Customer Ratings & Reviews

I’ve been a fan of Brother products as of recently; I own an inkjet printer as well as dedicated scanners, all made by Brother. Having the MFC-L2820DW Laser B&W printer now allows me to go wild with black and white prints as well as having a one-stop shop for scanning. Here are some of my favorite features: It’s FAST. This thing prints and copies up to 34 pages a minute. It's got a 2.7-inch color touchscreen, which is very familiar if you’re a Brother user, and it’s user friendly in my opinion. The print quality is pretty sharp with a resolution of 1200 x 1200 dpi. Your documents are gonna look crisp and clear. Double-sided printing…I have to have it. Connectivity options: Whether you're into cables (USB), Wi-Fi, or Ethernet, you can connect however you like. Scans in both color and black & white, and it can fax too, in case you're still into that sort of thing. I mean…I’m not, to be honest. It comes with a one-year warranty. While the Brother MFC-L2820DW printer offers great advantages, there are a couple of drawbacks that I’ve noticed: The duplex feature is limited to printing. It does not extend to scanning, copying, or faxing through the Automatic Document Feeder (ADF). This could be a limitation if you frequently need to scan or copy double-sided documents. I wish more all-in-one printers offered duplex. While the printer is relatively affordable, the cost per page, especially with the replacement toners, might be a bit higher compared to some other models. This could be a concern for users with a high volume of printing needs. But then again, I feel like all printers nowadays follow this business model. It’s not the quietest printer @ 49dB. I also own those “white” printers and they’re much, much quieter for the same laser operation. And even though the first two cons I called out are pretty legit to me, I took off a star here only because I feel this is where most of its time will be spent. Setup is very straightforward. You can either use the Windows “Add a Printer” approach or install the Brother Mobile Connect app on your phone to print documents directly from your phone. You can also monitor ink levels and manage your Refresh EZ Print subscription if you’re interested in the service. This service allows your printer to communicate to Brother when your ink is low and have them automatically send you ink. In my honest opinion, the service works best for those who print often and know how much you print in, say, a month. This will allow you to sign up for a “# of sheets per month” plan and charge you accordingly. It’s supposed to save you money…but for me I don’t print enough nor consistent in the volume of my prints. As far as just being an all-in-one….it’s pretty dang good to me!

I store stock item. Easy set up. Works flawlessly. Prints quickly & happy with print quality. Rock steady wireless connectivity. Small footprint. Would definite recommend.

I upgraded from an inkjet All In One from a company I've loyally purchased from since the 90s. (I won't name them, but they go by two initials.) The reasons I did so were the declining quality of the machines and the increasing price of the ink. So I researched my options and the consensus was this Brother laser. Although more expensive, it would save me money in the long run because I wouldn't be buying really high-priced ink every few weeks, having to constantly troubleshoot it not connecting to a router literally a foot away from the printer, and the quality of the ink on the page is night and day superior. It's been a few weeks now, and I have zero complaints. It's handled a couple of big jobs easily. The interface is fine. To answer BB's question, I use it for light home office tasks. If, over time, anything about the machine causes me to change my mind, I'll come back and edit this review. But so far, so great.

I really like my new printer. It was a simple setup. Easy to print wireless. Wifi conect was easy and works well. It prints fast but somewhat noisy. Quality of print is excellent! I would recommend this printer if you print black and white documents and dont need color.

This is a great printer for SOHO or a small business. This printer has all the features that my office printer got at work. First thing first, the design screams productivity and functions. Being a workhorse printer, it is quite big comparing to the typical entry level laser printer that you’re familiar with but surprisingly it is not too heavy. The LCD screen is bright enough and it is functional and reliable. Setting up the printer is quite intuitive and easy enough. The printer only prints in monochrome. However, it has no problem printing colorful pictures, which will be printed in monochrome. I tested printing graphs and pictures and am mostly pleased with the results though some adjustments may still be needed if I want a perfect print. Printing pictures in monochrome, however, will drain your laser toner quite quickly. I printed documents at home and this printer has the capabilities like one of those big printers at work, which says a lot considering that my office printer is big document processing machine. The star of the show is the duplex capabilities. It’s a great printer if you want to save papers as the duplex capability is reliable and automatic. The only difference between my office printer and this one is the stapling capability, which this printer obviously doesn’t have. Aside of that specific feature, this machine can do everything: wireless printing, copying, scan and fax, etc. The printer is able to print at 34 pages per minute, which is fast enough for most needs. The capacity of the document feeder is 50 pages, which should be enough for most needs. The toner that comes with the printer is rated at 700 pages. The printer can scan document at 1200x1200 dpi resolution, however, if you’re using the automatic document feeder to scan document fast, the resolution comes down to 600 x 600 dpi. Also, if you connect the printer to internet, you can add more features such as the ability to scan a Word document and convert it automatically to searchable PDF format right from the printer. There’s a bunch of apps that Brother offers to install on the printer, which adds more features to the printer. You can also install the accompanying software, which gives you free templates and it is actually a useful software to give you the most out of the printer. The printer also offers a trial to the Brother’s subscription service, which makes sense if you have large printing needs every month. You’d be getting the offer after updating the firmware of the printer and as per the Brother’s website, it is actually quite an enticing offer as it is ‘a zero commitment free trial’, which will get you ‘4 months free + an extra $20 refresh credit to use towards future subscription payments’. Overall, this is a great printer if you print in monochromes only.

