Brother MFC-L3780CDW Review | PCMag

The Brother MFC-L3780CDW ($499.99) is an entry-level color laser-class all-in-one (AIO) printer designed for small and home-based offices and workgroups. It’s an update to the Brother MFC-L3770CDW, our previous top pick for the category. The L3780CDW improves on the L3770CDW by bumping up the print speed and increasing the recommended monthly duty cycle and page volume. Perhaps best of all, the L3780CDW corrects a major drawback for the L3770CDW: If you buy the super-high-yield toner cartridges, it has running costs that are much more reasonable than the L3770CDW’s. As a result, the L3780CDW is our new Editors’ Choice winner for budget color laser AIOs.

Design: Technically, They’re LEDs, Not Lasers

Like the L3770CDW, the L3780CDW isn’t technically a laser printer, it’s a light-emitting diode (LED) printer. Rather than use lasers to etch a page image onto the imaging drum before transferring it to paper, it uses an LED array to achieve the same result. From the user’s point of view, laser and LED printers are essentially interchangeable, which is why they’re usually grouped together under the general heading of laser printers. Brother and OKI Data currently sell monochrome and color printers that use LED arrays.

In theory, an LED-based printer can have a smaller size, lighter weight, simplified mechanical parts, quieter operation, and lower power consumption compared with an equivalent laser model. The L3780CDW is in fact typical in size for its price and performance category. At 15.8 by 18.2 by 16.1 inches (HWD), it’s roughly the same size as the L3770CDW, the Canon Color imageClass MF746Cdw, and the HP Color LaserJet Pro MFP 4301fdw. All have a 250-sheet input tray, and all have a 50-sheet automatic document feeder (ADF). Whether it’s a laser- or LED-based AIO printer, these paper capacities are going to require a large enough printer to handle the associated tasks successfully. Brother lists the L3780CDW’s monthly duty cycle at 50,000 pages, up from the L3770CDW’s 30,000. The recommended monthly page volume is 4,000 pages, up from 1,500 for the previous model.

(Credit: Brother)

At 47.8 pounds, the L3780CDW is the lightest of the previously mentioned models. Of the group, the Canon Color imageClass MF746Cdw is the heaviest, at 64 pounds. Even the older sibling L3770CDW comes in at 53.9 pounds. While a lighter chassis could indicate less metal inside, and potentially less structural integrity, the L3780CDW’s weight advantage is likely also attributable to its LED-based print engine.

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While the L3780CDW is otherwise well-equipped, it does have one shortcoming. Like the L3770CDW, it has a 30-sheet multipurpose tray. That’s smaller than the more typical 50-sheet multipurpose tray that comes with the Canon Color imageClass MF746Cdw, the HP Color LaserJet Pro MFP 4301fdw, and the HP Color LaserJet Pro MFP M479fdw. It’s not a huge deal, as you can increase the overall paper capacity by another 250 sheets with an optional lower paper tray, a $149.99 accessory. However, if you regularly print on envelopes, labels, or glossy paper, you may find a 30-sheet multipurpose tray somewhat restrictive. (Those kinds of paper will need to go through the multipurpose tray.)

Setting Up the MFC-L3780CDW: Take the Shortcut

The L3780CDW features a bright and colorful 3.5-inch touch screen. The control-panel interface has distinctive icons that do an excellent job of visually representing the unit’s functions. Those icons are also well-labeled, making it especially easy to navigate the onboard menus. In addition, you can set up as many as 48 shortcuts for frequently used settings related to copying, scanning, faxing, emailing, or storing/retrieving documents. Your saved shortcuts will be stored inside eight tabs, with each tab having as many six shortcuts. With a bit of planning, you could use the tab structure to organize your shortcuts by type of document, function, or destination.

(Credit: Brother)

While the 3.5-inch color touch screen is quite sufficient, it is a bit small compared with the touch screens on similar models. The older L3770CDW has a 3.7-inch color touch screen, which also isn’t overly generous in its dimensions. The HP Color LaserJet Pro MFP 4301fdw has a 4.3-inch color touch screen, and the Canon Color imageClass MF746Cdw has a 5.0-inch color touch screen.

The L3780CDW offers a wide range of connection options. Along with Ethernet and USB 2.0 ports, this model has Wi-Fi connectivity. It also has Wi-Fi Direct support for bypassing your network and connecting directly to compatible devices. That could be useful for some mobile phones, cameras, PCs, and gaming devices. It has Wi-Fi Protected Setup for one-button installations with your Wi-Fi router. And it has wireless NFC badge authentication, which could be valuable if you need to protect sensitive business information.

This model is compatible with AirPrint and Mopria for mobile printing. It’s also compatible with popular cloud storage services such as Dropbox, Evernote, Google Drive, and OneNote. You can use the company’s own Brother Mobile Connect app to wirelessly print, scan, and copy documents. And with the Brother iPrint&Scan app, you can edit, preview, and send faxes.

