Brother MFC-L2710DW Printer Review

The MFC-L2710DW has an excellent design. The toner cartridge is easily accessible from the front, and although paper jams can only be removed from the back of the printer, you only need to open a single panel to gain access. The scanner's lid can be extended slightly if you need to scan thick documents or books. If you need to have better access to the output tray, the scanner bed can be raised and it stays open on its own, so you don't have to keep holding it. The whole printer feels sturdy, but the non-removable power cord makes it harder to replace if damaged.

The MFC-L2710DW is a pretty compact printer and should fit easily into most small home offices or dorm rooms. The printer is tall though, so additional clearance is needed if you want to use the scanner.

The MFC-L2710DW has a bad display screen. It's a small monochrome, two-line LCD. It isn't touch-sensitive either, so all navigation is done using the surrounding buttons. Viewing angles are bad, making it difficult to see if you're seated or viewing from the side, and there are no adjustments at all, tilt or swivel. Navigating the menu is easy enough, and the presence of a numeric pad is convenient for typing in Wi-Fi passwords and such. There are also dedicated buttons for the printer's main functions: fax, scan, and copy.

• 1x TN-730 Black toner cartridge
• 1x DR-730 Drum unit
• Phone cable
• Setup CD
• User guide

The cartridge system is excellent. Since it can only print in black, there's just a single black toner cartridge. It can yield a very respectable number of pages, which means that you don't have to replace it often. There's also a high-yield cartridge available if you need more. The printer accepts third-party toner cartridges, but using them may void the manufacturer's warranty.

The MFC-L2710DW has great scanning features. It has a flatbed and an automatic document feeder to process multi-page documents, but unfortunately, it can't perform duplex scanning.

Note that when scanning with the flatbed, the default resolution is 1200 DPI, but when using the feeder, the resolution drops to 600 DPI. Also, when scanning with Brother's iPrint&Scan on a PC, the default resolution is set to 300 DPI. To scan at a higher resolution, you must set it manually from the drop-down menu.

The MFC-L2710DW's cost-per-print is outstanding. The toner cartridge is relatively cheap and it lasts a long time due to its high yield, so the long-term cost remains low. However, the drum is a separate unit and isn't factored into the cost of the toner cartridge. The drum needs to be replaced roughly every 12,000 pages.

Outstanding printing speed. It takes a bit longer to print the first page, but once it's warmed up, it can churn out pages at a very quick pace.

The MFC-L2710DW can only print in black.

The MFC-L2710DW has awful photo printing quality, which is expected of a monochrome laser printer. The pictures are grainy and there's a lot of banding. Our test image was printed on a regular 8.5" x 11" paper since the printer can't print on glossy photo paper.

These results are based on the actual physical photo, not the scanned image provided for reference above, which may not be representative of the printer's photo print quality.

The MFC-L2710DW has a manual feed and a regular paper tray, and both are accessible from the front. The paper tray supports most paper sizes up to the standard legal size, but it doesn't support any photo papers.

Great connectivity options. It supports most wired and wireless connections, except for Bluetooth and external storage devices, such as USB thumb drives and SD cards.

Brother's iPrint&Scan mobile app is superb. With this app, you can print, scan, or copy. You can also access the printer's settings to perform maintenance tasks.