This black and white (monochrome) laser printer is a compact device with a built-in scanner (both flatbed and automatic document feeder), fax, and copier. For a laser printer, it is lightweight and small (16 wide x 16 deep x 13 inches tall), entirely made out of plastic material, with the top being black and the sides/bottom a dark gray color. It has a commercial look for small to medium-sized businesses or home offices. The printer was easy and fast to set up and connect to my network. Once connected to the network, you can print or scan from it using any mobile device or computer. The wireless functionality works well with the Brother Print app on all devices. The app is simple yet robust and functions well without glitches. The control panel has the essential functions and buttons that allow you to change several settings on the printer. You can make copies with just a few button presses. Scanning documents or making copies, you have two primary functions: (1) use the automatic document feeder (ADF) to scan, copy, or fax multiple pages at a time, or (2) use the top glass scan flatbed. The top glass bed scanning is preferred for more detailed scans. Even though this device prints monochrome (black/white), it does scan documents and images in full color. Scan quality is good; files can be stored as images or PDFs; also, multiple pages can be combined into a single PDF file. Print quality is crisp and suitable enough for daily use and bulk printing. This device's laser toner/cartridges are the TN830/XL/V. The printer has a few jam-clearing compartments, are conveniently located, and can quickly be opened to clear jammed papers/documents. The device has an ethernet and USB port for wired connectivity. There is a port for a landline connection for the fax feature. There are two options for toner/cartridge replacement: (1) the user orders and buys toner/cartridges when needed, or (2) Brother Refresh EZ Print Subscription, which you get automatically delivered a toner to your door when you need it. It is a subscription plan based on the number of pages printed each month and not the amount of toner used. Any unused pages roll over, and you can change or cancel the subscription plan. This laser printer is excellent for speed printing and is faster than inkjet for bulk or large print jobs. It is a reliable, simple, black-and-white, and all-in-one laser printer for home office and small business.

For an entry-level MFP, the Brother MFC-L2820DW offers a surprising amount of features and capabilities. It’s a bit on the “chunky” side as small-office MFPs go—but at least you don’t have to bother with dodgy flip-out panels or unfolding paper guides and output trays like a Transformer—all you need to worry about are the small flip-out paper stops for the two output trays; no extra wall clearance required for other feeders or flaps. The small color screen is a nice change of pace from the tiny non-backlit LCDs we’ve gotten used to on our other MFPs and budget laser printers, and the litany of capabilities and apps available on the screen mean you don’t HAVE to use a companion app or attached PC to get the most out of your printer. Once you’ve set the printer up on your network, you have access to a rather extensive array of features from the touchscreen including scan, copy, fax, 2-sided ID printing, and a whole host of online services like scanning to email or online storage services like Dropbox, OneDrive, Google Drive, etc., or you can create a searchable PDF or scan documents into MS Office apps (all of them, not just MS Word). Hardware capabilities are equally as impressive, especially for a budget box like this. Along with auto-duplexing the output, the auto-document feeder can hold an impressive 50 sheets while you can feed the main paper tray 250 sheets. Scanner resolution clocks in at 600 DPI on the ADF while the flatbed glass produces nice archival-quality scans at 1200x1200 DPI with software interpolation maxing out at a whopping 19200x19200 DPI. Flatbed copies came out nice and sharp, even slightly better than the original thanks to some quick tinkering on the LCD screen’s easy-to-read copy settings menu. Print speeds were reasonably quick but varied wildly depending on whether “Quiet Mode” was engaged or not. This setting is ostensibly there to help dial back some of the mechanical whirring and imaging noises made during printing, but the difference in noise level wasn’t really all that noticeable to me. On Quiet Mode, a simple 3-page document took close to half a minute to print with the first page not spitting out until a good 17 seconds after the printer registered the document in the print queue. The same print job took less than 12 seconds with Quiet Mode disengaged, including just 6 seconds for the first page to come spilling out into the paper catcher. Connectivity options are extensive with 2.4 and 5Ghz wireless, Ethernet, and USB options to get the printer online. Airprint worked flawlessly with my iPhone 14Max Pro, as did wireless printing from my Chromebook and Windows 11 PC. The Brother Mobile Connect App was definitely useful to help get the printer online as it walked you through network setup and registration with simple, easy-to-follow instructions and images; and once you have the app installed, you can use it to print documents and photos remotely, are well as scan documents and manage any optional toner subscription service. But frankly, the usage experience has been so seamless and has worked so well with all our computing devices, I don’t honestly see a need to use the app (unlike some other manufacturer’s smart printers which basically REQUIRE you to use a companion app to access any real functionality). For all it can do at a very reasonable budget-oriented price point, you would think the Brother would be a hands-down winner; but if there’s one place that the MFC-L2820DW gets a BIG demerit, it’s in print quality. Don’t get me wrong, for a budget laser, I wasn’t expecting professional, print-store quality output, but unless you turn off all the ECO and toner-saving features, text quality is just okay. With toner-saver and ECO modes enabled, text just looks a little…weak…that is the best way my wife and I could describe it. Not that it looks BAD by any means, just a bit thin and light in a way that makes you feel like you’re missing something--like the output really SHOULD be looking a bit better than it does. Of course, you might expect such compromises when ecology settings are turned up to the max, and if so, maybe the slightly underwhelming weight of the text on the page won’t matter to you. However, if you turn off ECO and toner saver modes, the output does becomes appreciably better looking. Image reproduction fared even worse. Even at the “best” print quality settings with all toner-saving features turned off, large and small images suffered from significant banding and poor gradient reproduction. If your B&W printing needs include a bit of mixed media or graphical output, color banding issues will render pretty much any content, even simple, single-colored shapes, looking like “draft” output. I’d LOVE to make a stronger recommendation for this printer because it’s SO capable in so many ways at a price-point that’s really hard to beat; but passable print quality and subpar graphical/image reproduction make this unit a tough sell. I would say that if you plan to do mostly text-based output and do not need publishing-house print quality, the MFC-L2820DW might just meet your needs; otherwise, you’ll have to think hard about whether the attractive capabilities this printer packs under the hood are worth the tradeoffs you’ll see on the printed page.

