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In this guide
Brother lists the DCP-L2640DW at $209.99 on brother-usa.com, with new units out of stock on September 11, 2026 and a refurbished RDCPL2640DW orderable at $169.99. It is the print, copy and scan version of the L2400 family: 36 pages per minute, an 8.5 second first page, automatic duplex printing, a 250-sheet tray, a 50-page automatic document feeder over a flatbed, and Ethernet, dual-band Wi-Fi and Hi-Speed USB 2.0 as standard interfaces. There is no fax, which is what separates it from the MFC-L2820DW.
The comparison that frames this review is the HL-L2400D at $134.99, Brother's USB-only single-function laser with the same engine. The $75 between them buys a scanner, an ADF, Wi-Fi and Ethernet, and nothing on the consumables side changes: both ship with a 700-page starter cartridge and a DR830 drum, and both take the TN830 line of toner. The sections below price the networking and scanning, then work the per-page cost from Brother's own supply listings.
Our verdict
The right step up from Brother's USB-only laser for a household or small office that needs to scan paperwork and print from phones and more than one computer, provided the buyer is fine with single-sided scanning, a starter cartridge that runs out early, and, right now, a refurbished unit or another retailer.
- A good fit for
- A shared home office that prints a few hundred black-and-white pages a month, scans multi-page documents through the feeder, and wants Wi-Fi and Ethernet without paying for fax.
- We would skip it if
- You need two-sided scanning or copying, you only ever print from one wired PC, or you expect the in-box toner to cover more than a month of regular use.
Reasons to consider it
- Ethernet, dual-band Wi-Fi, Wi-Fi Direct and USB 2.0 all standard, with AirPrint and Mopria for phones
- 50-page automatic document feeder plus a flatbed, with scan-to-mobile through Brother's app
- Same TN830 toner and DR830 drum as the rest of the L2400 family, so high-yield and twin-pack cartridges apply
The compromises
- Duplex printing is automatic, but scanning and copying are single-sided only
- The 700-page starter cartridge is well under the 1,200-page standard TN830
- New units were out of stock on brother-usa.com when checked; only the $169.99 refurbished RDCPL2640DW was orderable
What we have not verified: No printing, scanning, speed, noise or yield was tested. Brother's weight figure of 25 has no unit on the listing, presumably pounds, and the memory figure of 256 is likewise unlabeled. Every consumable in the supplies carousel was also marked out of stock on September 11, 2026, and the printer's stock status could change without notice.
The things in this guide
A closer look at the products, who they may suit, and what to check before buying.
DCP-L2640DW Monochrome Laser Multi-Function Printer
Ethernet, dual-band Wi-Fi, a 50-page ADF and automatic duplex printing at $209.99, sharing toner and drum with Brother's cheaper lasers.
Before you buy: Single-sided scanning and copying, a 700-page starter cartridge, and no new stock on Brother's store when checked.
Price checked September 11, 2026. Retailer prices can change.Networking, a scanner and a feeder for $75 over the HL-L2400D
Both printers run the same engine: 36 ppm single-sided, 8.5 seconds to first page from ready, 1200 by 1200 dpi, automatic duplex printing on by default, a 250-sheet tray with a 100-sheet output stack, a one-sheet manual slot, 600 MHz processor, 35,000-page maximum duty cycle and a recommended ceiling of 2,500 pages a month. The DCP-L2640DW prints nothing the HL-L2400D cannot print.
The $75 goes to three things. First, connectivity: Ethernet, 802.11 a/b/g/n Wi-Fi on both 2.4 and 5 GHz bands, Wi-Fi Direct, and USB 2.0, with AirPrint, Mopria and Brother Mobile Connect for phones and tablets. Second, a flatbed scanner with TWAIN, WIA and SANE drivers, 23.6 images per minute in black and 7.9 in color, and AirPrint scanning for Macs. Third, a 50-page automatic document feeder with auto-deskew for stacks of forms. A household that prints from a phone or scans anything at all will use at least two of the three.
Automatic duplex printing, but scans and copies come out single-sided
Brother's table is explicit: Automatic Duplex Printing, yes and on by default; Duplex Scanning, no; Duplex Copying, no. The 50-page feeder pulls one side of each sheet. A two-sided contract has to be run through twice and merged in software, or turned over by hand on the flatbed, and a two-sided copy is a manual operation. The scanner interpolates to 19200 by 19200 dpi on Windows only, a figure that says little about real optical quality.
For receipts, school forms, single-sided letters and the occasional signed page, single-sided scanning is a minor limit. For an office that archives two-sided statements every week it is the reason to move up to a model with a duplexing ADF, and that model is not in this price bracket at Brother. Copy functions cover 2-in-1 and 4-in-1 layouts, 25 to 400 percent scaling, sorting and standalone operation without a computer, all in black and white at 600 by 600 dpi.
