Brother MFC-L3750CDW: the classic but effective 4-in-1 color laser printer

Presentation

The Brother MFC-L3750CDW is a color laser printer which provides, in addition to printing, the functions of scanner, copier and fax. Sold at the recommended price of € 445 including VAT, it is installed in the heart of the range of the manufacturer who addresses it to small businesses, homeworkers and liberal professions. It stands out as a serious competitor to the HP LaserJet M477fdw or the Brother MFC-9330CDW which it advantageously replaces.

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Ergonomics

Addressing the demanding individual but more likely to the self-employed or small businesses, the Brother MFC-L3750CDW is a heavy block (23.4 kg) and imposing (41 x 47.5 x 41.4 cm) that the manufacturer recommends to handle with four arms. As part of our test, which sometimes turned into a weight training session - as for the traditional photo session -, we were able to appreciate the overall quality of manufacturing of the product which leaves nothing to chance. Materials and assembly exude seriousness, for a printer that the adjective "solid" describes perfectly (and this in every sense of the term).

Far from being innovative, the handling of this printer is as classic as it is efficient. We appreciate the capacity of its main paper tray (250 sheets) as much as the ease of use of its control panel, embellished with a 9.3 cm diagonal touch screen taking advantage of an anti-reflective treatment.

All operations are smooth, from scanning multi-page documents to a USB key to sending faxes. Installing the printer poses no particular concern, in USB as in Ethernet or in Wi-Fi, while the main mobile and cloud printing protocols are supported, from AirPrint to Google Cloud Print. The Brother mobile app is well designed and Wi-Fi Direct is supported, making printing from a mobile device easier.

If we regret that the second paper supply source does not allow to store more than one sheet or envelope, requiring manual loading of the supports one by one, we appreciate having - at the back - a wide access to the paper drive mechanisms making it easy to intervene when a sheet remains jammed.

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Consumption

Contained in standby (0.9 W), the power consumption of this laser printer flies away as soon as it is requested. During the preheating phase, our wattmeter measures a consumption that can reach more than 1,300 W at peak. During printing, the average consumption is around 600 W. This is certainly very punctual, but not trivial for a printer which is intended especially for the self-employed and small businesses, and which will therefore often be in demand.

The Brother MFC-L3750CDW is not energy efficient, nor is it silent. Positioned about one meter from the printer, our sound level meter records noise pollution of around 52 dB during printing. In a small open space, everyone will hear it working.

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Cost per page

The cost-per-page test doesn't necessarily smile on the Brother MFC-L3750CDW. Although economical in black and white with a cost per page of only 2.8 euro cents (€ 0.028), it will not be as attractive in time used in color, mode in which the cost per page increases at 15.9 euro cents (€ 0.159), which is quite high. Average costs calculated on the basis of TN-247 toners which offer nominal capacities of 3,000 pages for black and 2,300 pages for each color.

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Scanner and copies

Brother equips this model with a flatbed scanner that can scan up to 1200 x 2400 dpi, combined with an automatic document feeder that can accommodate a maximum of 50 sheets. The quality of the scans is quite good and this scanner turns out to be quite swift: it takes 11 seconds to scan an A4 document at 100 dpi and 13 seconds to do the same at 300 dpi with a 10 x 15 cm photo. The copier function is also effective, even if not necessarily extremely fast: 17 seconds to copy an A4 document in black and white, 18 seconds in color. The copies in question show a slight loss of quality and smoothing of the rendering compared to the original documents, but the rendering is not too washed out as is sometimes the case and the loss of precision is controlled. It's not perfect, but enough to be convincing to the naked eye.

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Office

Whether black and white or color, Brother says his printer is capable of handling throughputs of 24 pages per minute (ppm), and 8 ppm duplex. To check it out, we took out our favorite stopwatch and it turns out that it is keeping its promises. We even noted a result of 25 ppm with our test documents, while on duplex it delivers very exactly 8 ppm on average.

The quality of office printing is excellent, as is often the case with laser printers. Precision and sharpness are in order, while in color the gradations and solids are perfectly rendered, just like the texts on colored backgrounds, without the slightest blotting effect to deplore. It's all good.

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Conclusion

Less expensive to buy than a LaserJet M477fdw from HP, this Brother MFC-L3750CDW is nevertheless less modern and must bear a higher cost per page. It is nonetheless a highly recommendable product in its segment.

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