The Brother MFC-L2820DW has been a fantastic addition to my home office. It’s incredibly reliable for everyday document printing, with sharp, clean text that’s perfect for reports, résumés, and worksheets. The automatic duplex printing helps me cut paper usage in half, which is a big plus for my small workspace. Setup was straightforward—connecting to Wi‑Fi and wiring up the initial toner was quick, and the mobile printing options (AirPrint and Brother’s app) make printing from my phone and tablet a breeze. The compact footprint fits nicely on a desk without feeling cramped, and the single, straightforward control panel keeps things simple even for occasional users. Toner longevity has been solid, and the cost per page is very reasonable for a monochrome laser, making it a cost-effective choice for high-volume text printing. For anyone primarily printing documents in black and white, this printer delivers dependable performance with minimal fuss. Overall, the Brother MFC-L2820DW is a dependable, budget-friendly monochrome all-in-one that excels in speed, simplicity, and efficiency—perfect for a home office or small workspace focused on document-heavy tasks.

very easy to use, not too big, standard size, quiet too

I can only give first impressions because I've made <20 copies so far. At home, it is bigger than it looks in photos; it is somewhat noisy and the sound is like cheap, brittle plastic parts moving, which has me wondering how long it will last. But so far it does what it says it will do so that's good. I like that it is a laser, not an inkjet, and that it is wireless. It connected to my computer without a problem. Oh, one thing- when you open the top it wants to slam back down with a lot of force, not a gentle close at all.

The machine works well. It is loud and doesn't print super fast, but works well enough. I have not had any issues with it staying connected to my computers or network.

extremely easy to setup and connect via wireless and wired. Really fast scanning

Love the scanning and printing quality, and ease of setup and operation of printer.

I can confidently say this is the best home office printer I’ve owned in over 15 years—and I’ve tried them all. After cycling through multiple Canon, Epson, and HP inkjets (and even some laser jets), I was constantly frustrated with software bugs, connection issues, and printer failures. In just six months, I went through three different models that couldn’t keep up with basic demands. I honestly overlooked this Brother All-In-One at first—mainly because it seemed a bit larger than what I thought I needed. But when I finally gave it a chance (especially since it was on sale), it turned out to be the best decision I could’ve made. The value for the price is simply unbeatable. Out of the box, setup was seamless. No headaches, no software problems. It connected to my phone instantly, and I easily configured multiple scan-to-email locations for sending invoices and receipts. I print and scan heavily for work, so the automatic document feeder was a must—and it performs flawlessly. This printer has completely changed my perception of what a reliable, efficient, and user-friendly printer should be. If you're tired of the same old printer issues, do yourself a favor and invest in this one—especially if you catch it on sale like I did. You won’t be disappointed.

After about 15 years our old Brother "gave up the ghost" and quit working. Needing a replacement quickly, we chose the Brother MFC-L2820DW, and we are very pleased with its performance. It was easy to install, takes up far less room than the last one, and makes great copies. We print wirelessly from 2 computers and are pleased with the results. It was a perfect choice for our needs.

I purchased this multi function printer to replace an older hp printer that was very difficult to use. The new Brother printer was easy to setup and pairs up with my iphone seamlessly. So far I have used it to print and copy documents and it works perfectly. We are very pleased with this purchase and highly recommended it.

Very good b/w laser printer. Easy to set up and operate. Nice compact size. Reasonably priced.

I love it. Wish I got color not just black and white. No problem with it prints great, and fast and easy to use, easy to connect it with your phone and WiFi. This is my second printer.

Love the printer. Works great. Easy set. Great price Great quality. I have had other printers in the past. This one I am very happy with. I would buy again. I recommend this one too anyone looking for a printer.

Works great for my home office. easy to use and very sharp printing.