The Brother HL-L2460DW is a print-only monochrome laser printer. It uses a single toner cartridge and is compatible with Brother TN830 models; there are also a number of high-yield options available, including Brother TN830XL cartridges or the super high-yield Brother TN830V. It is capable of automatic duplex printing. Connectivity options include Ethernet, Wi-Fi, Wi-Fi Direct, and USB connectivity, as well as support for Apple AirPrint and Mopria Print Service. It's also compatible with the Brother Mobile Connect app, which lets you perform various tasks, monitor ink levels, and manage your ink subscription.
There are many variants of this printer that feature different functionality and performance, as well as regional-specific models. See the Differences Between Variants section for more information.
The Brother HL-L2460DW is a bad choice for family use. It's a monochrome laser printer, making it unsuited for photo printing, and as a print-only model, there's no scanner for digitizing family photos. Out-of-the-box document print quality is mediocre; however, you can drastically improve it by changing a few settings. On the upside, it uses inexpensive cartridges with a high page yield, and it offers a wide array of connectivity features, so it's easy to access.
High page yield results in low cost-per-print.
Not designed for photo printing.
The Brother HL-L2460DW is an alright home office printer. It uses a high-yield toner cartridge, minimizing maintenance requirements, and it pushes pages out quickly. However, as a print-only model, the lack of a scanner may be limiting for some offices. Print quality is acceptable out-of-the-box; while text looks sharp and crisp, the contrast is poor, and graphs or charts converted into grayscale from color contain many artifacts. You can drastically improve print quality by changing a few settings in the printer's submenus.
High page yield results in low cost-per-print.
The Brother HL-L2460DW is a decent option for students, as long as you don't need to scan anything and only print in black-and-white. It uses relatively inexpensive toner cartridges with a high yield. It also offers Wi-Fi and USB connectivity along with support for Apple AirPrint and Mopria Print Service, and it's compatible with Brother's feature-dense mobile app. It outputs pages pretty quickly, too, which is great if you need to print an assignment in a hurry, though it does take a little while to warm up. Just know that this printer has a few print issues out-of-the-box, but you can fix them by tweaking a few settings.
High page yield results in low cost-per-print.
Text looks crisp and legible.
The Brother HL-L2460DW is decent for black-and-white document printing. Text looks sharp and legible, although the contrast is very poor out-of-the-box and documents with graphs and charts contain many printing artifacts. Thankfully, you can remedy these print issues by tweaking a few settings. It prints quickly and has a high page yield; it's also compatible with a variety of high-yield cartridges if you have a very high print load.
High page yield results in low cost-per-print.
Text looks crisp and legible.
The Brother HL-L2460DW is a monochrome laser printer not designed for photo printing. It can only print in black-and-white, and its printing pattern is very visible and completely masks fine details.
Not designed for photo printing.
The Brother HL-L2460DW is a monochrome laser printer that only prints in black and white.
Not designed for photo printing.
The Brother HL-L2460DW produces mediocre black-and-white documents out-of-the-box. While text looks sharp and legible, documents containing elements converted into grayscale from color print with very poor contrast and contain other artifacts; these elements are difficult to read as a result. You can remedy these print issues by tweaking a few settings.
Text looks crisp and legible.
The Brother HL-L2460DW is a print-only model.
The Brother HL-L2460DW takes a moment to warm up and print the first page, but it prints very quickly once it gets going, outputting up to 34 pages per minute.
The Brother HL-L2460DW has very low recurring costs. Its toner cartridge yields over a thousand pages, so you won't need to replace it often unless you print in high volume. If you have a heavy print load, this printer is compatible with a variety of high-yield cartridges.
High page yield results in low cost-per-print.
We've rewritten the Introduction, verdict boxes, and the 'Compared To Other Printers' box to bring them in line with our current standards for printer reviews.
We tested the Brother HL-L2460DW. There are multiple variants of this printer, all with slightly different features and performance; you can see them in the table below.
