The Brother MFC-L3780CDW is an all-in-one color laser printer. It's effectively a replacement for the Brother MFC-L3770CDW; while the two printers share a similar design, the newer model uses different TN229 cartridges and drum units. It's also fully compatible with TN229XL high-yield and TN229XXL super high-yield cartridges. It has a flatbed scanner with an ADF and single-pass duplex scanning capability. Its connectivity options include USB, Wi-Fi, and Ethernet, and it can also print directly off a USB flash drive.
Our Verdict
The Brother MFC-L3780CDW is good for home use. It might be a little large to squeeze into most homes, but it does offer a plethora of features. It incurs little in the way of ownership costs thanks to its high page yield, outputs remarkably sharp, detailed prints, and has a flatbed scanner with a height-adjustable lid that's fantastic for digitizing pages from books and magazines. Unsurprisingly, for a laser printer, it's not a great option for printing photos.
- High page yield.
- Fantastic document printing quality.
- Full-featured scanner.
- Wide variety of connectivity options.
Outstanding scan quality.
Low maintenance.
Printing speed slows down over wireless connection.
- Limited color gamut.
- Poor color accuracy.
- Bulky for at-home use.
The Brother MFC-L3780CDW is a superb choice for small offices. Its standard TN229 cartridges are sufficient for regular printing, but if you need more, you can buy high-yield and super high-yield toner cartridges. While it might take a little while to warm up, it can print a lot of pages in a hurry once it has, which is great for high-volume print jobs. Most of its components, like the drum unit, belt unit, and waste toner box, have a long service life and are easy to replace. The overall print quality is also fantastic.
- Fantastic document printing quality.
- Rapid printing speed.
- Full-featured scanner.
- Wide variety of connectivity options.
Outstanding scan quality.
Low maintenance.
Printing speed slows down over wireless connection.
- Slow to warm up.
The Brother MFC-L3780CDW is a fantastic option if you want a printer that's reliable and easy to maintain. As a laser printer, it doesn't suffer from clogging even when left unused for long periods. It produces high-quality documents and can print up to 30 pages per minute, though that speed was only reached when connected via USB. Wireless printing was limited to around 20 PPM in our testing. Its toner cartridges have long lifespans, allowing you to print thousands of pages. It also offers a wide range of connectivity options, making it simple to print from nearly any device. Maintenance is straightforward, as all the consumable parts are easily replaceable. Additionally, you can purchase the high-yield black toner cartridge in twin packs, which is even more cost-effective than buying them separately.
- High page yield.
- Rapid printing speed.
- Wide variety of connectivity options.
Low maintenance.
Printing speed slows down over wireless connection.
Printing speed slows down over wireless connection.
The Brother MFC-L3780CDW is a poor choice for photo printing, though this isn't really what it's designed for. It has a limited color gamut and poor color accuracy. Its printing pattern is rather obvious and obscures fine details in photos. Finding compatible glossy photo paper is also a challenge.
Printing speed slows down over wireless connection.
- Limited color gamut.
- Poor color accuracy.
- Not compatible with the majority of glossy photo paper.
The Brother MFC-L3780CDW delivers exceptional page yields, allowing you to print thousands of pages per cartridge. High-yield cartridges are also available, more than doubling the standard output. This makes the printer an excellent choice for users with very large printing needs.
- High page yield.
Printing speed slows down over wireless connection.
The Brother MFC-L3780CDW produces remarkable scan quality. Text is sharp, and fine details like graph lines are clear. The printer also has a versatile scanner. Its ADF supports single-pass duplex scanning, making it easy to quickly handle multi-page and double-sided documents. The flatbed scanner has extendable hinges, allowing it to accommodate thicker items such as textbooks and magazines.
- Full-featured scanner.
Outstanding scan quality.
Printing speed slows down over wireless connection.
Printing speed slows down over wireless connection.
Printing speed slows down over wireless connection.
Performance Usages
Changelog
- Updated Jul 02, 2026: We've updated this review to Test Bench 1.4, which adds new usages and performance usages, as well as reorganizes several other tests throughout the review. You can read more about the changes in detail in the Changelog.
