Brother HL-L2370DW

  • Affordable

  • Easy to use

  • AirPrint/Google Cloud Print

  • No copying/faxing/scanning

The Brother HL-L2370DW is fairly basic compared to other monochrome printers on the market, but the simplistic approach yields an impressive, reliable printer that can handle any document you throw its way, all while costing a fraction of a penny per print.

  • Design
  • Setup Process
  • Performance and Connectivity
  • Software
  • Price
  • Competition
  • Final Verdict
  • Specs

We purchased the Brother HL-L2370DW so our expert reviewer could thoroughly test and assess it. Keep reading for our full product review.

Inkjet printers are great for printing everything from documents to high-resolution photo prints, but the reality is if it’s only documents you’re looking to print, your best bet is to go with a laser printer. Not only do laser printers cost less per print, but they also tend to be easier to maintain over the long run, as you don’t have to worry about multiple inks every time you run out—you simply pop in a new drum or toner cartridge and you’re good to go. 

Much like inkjet printers, there’s no shortage of laser printers on the market, but for this review, I took an inside look at HL-L2370DW, a black and white laser printer that offers wireless printing and has a duplexer for double-sided printing. I’ve spent roughly a month with the printer running it through a torture test of prints that saw me deplete a quarter of the included toner cartridge (not an easy task for a laser printer). Below are my thoughts, compiled into their respective categories. 

Design: Basic for the best

The HL-L2370DW features a rather standard printer design, especially as far as Brother laser printers go. It looks effectively identical to its predecessor, featuring a cuboid design with a front-loading paper tray and an angled section out of the top where the paper comes out. The front and sides of the printer are devoid of any buttons or ports, while the back features the power adapter plugin and a single USB-B port for connecting to your computer. 

The only screen on the printer is a small, single-line LCD display on the top of the device, to the left of the paper output tray. The menu is navigated through using the five buttons beneath the screen, while a dedicated power button and Wi-Fi button are to the left of the navigation controls. 

One detail I really appreciate with this printer is that nearly everything can be accessed from the front. The paper tray slides out from the front, the dedicated single-feed tray pops down from the front, and the entire toner cartridge can be removed and replaced by flipping down the top half of the front. It was convenient to have access to all of this without having to turn the printer around or feel around on the back for various trays and access points. 

Setup Process: Practically plug-and-play

Setting up the HL-L2370DW is a mostly straightforward process. After unboxing the printer and plugging it in, the next step is to place the toner cartridge in the front of the device; a process made easy thanks to the simple access point mentioned above and the included instructions that illustrate how to place the toner cartridge in the printer. 

From there, it’s a matter of connecting the printer to your computer or mobile device. A physical connection can be made using the USB-B port on the rear and no special setup process is required, aside from adding the printer to your computer. 

Connecting to the printer is a little more complicated, but is still a rather quick process, so long as you have your local wireless network password on hand. Using the onboard display and buttons, simply navigate to the network settings and choose Network Setup.

The HL-L2370DW is an absolute steal and the last printer you should have to buy for a long time if all you need is black and white prints.

Once there, the printer will scan for nearby SSIDs (network names) and present them to you to look through. After you’ve discovered and selected your SSID, insert your password and you’re good to go. Having to sort through numbers and letters one-by-one to insert your password is a pain, but it should only need to be done once, as the printer will remember your network from there on out. 

Performance and Connectivity: Fast and reliable

With apologies to the trees whose wood pulp I had to sacrifice (and subsequently recycle) for this review, I’m over 500 pages deep into prints—sometimes up to 60 at a time to test the limits of the printer—and so far it just keeps going. Brother claims it can achieve speeds up to 30 pages per minute (ppm). My testing thus far proved that to be exactly the case, with it varying slightly depending on whether I was printing a graphics-heavy document or a simple text document. 

Even after all of these prints, I haven’t had a single jam and so far the print quality has been consistent from beginning to end. As mentioned above, setting up the Mf267dw to be used wirelessly was fairly straightforward and once connected to Wi-Fi, it proved easy to print from my desktop, laptop, and mobile devices (both Android and iOS, using Google Cloud Print and AirPrint, respectively). I haven’t had to reconnect the printer once, even after we had a power outage due to inclement weather in the area. 

Copying and scanning also proved to be quite intuitive and beneficial. When loading documents into the top feeder for automated copying or scanning, the printer will beep to notify you the documents are far enough in the tray. When a copying or scanning option is selected, it will automatically feed the documents through and output them as you’ve directed. A neat feature I’ve noticed is that the printer will automatically know whether it’s a single document or a stack of them and automatically conclude the scan when there is no longer source material. While it seems trivial, some all-in-ones require you to click “Continue” between pages, which can be a pain, especially if it’s a large stack of papers that need to be scanned together as a single document. 

Software: There if you need it

No specific software is required to print from the HL-L2370DW, but Brother does offer drivers and dedicated software for download in the event your computer doesn’t automatically locate and download the drivers for you. That said, upon plugging it into both my MacBook Pro running macOS Catalina and my PC running Windows 10, the printer was immediately recognized and automatically setup via the installation wizards with only a few simple inputs. 

Price: Fantastic value

The HL-L2370DW retails for $130, which puts it on the budget end of Brother’s laser printer lineup. Despite the affordable price tag and simplistic design, the printer offers solid value. If you don’t need any additional functionality, such as copying, faxing, or scanning, this printer gets the job done without much hassle in terms of maintenance and upkeep. So long as you keep it full of paper and refill the toner cartridges once every 3,000 pages (6,000 pages if you use the high-yield toner cartridge), you can count on this thing to work years down the road. 

Brother HL-L2370DW vs. HP LaserJet Pro M203dw 

Even after all of these prints, I haven’t had a single jam and so far the print quality has been consistent from beginning to end.

The LaserJet Pro M203dw features wired/wireless connectivity, printing up to 30 pages per minute, a 260-sheet paper tray, and duplexing for printing on both sides of paper. It also features printing from mobile devices using both Google Cloud Print and Apple AirPrint, making it great for printing from your smartphone or tablet. Despite similar specs though, the LaserJet Pro M203dw typically retails for $180, $60 more than what the HL-L2370DW retails for (though the HP is often on sale).

Hard to beat for the price and printing cost. 

Specs

  • Product Name
  • HL-L2370DW
  • Product Brand
  • Brother
  • Price
  • $130.00
  • Product Dimensions
  • 14 x 14.2 x 7.2 in.
  • Color
  • Grey
  • Print speed
  • Up to 36ppm (letter)
  • Print resolution
  • 600dpi
  • Tray capacity
  • 250 sheets