Model | Connectivity | Duplex Printing Capability | Advertised Printing Speed (Letter) | Region of Sale | Additional Features |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
HL-L2400D | USB | Yes | 32 PPM | North America | - |
HL-L2400DW | USB, Wi-Fi | Yes | 30 PPM | Europe | - |
HL- L2400DWE | USB, Wi-Fi | Yes | 30 PPM | Europe | Comes with a 4-month subscription to the EcoPro ink subscription service |
HL-L2405W | USB, Wi-Fi, Wi-Fi Direct | No | 30 PPM | North America | - |
HL-2420DW | USB, Wi-Fi, Wi-Fi Direct | Yes | 30 PPM | North America | |
HL-L2460DW | USB, Wi-Fi, Wi-Fi direct, Ethernet | Yes | 36 PPM | North America | - |
HL-L2460DWXL | USB, Wi-Fi, Wi-Fi Direct, Ethernet | Yes | 36 PPM | North America | Includes 1x high-yield TN380XL and 1x starter TN cartridges. |
HL-L2865DW | USB, Wi-Fi, Wi-Fi Direct, Ethernet | Yes | 34 PPM | Oceania | Compatible with super high-yield TN835 cartridge. |
See our unit's label.
The Brother HL-L2460DW is a print-only monochrome laser printer. It feels very well-built, especially for a budget printer, and has a high page yield. It's a great option for people who only need to print off the occasional return label, as you don't need to worry about clogging like cheaper inkjet alternatives or who have a lot of documents to print, thanks to its quick print speeds. That said, you'll need to change some settings if you want to improve the overall print quality, as this printer doesn't deliver the same level of performance as Brother's previous generation print-only models out-of-the-box.
If you're looking for alternatives, see our recommendations for the best laser printers, the best office printers, and the best all-in-one printers.
The Brother HL-L2325DW and Brother HL-L2460DW are very similar printers. The HL-L2325DW uses TN730 cartridges, whereas the HL-L2460DW uses TN830 cartridges; both offer very similar page yields. The biggest difference between the two regarding physical design is that only the HL-L2460DW has a detachable power cord. However, the HL-L2325DW delivers superior print quality out-of-the-box, requiring no fiddling.
The Brother HL-L2390DW/HL-L2395DW and Brother HL-L2460DW are monochrome laser printers. These printers have variants offering a wide range of connectivity options and print speeds of up to 36 pages per minute. The real difference comes down to your use cases. If you need to scan documents, get the L2390DW, as it includes a flatbed scanner; however, the L2460DW is a great option if you only need to print. A quick note about the print quality of the L2460DW: out of the box, the print quality is inferior to the L2390DW. However, you can change a few settings to get comparable quality. See our review for more information about this.
The Pantum P2502W and Brother HL-L2460DW each have their advantages. The Pantum uses cartridges with a higher page yield and delivers superior print quality when left in its default state. However, the Brother feels better built, can output pages much faster, and supports automatic double-sided printing.
The Brother HL-L2460DW is better than the Canon imageCLASS MF3010. The Brother feels better built, is compatible with a full-featured mobile app, and prints faster, though the Canon does take less time to initialize. The Canon also features a flatbed scanner, so it's a much better fit if you need to digitize documents regularly.
The Brother HL-L2460DW feels impressively well-built. It's very similar in feel to other Brother printers like the Brother HL-L2325DW, with a dense plastic body, robust hinges, and a solid-feeling paper tray. Unlike the HL-L2325DW, however, the power cord is removable, so you can easily replace it if it gets damaged. The toner cartridge and drum are easily accessible through the top front of the printer, and the printer doesn't need to be on to access this. A drawback of the design is that the manual feeder can only hold one page at a time and lacks an extender to hold the page properly, so the paper just hangs off the feeder. Also, accessing paper jams can be difficult for people with large hands as the rear access door is quite narrow, and while you can get to the roller through the front by removing the cartridge and drum, space is still at a premium.
