Laser Printer Battle: Kyocera vs Brother vs Lexmark

LWat Tambor on 10/02/2025 - 22:07
Last edited 10/02/2025 - 22:27 by 1 other user

Hello all,

My beautiful side-of-road Samsung Laser Printer has finally bitten the dust (too costly to repair), meaning it's time to fork out the money for a new multifunction laser printer.

In this quest, I've found 3 suitably priced multifunction colour laser printers from 3 different brands, and am seeking advice on the brands and whether people have used the models before.

Currently looking at the following 3 printers, all more or less similar price:

So, wise and wealthy people of the land, would anyone have any experience or thoughts?

My main criteria are:

  1. Long lasting / durable piece of office equipment.
    Desiring this thing to last a decade or until engulfed by the fireball radius of a Dong Feng-5 ICBM. May not live to see this day, but generally the longer the reputation or experience with any of these or the firms, the better.

  2. Third party toner compatible
    Assuming I go broke in a year or 3 and don't want to buy new genuine toner, which of these brands typically work or refuse non-OEM toner? No need for specific availabilities of toner, moreso whether e.g. company updates firmware to refuse them.

  3. No enshitification
    Don't want anything like the HP inkjet experience where they begin trying to upsell you subscriptions and the like over time. I want it to shutup and print / scan.

  4. Buttons are nice, but is Kyocera too far?
    I loved the button navigation of my Samsung, though that's a lot of buttons on the Kyocera. Is it too much from anyones experience? Just gut feel and personal preference.

If anyone has any further comments, would be appreciated.

Poll Options expired

  • 32
    Brother MFC-L3760CDW
  • 3
    Kyocera Ecosys MA2100CWFX
  • 3
    Lexmark CX331adwe
Computing Brother Colour Laser Printer Kyocera Laser Printer Lexmark Multi-Function Printer Printer Scanner

Comments

  • Hybroid on 10/02/2025 - 22:10
    +5

    The answer is always Brother. Very few know if that's actually the correct answer, but everyone knows Brother is the answer.

    • Wat Tambor on 10/02/2025 - 22:14
      +2

      It really is one of the answers of all time

      • Hybroid on 11/02/2025 - 17:33

        25 votes for Brother vs 2 each for others.

        8/8 replies below say Brother.

        Prediction rings true.

    • Muppet Detector on 11/02/2025 - 17:55

      He ain't heavy, he's my brother

      Look at prices and availability of ink cartridges. Sometimes the ink is super expensive or you have to pack a day lunch and travel to Timbuktu to get it.

      How easy is it to change the inks?

      How much access do you have to the inner bits to unjam a paper jam?

      Will it tolerate the type of paper you want to use? (I frequently feed painting canvas through mine)

      What is the capacity of the feed tray and does it allow for even paper feed or does it sometimes get a bit crooked

      Can the capture tray hold at least the amount of paper that your feed tray can?

  • Benoffie on 10/02/2025 - 23:05
    +1

    We swapped to the Brother MFC-L2820DW years ago and have recently bought one for family. The thing doesnt die. Granted, you're looking at colour (I just print colour at work) but the cost of the toners are reasonable, long lasting, they can have 10s of thousands of pages go through and nothing fazes them.

  • AngoraFish on 10/02/2025 - 23:17

    Brother has never done me wrong. My CDW is over 15 years old as is still as great as the day I bought it. Tens of thousands of pages printed. This thing simply refuses to die. It's the oldest piece of tech in my house by at least three generations, probably more. I only buy third party cartridges.

  • lunchbox99 on 11/02/2025 - 08:50
    +5

    If you buy Brother, immediately disable automatic firmware updates. The only thing it seems to do is stop 3rd party toners from working, including ones you already have installed that were working prior to the fw update.

    • localhost on 11/02/2025 - 09:18
      +2

      This, also check forums is it possible to downgrade firmware in case of printer comes with new version installed.

  • blitz on 11/02/2025 - 10:19
    +1

    We have a Brother and love it. We'd get another one tomorrow if our current one bit the dust. Excellent machine.

    • lunchbox99 on 11/02/2025 - 12:46
      +1

      I got a Brother colour laser. Hardly ever print so it's much better than fighting with dry ink.

      My only regret is getting one without the scanner/ADF. Hardly ever need it but would be nice to have.

      • blitz on 12/02/2025 - 13:42

        Yep, we use the scanner frequently.

  • bazingaa on 11/02/2025 - 13:05
    +1

    I got my Brother laser printer for $30 brand new from a clearance sale more than 5 or 6 years ago, still works well

  • netjock on 11/02/2025 - 14:31
    +1

    Without doing in depth research I'd say Brother.

    You really need to do a cost matrix on a spreadsheet for yourself. It depends on the volume of printing vs price of consumables (and how easy it is to get it)

  • BewareOfThe Dog on 11/02/2025 - 16:06
    +1

    My boss had a lexmark, and have it to me to dispose of. I couldn't find any non genuine refills.
    I personally owned a brother unit @15 years ago which supported 3rd party toner and refills, but the from price was ridiculous.

  • AndyC1 on 11/02/2025 - 19:13

    What did you find when you searched for compatible toner cartridges for the exact three printer models? Make sure you search for the exact toner as one wrong char can cause you to be in a world of pain.

    I found brother has the most compatible cartridges for ink and mono laser printers, so long as the printer has been for sale for at least 6 to 9 months.

  • Wiadro on 11/02/2025 - 23:16

    I got a HP on fbmp like 4 years ago
    Still going
    Toner hasn’t run out

  • Wat Tambor on 17/02/2025 - 18:39
    +1

    Bit the bullet for the Brother in light of the positive words here, positive words regarding its driver support, and abundance of non-genuine toner.

    Can confirm that I'm quite happy with it, and really easy to use. Plugged in via ethernet, and worked perfectly right off the bat with no driver installation required.

    Works fine on both Fedora Linux and Windows 10 for both scanning and printing.

    • fareseru on 26/02/2025 - 11:49

      Do you mind if I ask - have you disabled automatic updates? And have you changed the toner over to the non-guinine toner? I am looking at the Brother DCP-L3560CDW. It is a colour laser with ADF etc. I can get it via Good Guys Commercial for like $370 or so (down from $589).

      I currently have a Brother laser with ADF etc, it's only mono, which is why I'm looking to upgrade. The challenge is that genuine toner is extremely expensive, as you know, whereas I can get a pack of non-genuine toner (mono plus colours) for ~$250. Check that out, by the way, if you go onto the Ink Station website, you can use the code, which is VIP20.

      Overall, extremely happy with the current mono laser, it is the Brother MFC-L2880DW. It has performed flawlessly for a long time now, and it has a pretty big colour display, and, very importantly for me, it can scan duplex via the document feeder. With the printer I'm looking at… you generally need to put the pages in order post-printing. If you know what I mean! I think yours is the same.

      Anyway, just let me know about the non-genuine toner. If I can immediately disable updates, or if it comes already updated… I'll try to figure it out 🙂 The price difference is like ~$180 or something (genuine vs non-genuine).

  • jacoble100 on 21/02/2025 - 21:10

    Have the kyocera at work and hate it

  • Magus on 26/02/2025 - 15:11

    Disable auto updates, as there have been no security updates in years.

    Brother does have some nice apps. The scan to email can be setup for each family member, and they can do this without using a computer then.

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