Brother HL-L3295CDW Cost to Run: Same Price, Costlier Ink
The Brother HL-L3295CDW is a color laser printer, print-only, with duplex and a touchscreen, selling for $400. It costs $4.15 per 100 pages in black and $20.26 per 100 pages in color to run. The black figure comes from its TN229XLBK cartridge — $96 for 3,000 pages — plus drum wear from the $188 drum, rated for 20,000 pages.
That combination puts most of the running cost in the toner: the TN229XLBK is rated for just 3,000 pages, meaning frequent swaps at $96 apiece for anyone printing steadily. The drum lasts far longer, at 20,000 pages, but replacing it costs $188 when the time comes.
Stepping down Brother's lineup, the HL-L3220CDW sells for $230 and matches this printer's rates in black and color, tying the HL-L3295CDW for 9th of 13 color laser printers on color cost per page in a five-way tie. It lacks Ethernet and a touchscreen and tops out at 19 ppm against the HL-L3295CDW's 31 ppm.
The HP Color LaserJet Pro 3201dw sells for the same price and runs a shade cheaper — $3.59 and $18.94 per 100 pages — with no touchscreen, print-only like the Brother.
The Canon PIXMA G3270 runs far cheaper across black and color: $0.38 and $0.97 per 100 pages, against the HL-L3295CDW's own $4.15 and $20.26 per 100 pages. The $249 tank adds copy and scan but drops duplex, a touchscreen and Ethernet, and prints at 11 ppm against this printer's 31 ppm.
HP's LaserJet Pro 4006dw is mono-only, running black at $2.23 per 100 pages — well under the Brother's own rate, which ranks 51st of 97 printers across every type InkTax tracks for black cost per page. It prints faster too, at 47 ppm to this machine's 31 ppm, though the two share Wi-Fi, Ethernet, duplex and a touchscreen.