This is a low-maintenance printer. Unlike inkjet printers, there's no risk of printhead clogging if you don't print for an extended period. You don't need to replace the toner cartridge often as it yields a large number of prints. When you need to change it, the cartridge is easily accessible through the front, and the printer doesn't need to be on to do so. You have to replace the drum separately, although it's usually good for around 12,000 prints, so it's not too bad.
There are a few ways to access paper jams. The first is through the panel on the back of the printer. However, this panel only opens up to a 45° angle, so it might be hard to reach in if you have large hands. You can also remove the paper tray, the toner cartridge, and the drum to access paper jams or remove the duplex feeder in case the jam happens while duplex printing. The main paper tray holds 250 sheets of paper, the output tray holds 100, and the manual feeder holds one.
You can see the user's guide here.
The Brother HL-L2460DW has a rudimentary 1-line monochrome display that can only display 16 characters at a time. It doesn't allow for tilt or swivel adjustments, but it has good viewing angles, so it's easy to see from all sides. Navigating the settings menu is tedious as the screen can only show a limited number of functions at once, and the buttons have minimal labeling even though they serve multiple functions.
The cartridge system is very good. The standard TN830 cartridge has an impressive page yield, so you won't have to swap in a new one that often. Better yet, high-yield TN830XL and value high-yield TN830V cartridges are available, with advertised yields of 3,000 and 3,300 pages, respectively. Super high-yield TN835 toner cartridges, with an advertised yield of 5,000 pages, are exclusive to the HL-L2865DW variant of this printer.
The printer stops printing when the internal page counter detects that the installed toner has reached its estimated end of life. However, you can change the settings so that printing continues even when the printer thinks there isn't any toner left.
Putting in a partially used toner cartridge prompts a 'Replace Toner' message, and the product user guide recommends only swapping in new, untouched cartridges—you can see the printer's help section here.
This is a print-only unit. If you need a monochrome laser printer with a scanner, check out the Brother MFC-L2820DW.
The print quality of black-and-white documents is mediocre when the printer is in its default settings. Prints show substantial print artifacts, poor contrast in colored areas converted to grayscale, and minimal retention of fine details. At the very least, the text is crisp and highly legible.
Seeing as how this level of print quality is substantially inferior to a lot of other Brother monochrome printers that share similar hardware, like the Brother HL-L2325DW, we made several attempts to rectify this issue. There's no change in print quality when sending from the iPrint&Scan software from a desktop PC or from an iPhone with the Mobile Connect app. Performing a factory reset doesn't affect print quality. Changing the print resolution also has no impact, and changing the 'Print Setting' mode to 'Text' instead of the default 'Graphics' actually makes print quality worse, as seen here. Instead, you'll need to go deep into the printer settings and select 'Use System Halftone' instead of the default 'Use Printer Halftone' setting. Changing this setting brings print quality closer in line with other, similar Brother models, as seen here.
You can see other sample prints made using the settings below:
Since these settings are deep within the settings menu and are unlikely to be something that most people will adjust, we evaluated the print quality based only on the default settings.
This printer can only print in black. If color printing is a must, check out the HP DeskJet 2855e/2852e.
The Brother HL-L2460DW's cost-per-print is outstandingly low. Its TN830 cartridges have a high yield and aren't unduly expensive to replace. However, you need to replace the drum separately, which is an additional expense that's not factored into the cost. The drum usually lasts 15,000 prints, so you won't have to do it too often. Having the drum as a separate unit also makes the toner cartridge less expensive and is more eco-friendly since you don't need to replace it as often as the toner.
The Brother HL-L2460DW outputs pages impressively quickly. It takes a while to get the first page of a document out, but it gets much faster once it's warmed up and gets very close to the advertised speed of 36 PPM. The input tray is relatively large, so you don't have to reload it as often during big print jobs.
The posted maximum paper weight applies to the manual feeder. The main input tray can only support up to 163 g/m².
Brother's Mobile Connect App is fantastic. You can manage the Refresh EZ Print subscription service and print documents remotely. You can also perform maintenance tasks like updating the firmware, checking the toner level, and ordering replacement toner online. That said, unlike other Brother printers, you can't print HTML files directly.