The same toner arithmetic as the cheaper printer, starting from 700 pages
The carton holds a 700-page starter cartridge and a DR830 drum rated at approximately 15,000 pages at one page per job. Replacement toner is the TN830 at $60.99 for about 1,200 pages, the TN830XL at $98.29 for up to 3,000, and the TN830XL2PK at $176.49 for two 3,000-page cartridges, which Brother prices as a 10 percent saving over two singles. The DR830 drum is $157.99. All of those yields are ISO/IEC 19752 estimates for letter and A4 and will move with coverage.
Dividing price by yield gives about 5.1 cents a page on the standard cartridge, 3.3 cents on the XL, 2.9 cents on the twin pack, and 1.1 cents on the drum, so roughly 4 to 6 cents a page all in. At 300 pages a month the starter cartridge is gone in under three months and the standard TN830 lasts four; at 1,000 pages a month the XL is the only sensible cartridge and the drum comes due inside 15 months. Brother also names a TN830V value cartridge on the listing, but no product page for it was found on brother-usa.com, so its price and yield are not known here. Every supply named above was out of stock on Brother's store on September 11, 2026.
A 16-inch cube, 49 dB while printing, and 470 watts at full tilt
The unit measures 16.1 by 15.7 by 12.5 inches, and Brother lists the weight as 25 with no unit; pounds is the reasonable reading, and the carton is given as 30.7. It ships in a 21 by 23 by 17 inch box. Standard memory is listed as 256, again without a unit, with PCL6, BR-Script3 and PDF 1.7 emulation on board, which is more than the GDI-only HL-L2400D offers and matters for Linux and print-server setups.
Noise is rated at 30 dB in ready mode and 49 dB while printing. Power draw is 470 W printing, 44 W ready, 4.4 W in sleep, 0.5 W in deep sleep and 0.06 W off, on a 110 to 120 V supply, with an ENERGY STAR TEC value of 0.42. The printer is ENERGY STAR certified. Brother lists Windows, macOS and Linux driver compatibility, with the standing note that macOS printing and scanning go through AirPrint and no Mac driver is supplied; on a network-connected model that route is straightforward, unlike the USB-only case.
Out of stock new, $169.99 refurbished, and a one-year term either way
On September 11, 2026 the new DCP-L2640DW showed Out of Stock at $209.99, and the only orderable condition was the refurbished RDCPL2640DW at $169.99, a $40 saving. Brother's page offers a link to other retailers for new units. The listed warranty is 1 Year Limited, with a warranty PDF linked from the specifications; whether the refurbished unit carries the same term is not stated on the printer listing and should be confirmed on the refurbished product's own page before ordering.
Ground shipping from Brother is free on orders of $49.99 or more, which the printer clears on its own. The wireless security list covers WPA3-SAE, WPA2-PSK and 802.1x enterprise authentication, plus TLS/SSL and IP filtering, which is more than a home network needs and enough for a small office with a managed switch. Compared with the $134.99 HL-L2400D, the refurbished price narrows the gap for the scanner, feeder and networking to $35; at that spread the single-function printer is hard to justify for anyone with a phone.
Skip it for two-sided scanning or a lone wired PC; buy it for a shared home office
Skip the DCP-L2640DW if the paperwork you scan is two-sided and volume is high enough that flipping stacks by hand will grate, since neither the feeder nor the copier duplexes. Also leave it if one wired Windows or Linux computer is the only thing that will ever print, because the HL-L2400D does that job for $75 less on the same engine and the same cartridges, and if fax is on the list, the MFC-L2820DW is the model with the line in.
Buy it for a household or small office where several laptops and phones print, forms get scanned through the feeder, and a few hundred black-and-white pages a month is the normal load. At $209.99 new, or $169.99 refurbished while new stock is out, plus roughly 4 to 6 cents a page, it is the sensible middle of Brother's mono line. That judgment rests on Brother's published specifications and prices alone; print quality, scan quality, speed, noise and real cartridge yield were not tested, and the TN830 cartridge was itself out of stock at $60.99 when the prices were recorded.
How we put this together
Built from the product pages and listings below, without test scores or results we have not measured. Specifications and prices change, so check the original page for the exact model, current price, delivery, and returns.
- Brother: DCP-L2640DW Wireless Compact Monochrome Laser Multi-Function Printer (DCPL2640DW) (opens in a new tab)
- Brother: TN830 standard yield toner (opens in a new tab)
- Brother: TN830XL high yield toner (opens in a new tab)
- Brother: TN830XL2PK twin pack (opens in a new tab)
- Brother: DR830 drum unit (opens in a new tab)
- Brother: HL-L2400D Compact Monochrome Laser Printer (HLL2400D) (opens in a new tab)