-
Updated Jan 07, 2026:
We've updated text throughout the review after converting to Test Bench 1.3.
- Updated Jan 05, 2026: We've updated the review to Test Bench 1.3, which adds a number of test boxes including Risk of Clogging and Ease of Unclogging. We also updated the Usage and Performance boxes at the top of the review to better integrate the new aspects covered. See the changelog.
-
Updated Aug 06, 2025:
Corrected the Scan Feature box to specify that it is possible to export to a searchable OCR PDF straight from the printer.
Check Price
Differences Between Sizes And Variants
We tested the Brother MFC-L3780CDW all-in-one printer. There are a few other variants with slightly different features; you can see the differences between them in the table below.
| Model | Duplex Scanning | Connectivity | Toner Cartridge Compatibility | Advertised Printing Speed (Black/Color) | Input tray | Region of Sale |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brother MFC-L3720CDW | N |
Wi-Fi, USB |
TN229, TN229XL |
19 PPM / 19 PPM |
Single-sheet manual feeder | North America |
| Brother MFC-L3760CDW | N | Wi-Fi, Ethernet, USB, External Storage (USB flash drive) | TN258, TN258XL | 27 PPM / 27 PPM | Single-sheet manual feeder | Europe/Oceania |
| Brother MFC-L3765CDW | N | Wi-Fi, Ethernet, USB, External Storage (USB flash drive) | TN229, TN229XL | 27 PPM / 27 PPM | Single-sheet manual feeder | North America |
| Brother MFC-L3780CDW | Y |
Wi-Fi, Ethernet, USB, External Storage (USB flash drive), NFC |
TN229, TN229XL, TN229XXL |
31 PPM / 31 PPM |
30-sheet multi-purpose tray and optional 250-sheet input tray | North America |
| Brother MFC-L8340CDW | N | Wi-Fi, USB, External Storage (USB flash drive) | TN248, TN248XL | 31 PPM / 31 PPM | 30-sheet multi-purpose tray | Europe |
| Brother MFC-L8390CDW | Y | Wi-Fi, Ethernet, USB, External Storage (USB flash drive), NFC | TN258, TN258XL | 31 PPM / 31 PPM | 30-sheet multi-purpose tray and optional 250-sheet input tray | Europe/Oceania |
You can see our unit's label here.
Popular Printer Comparisons
The Brother MFC-L3780CDW is a great all-in-one color laser printer. It's a step up from the older Brother MFC-L3770CDW Laser, as it has an improved cartridge system with longer-lasting drum units, not to mention superior print and scan quality.
If you're looking for alternatives, see our recommendations of the best laser printers, the best office printers, and the best all-in-one printers.
The HP Color LaserJet Pro MFP 3301fdw and the Brother MFC-L3780CDW/MFC-L3720CDW are feature-rich, all-in-one laser printers. Both produce sharp documents and yield thousands of prints per cartridge. If you need to scan many documents, the Brother is a better choice; it offers significantly better scan quality, and its ADF can process sheets faster and offers built-in OCR. If you primarily print black-and-white documents, the HP is a better bet, as it can push 26 pages per minute to the Brother's 20.
The Brother MFC-L3780CDW is a slightly better overall printer than the Canon Color imageCLASS MF753Cdw, though the differences between the two aren't especially huge. The Brother's scanner processes documents faster, and it incurs lower ownership costs thanks to its less expensive toner cartridges. That said, the Canon has an easier-to-use display interface, and it has a faster max printing speed.
The Brother MFC-L3780CDW and Canon Color imageCLASS MF665Cdw are excellent color laser printers, but the Canon takes a very slight edge overall. While both models deliver outstanding document quality, the Canon is slightly quicker wirelessly and offers better page yields. Its display is also better, making interaction with the device more intuitive. That said, those are minor details; either printer will do a great job for a small office.
The Brother MFC-L3780CDW is an improvement on the Brother MFC-L3770CDW. The MFC-L3780CDW features drum units for its toner cartridges that don't expire prematurely, and it delivers slightly better print and scan quality.
Test Results
for pictures & test results
for pictures & test results
for videos & test results
for pictures & test results
for pictures & test results
for pictures & test results
