Brother HL-L2480DW Cost per Page in a Crowded Mono Laser Field
The Brother HL-L2480DW is a mono laser printer that prints, copies and scans, with auto-duplex, Wi-Fi and a touchscreen built in. It sells for $220 and runs $4.33 per 100 pages in black, a rate set by its TN830XL cartridge — $98 for 3,000 pages — with a $158 drum rated for 15,000 pages wearing down alongside it.
The Brother's $4.33 per 100 pages rate is common: among the 23 mono laser printers InkTax tracks, it ties for 7th on black cost per page, a rate seven other models match, three of them Brother's own.
The running-cost floor among mono laser printers belongs to the HP LaserJet Pro 4006dw, at $2.23 per 100 pages against the Brother's $4.33. The HP costs $400 up front, print-only with no copy or scan, and tops out at 47 ppm.
Within Brother's own line, the HL-L2400D and HL-L2405W each sell for $120, well under the HL-L2480DW's $220, but both drop copy and scan and lack a touchscreen and Ethernet; the L2405W also has no auto-duplex, and the L2400D has no Wi-Fi. The HL-L2460DW, at $160, has Wi-Fi and Ethernet like the HL-L2480DW and matches its 36 ppm speed, but is print-only, without copy, scan or a touchscreen.
HP's own budget mono lasers land nearby on ink: the LaserJet M209d ($159), M209dw ($199) and MFP M234dw ($239) all run $4.37 per 100 pages, all but identical to the Brother's $4.33. The plain M209d has no Wi-Fi or Ethernet; the M209dw has both, matching the Brother on connectivity, and only the M234dw among the three also copies and scans.