Testing the MFC-L3780CDW: Picking Up the Pace

Brother rates the L3780CDW’s print speed at 31 pages per minute (ppm). That’s relatively fast for an entry-level color laser-class AIO. For comparison, the L3770CDW is rated at 25ppm, and the Canon Color imageClass MF746Cdw is rated at 28ppm. Of course, if you’re willing to pay more, faster print speeds are available with some mid-level models. The HP Color LaserJet Pro MFP 4301fdw, for example, is rated at 35ppm. To see if the L3780CDW lives up to its billing, I tested it over an Ethernet connection from our standard Intel Core i5 desktop testbed running Windows 10 Pro.

The L3780CDW comes out of the box configured to print two-sided (duplex) pages. In that scenario, we time and record both a printer’s one-sided (simplex) and two-sided performance. When printing our standard 12-page Microsoft Word text document (excluding the first page), I clocked the unit at 14.4ppm in duplex and 32.0ppm in simplex mode. That simplex result was 1ppm quicker than its rated speed.

It was also 5.2ppm faster than the 26.8ppm test result for the L3770CDW, and it was 3.3ppm faster than the 28.7ppm test result for the Canon MF746Cdw. However, it wasn’t able keep up with the HP 4301fdw. That higher-priced model delivered a test result of 36.0ppm, which is 4.0ppm faster than the L3780CDW.

Next, I timed the L3780CDW as it printed our business applications suite, a collection of colorful and complex PDFs, Microsoft Excel charts and graphs, and PowerPoint handouts. Its score of 13.6ppm was 3.3ppm ahead of the L3770CDW, which had a 10.3ppm score on the same test. However, it was 3.6ppm slower than the HP 4301fdw and 3.8ppm slower than the Canon MF746Cdw. Those models scored 17.2ppm and 17.4ppm, respectively. If you tend to print a lot of charts and graphs, the L3780CD might seem a little sluggish compared with similar color laser-class AIOs.

And while no laser-class printer can match a dedicated photo printer for quality prints, I did time PCMag’s two standard test 4-by-6-inch snapshots with the L3780CDW to see how fast it might print photographic materials. It averaged about 12 seconds per image. That was considerably faster than the L3770CDW, which averaged about 18 seconds per image with the same snapshots.

Overall, the L3780CDW is faster across the board compared with the previous-generation L3770CDW. It also holds its own speed-wise when it comes to printing text documents, compared with other entry-level color laser-class AIOs. However, it can lag a bit with some graphics materials when compared with similar modeIs. If that’s a major concern for you, consider casting a wider net to include some mid-level models, which tend to emphasize speed and capacity over price.

Excellent Quality for a Competitive Price

With any laser-class printer, you should be able to produce near-typesetter-quality text that’s suitable for most business text documents. The L3780CDW easily passes the grade for those kinds of documents. I was able to read typical business fonts down to a very small 4-point size. I saw no stray dots or faint vertical lines with the prints. Everything was clean and in its place. With charts and graphs, the colors were well-defined with no bleed-in along the edges. Colors were accurate across the spectrum, though the contrast level could be a tad stronger. And while the contrast was a bit restrained, the saturation levels were fine and set appropriately to match the content.

Printed photos had a similar appearance. The colors were accurate with a slightly muted contrast. As with any laser-class printer, you won’t be able to print borderless pages as you can with an inkjet printer. However, the L3780CDW’s photo print quality is more than adequate for brochures, newsletters, real estate flyers, or similar business documents.

(Credit: Brother)

Brother gives you a broad range of options when shopping for replacement toner cartridges. You can purchase standard-yield, high-yield, or super-high-yield capacity cartridges for each of the black, cyan, magenta, and yellow cartridges. As you might guess, you’ll need to buy the super-high-yield cartridges to achieve the lowest print costs. That means putting out a fair amount of cash when replacing the toner, but that outlay in cash will let you store up a ready reserve of toner. And, more important, it will significantly lower your print costs.

When using the super-high-yield cartridges, your print costs should be about 12.3 cents per color page and 2.3 cents per black-and-white page. That’s well below the L3770CDW’s costs, especially with color. The L3770CDW would run you about 15.5 cents for color and 2.6 cents for monochrome. The L3780CDW also beats the Canon MF746Cdw, which costs about 13.3 cents for a color page and 2.5 cents for a monochrome page. The L3780CDW also beats the HP 4301fdw’s color print cost, though they have roughly the same print cost with monochrome. The HP 4301fdw will run about 14.1 cents for a color page and 2.3 cents for a monochrome page.

Verdict: The Best Gets Better

The Brother MFC-L3780CDW is a substantial upgrade over the Brother MFC-L3770CDW. It’s considerably faster, has a higher recommended monthly duty cycle, and has a more competitive per-page print cost. The image quality of the prints, copies, and scans is excellent. And it has loads of wireless options, including NFC. The modest 30-sheet multipurpose tray could be an issue, especially if you frequently print on envelopes, labels, or glossy paper. And while the $499.99 price is on the high side for an entry-level color laser-class AIO, it’s not unexpected these days for a capable and well-equipped model. Accordingly, the L3780CDW is our new Editors’ Choice winner for budget-priced color laser-class AIOs.