The Brother MFC-L3720CDW is a compelling option if you’re seeking an affordable, all-in-one color laser printer for your small business. Brother is known for its reliable and well-designed laser printers, and the MFC-L3720CDW is no exception. With its built-in automatic document feeder (ADF) and fax capability, it addresses many home office needs, potentially saving you trips to the local office store. I put it through its paces, evaluating its print speed and quality, testing the copy and scan features, and researching long-term toner costs to help you determine if this is the right printer for you.
The MFC-L3720CDW is a large, sturdy printer that measures 17.5 inches by 16.1 inches and stands 15.8 inches tall. Its weight of 44 pounds means you’ll want to plan where it will go before lifting it onto your desk or stand. The off-white and medium gray color scheme will blend well with any decor. The 3.5-inch color touchscreen, unfortunately, is fixed at a 7-degree angle, forcing you to stand to read the display. The main paper tray holds 250 sheets, and a manual feed tray allows you to print single sheets, which is convenient for labels and envelopes. The ADF can handle up to 50 pages at a time.
While most Brother laser printers include three types of connectivity, the MFC-L3720CDW supports dual-band Wi-Fi and USB-B but lacks an Ethernet port. It does have ports for fax in and phone out, so you can connect an answering machine without a separate line.
The MFC-L3720CDW consistently produces crisp black-and-white text, even for fine print. Color documents look good, with no banding or gaps in color blocks. Photo print quality is acceptable, but the colors are a bit undersaturated and dull. Oversaturating the picture on your phone might improve the photo richness, suggesting a software issue that Brother could address in a future update. As expected from a color laser printer, it’s significantly faster than an inkjet for long documents. The MFC-L3720CDW prints at a rate of 19 pages per minute (ppm) for both monochrome and color documents, which is double or triple the output of some inkjet printers. However, HP’s speedy OfficeJet Pro 9125e surpasses it with 22 ppm in black and 18 ppm in color, making the MFC-L3720CDW the slowest color laser printer I’ve reviewed.
Another important speed test is how long it takes to print the first page. The MFC-L3720CDW takes 15 seconds for the first page out (FPO). In comparison, Canon’s well-regarded imageClass MF654cdw reduces that time by a third with a 10-second FPO.
For an office environment, copying and faxing are essential functions. The MFC-L3720CDW includes fast ADF and flatbed scanners to handle these needs. The scanner is faster than the printer, ensuring no delays when making copies. It matches the 19 ppm print speed. While the printer supports duplex printing, the ADF can’t scan both sides of a page. If you need to copy a double-sided document, you’ll have to use the flatbed scanner and manually flip each page, which can be tedious.
The ADF scans at a maximum of 600 dots per inch (dpi), which is adequate for most situations. For more detailed scans of photographs or fine print, you can opt for the 1200 dpi flatbed scanner. However, most printer manufacturers currently limit mobile scanning to 300 dpi. Printers like Epson’s EcoTank 2800 allow up to 600 dpi scanning, but that’s still half the resolution available when connecting to a computer. I find these arbitrary limitations on otherwise good hardware to be frustrating.
Brother, as a leading printer manufacturer, simplifies the setup process. The toner cartridges are stored inside the printer but are capped for shipping. Uncapping and replacing the four cartridges takes only a few seconds. Like most modern printers, the MFC-L3720CDW checks for new firmware and can install updates without connecting to a computer. I connected the MFC-L3720CDW to Wi-Fi using the Brother Connect mobile app and was ready to print within minutes. Windows and Mac computers recognize Brother printers easily and automatically install drivers as needed. For the best quality and most scanning options, I recommend downloading Brother’s desktop iPrint&Scan app.
Brother charges $400 for the MFC-L3720CDW, a competitive price for small businesses requiring a durable color laser printer. It’s also affordable for home offices. However, the biggest concern is how quickly toner costs will accumulate. The MFC-L3720CDW comes with starter cartridges that can print up to 1,000 black and 1,000 color pages. If you print frequently or in high volume, you’ll need to order more toner soon. High-yield cartridges offer the best value. The MFC-L3720CDW can print monochrome pages at an average price of three to four cents per page. Color printing, however, becomes more expensive, costing 13 to 17 cents per page. If you prioritize color laser printer speed with a more affordable cost per page, Brother’s MFC-L3780CDW is faster and accepts XXL cartridges, reducing printing costs to two cents for black and 10 cents for color pages.
The Brother MFC-L3720CDW is designed for office use and is rated to print up to 40,000 pages per month with a sustained volume of 3,000 pages. Brother includes security features and cloud connectivity that could appeal to small businesses. However, these features are somewhat limited, as the printer lacks Ethernet and duplex copying. Since the most economical cartridges aren’t compatible with this model, the MFC-L3720CDW has worse long-term value compared to other Brother printers.
The MFC-L3720CDW faces stiff competition from better printers like the Canon imageClass MF654cdw. Even the HP OfficeJet Pro 9125e, a business-oriented inkjet printer, is as fast as Brother’s budget laser printer, with a lower initial cost and a more economical cost per page for ink. If you like the design of the MFC-L3720CDW but want a faster printer with more features, Brother’s MFC-L3780CDW costs only $100 more, includes more toner, and accepts the largest XXL cartridges.
