Brother MFC-L2980DW: Cost Per Page and Cost to Run
The Brother MFC-L2980DW is a mono laser all-in-one — print, copy, scan and fax, with duplexing, Wi-Fi and a touchscreen, running at 36 pages per minute. It sells for $335. Toner runs $3.96 per 100 pages, drawn from the TN835 cartridge at $145 for 5,000 pages plus wear on the $158 drum, rated for 15,000 pages.
The nearest rival from outside Brother's own lineup is the Canon imageCLASS LBP172dw, cheaper to buy at $216 and cheaper to run at $3.68 per 100 pages. The Canon trades that for print-only duties and no touchscreen, dropping copy, scan and fax along the way.
Step up to Canon's imageCLASS MF275dw and the function list matches the Brother's exactly — copy, scan, fax, duplex, Wi-Fi, Ethernet — but the price climbs to $238 and the toner cost with it, to $4.28 per 100 pages.
The running-cost floor among mono laser printers belongs to the HP LaserJet Pro 4006dw, at $2.23 per 100 pages; the Brother ranks 5th of 23 mono lasers InkTax tracks on black cost per page, well behind it. The HP asks $400 up front and prints only, with no copy, scan or fax.
Brother's own cheaper stablemates — the HL-L2400D, HL-L2405W and HL-L2460DW, priced from $120 to $160 — all land on the same $4.33 per 100 pages, a rate none of them beats. Each trims down to print-only, and only the HL-L2460DW picks up Wi-Fi and Ethernet.