with fax on top of scan and copy should look at the Brother MFC-L2820DW instead. And a business that wants faster color output and Gigabit Ethernet can step up from the MFC-L3720CDW to the Brother MFC-L3780CDW.
Basis: r/BuyItForLife thread "I finally threw out the HP what do you recommend?" (about 1,900 comments, August 2026), ranked by upvotes: the top comment was simply "Brother." at 4,902 upvotes, followed by another vote for Brother at 1,370 upvotes while telling people to keep smashing their HP, cross-checked against Amazon rating counts and prices as of August 2026. Specs are the manufacturer's. Ratings score each pick on the merits with price left out, so the premium pick sits highest; tier tells you where a pick sits on price, not how good it is. We track listings and prices; we have not hands-on tested these.
Before picking a tier, it helps to understand why this list skips ink entirely. Toner is a dry powder that does not evaporate in the cartridge, so a laser printer that sits unused for months still prints a clean page the day you need it.
Match the tier to what you actually print, not to the printer with the most features.
Up to 30 pages per minute out of a printer with a 250-sheet tray and a footprint small enough for a desktop corner.
$139.99 observed
Check price on AmazonPrint, copy and scan in one machine with a 50-page auto document feeder and automatic two-sided printing.
$209.99 observed
Check price on AmazonColor laser output plus scan, copy and fax on a 3.5 inch touchscreen, with direct cloud app access built in.
$459.98 observed
Check price on Amazon| Pick | Tier | Price, and when observed | Our rating | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brother HL-L2405W Wireless Compact Monochrome Laser Printer with Mobile Printing | Budget Pick | $139.99 on 2026-10-26 | 7.8 / 10 | One person or a small household that only needs black-and-white pages, fast. |
| Brother DCP-L2640DW Wireless Compact Monochrome Multi-Function Laser Printer with Copy and Scan | Best Value | $209.99 on 2026-10-26 | 8.7 / 10 | A home office or small business that needs print, copy and scan in one machine. |
| Brother MFC-L3720CDW Wireless Color Laser Printer with Scanner | Premium Pick | $459.98 on 2026-10-26 | 9.1 / 10 | A small office that needs color output, scanning, copying and fax all wireless from one printer. |
Best for: One person or a small household that only needs black-and-white pages, fast.
The Brother HL-L2405W is the print-only answer to the thread's advice: buy a Brother, skip everything else. It is a monochrome laser printer with no scanner or copier attached, built for anyone whose printing needs stop at black-and-white pages.
It prints at up to 30 pages per minute and holds 250 sheets, so it goes a long stretch between refills. Dual-band wireless (2.4GHz and 5GHz) connects it to multiple devices, and a USB 2.0 port covers a direct connection. At 15.1 pounds and a 14.2 by 14 by 7.2 inch footprint, it fits a desktop corner instead of taking one over.
The tradeoffs are the features it left out. There is no auto-duplex, so two-sided printing means flipping the page by hand. There is no scanner or copier, so anything beyond printing needs a separate device. And it is monochrome only, with no path to color if a future job needs it.
| Paper tray | 250 sheets |
| Print speed | Up to 30 ppm |
| Resolution | 1200 x 1200 |
| Connectivity | Dual-band wireless (2.4GHz/5GHz), USB 2.0 |
| Toner | TN830, TN830XL |
| Weight | 15.1 lbs |
| Dimensions | 14.2"D x 14"W x 7.2"H |
Best for: A home office or small business that needs print, copy and scan in one machine.
The Brother DCP-L2640DW takes the thread's advice one step further: still a Brother monochrome laser, but with the scanner and copier the HL-L2405W leaves out. It is the pick for anyone who occasionally needs to scan or copy a document and does not want a second device for it.
It prints at up to 36 pages per minute, faster than the budget pick, and the 50-page auto document feeder handles multi-page scan and copy jobs without babysitting the glass. Automatic duplex printing is built in, so two-sided documents happen without flipping pages by hand. Dual-band wireless plus Ethernet cover both a home network and a shared office one, and the 250-sheet tray matches the budget pick's capacity.
It is bigger and heavier for the extra functions, 25 pounds against 15.1, and that added footprint is the price of the scanner and copier. Scan quality is built for documents, not photos. And like the budget pick, it is monochrome only.
| Print speed | Up to 36 ppm |
| Scan speed | Up to 23.6/7.9 ipm (black/color) |
| Auto document feeder | 50 pages |
| Duplex printing | Automatic |
| Connectivity | Dual-band wireless (2.4GHz/5GHz), Ethernet, USB |
| Toner | TN830, TN830XL |
| Weight | 25 lbs |
Best for: A small office that needs color output, scanning, copying and fax all wireless from one printer.
The Brother MFC-L3720CDW is the step the thread's Brother-only consensus does not usually take: color. It is a full all-in-one, adding a color laser engine, fax, and a touchscreen to everything the DCP-L2640DW already does, for anyone whose job actually needs color pages.
The 3.5 inch touchscreen handles up to 48 shortcuts and connects directly to Google Drive, Dropbox and OneNote, so scanning to the cloud does not require a computer. It prints at up to 19 pages per minute, scans up to 29/22 images per minute (black/color), and automatic duplex plus a 50-sheet auto document feeder carry over from the cheaper picks. It is ENERGY STAR compliant and EPEAT Silver rated.
Color is the expense here, in the printer's price and in toner going forward: color laser cartridges cost more than mono ones, and there are four of them, black, cyan, magenta and yellow, instead of one. Print speed drops to 19 ppm from 36 on the value pick, since color passes take longer than mono. And at 44 pounds, this is a printer you place once and do not move.
| Print speed | Up to 19 ppm |
| Scan speed | Up to 29/22 ipm (black/color) |
| Touchscreen | 3.5 inch, 48 shortcuts |
| Auto document feeder | 50 sheets |
| Duplex printing | Automatic |
| Toner | TN229 series (black, cyan, magenta, yellow; standard, XL, XXL) |
| Weight | 44 lbs |
For text documents, yes. Toner does not dry out sitting unused, so a laser printer prints clean pages even after months idle, while inkjet cartridges can dry out on the same shelf. Inkjet still wins for photos, which is not what these Brother laser printers are built for.
In the r/BuyItForLife thread this list is based on, the top comment was simply "Brother." with 4,902 upvotes, and the runner-up made the same point while telling people to stop buying HP. The recurring complaints about HP center on ink and driver issues that owners say Brother avoids.
Only if you actually use one. The Brother HL-L2405W skips both to stay small and cheap, while the Brother DCP-L2640DW adds a 50-page auto document feeder for anyone who scans or copies documents regularly. Skip the extra bulk if your phone already covers scanning.
Only if you print in color often. Color laser toner costs more per cartridge, comes as four separate cartridges instead of one, and the Brother MFC-L3720CDW prints roughly half as fast in exchange for that color output. Most home printing is text, where a mono laser is cheaper to run.
Auto-duplex prints both sides of the page automatically, without you flipping it by hand. The Brother DCP-L2640DW and Brother MFC-L3720CDW both have it built in; the budget Brother HL-L2405W does not, so two-sided printing there is a manual step.
It depends on print volume, not time, since toner does not degrade sitting in the cartridge the way ink does. The budget and value picks share the same TN830 toner family, and Brother sells both standard and higher-yield XL versions for less frequent replacement.
We may earn a commission from qualifying purchases made through links on this page, at no extra cost to you. We only recommend products we would tell a friend to buy, and commissions never change our picks.