If you're looking for a high-speed, high-volume, expandable single-function monochrome laser printer with a low cost of ownership, look no further than Brother's HL-L6400DW ($1,029.99). Not only does this workhorse spit out pages in the blink of an eye, it offers great print quality, and capacity and other expansion options abound. A direct competitor to our Editors' Choice HP LaserJet Pro M501dn and Xerox's VersaLink B400/DN, the HL-L6400DW delivers low running costs and massive volume ratings. And don't let the four-figure MSRP worry you—I found the printer all over the net, including at Amazon and Walmart, for about a third of its list price, making it a great value and our latest Editors' Choice for high-volume monochrome output for small and midsize offices and workgroups.
Massive Capacity and Expansion, Features Galore
The HL-L6400DW's simple, compact, and light appearance in no way suggests what it's capable of. Measuring 11.3 by 15.7 by 15.6 inches and weighing just over 29 pounds, it's actually smaller and leaner than most comparable monochrome lasers we've reviewed, with the exception of HP's M501dn, which is a few pounds lighter. Xerox's B400/DN is a few inches bigger in all directions but weighs about the same, while Ricoh's SP 5300DN Black and White Laser Printer is bigger and heavier by about 10 pounds.
In addition to its blazing speed and impressive expansion options (both of which I'll get to in a moment), the Brother earns its fleet and workgroup chops by offering staunch security, multiple desktop and mobile connectivity methods, direct cloud support, and high-volume toner cartridges. You can configure these features, monitor consumables, generate reports, and more via a 1.8-inch color touch screen, which comprises the entire control panel, or from the printer's built-in web portal.
Similar Products
HP LaserJet Pro M501dn
Ricoh SP 5300DN Black and White Laser Printer
Xerox VersaLink B400/DN
The portal is accessible from nearly any browser from most any PC or mobile device. You can also download and install the company's BRAdmin Professional software, which gives administrators the ability to configure many of the network and printer functions via an Explorer-style window. The admin can also log the status and activity of the HL-L6400DW, as well as other Brother devices on your network.
Out of the box, the HL-L6400DW's paper capacity is 570 sheets, split between a 520-sheet cassette and a 50-sheet override tray. If that's not enough or your needs change, you can add up to three 250-sheet drawers ($179.99 each), two 520-sheet cassettes ($209 each), or a stand and stabilizer that comes with four 520-sheet drawers ($1,099), for a maximum capacity of 2,650 sheets.
You can also increase the output capacity from 250 to 1,050 pages with a four-bin mailbox/sorter. Also available are a card reader and a stapler.
A printer with that much potential capacity needs to stand up to massive volume requirements. Hence, the HL-L6400DW's maximum monthly duty cycle is a prodigious 150,000 pages, and its recommended monthly print volume is up to 10,000 prints. That's impressive, but not the highest available. By comparison, the LaserJet Pro M501dn's duty cycle is 100,000 pages with a recommended monthly volume of 6,000 prints, and the Ricoh 5300DN's maximum monthly duty cycle is a quarter of a million pages with a recommended monthly volume of 16,600. Finally, Xerox rates the B400/DN's monthly maximum duty cycle at 110,000 pages, with a recommended monthly print volume of 12,000.
Connecting and Securing the HL-L6400DW
Connectivity options include Ethernet, Wi-Fi, and connecting to a single PC via USB, as well as a slew of mobile connection features including: Apple AirPrint, Google Cloud Print, Mopria, Cortado Workplace, Wi-Fi Direct, and Near Field Communication (NFC), as well as Brother's own iPrint&Scan, Office Print, Easy Scan to Email, and Office Doc Creator. In addition, a Web Connect feature lets you print from and scan to most popular cloud sites, including both the personal and business versions of Google Drive, OneDrive, Evernote, OneNote, Dropbox, and Box.
Security features are robust and include Secure Function Lock for modifying the level of service (such as limiting print volume) for up to 200 users or departments; Active Directory; Secure Print for securing print jobs with PINs; and an integrated NFC card reader for securing print jobs and access to machine functions with compatible NFC cards or badges.
Blazing Print Speeds
Brother rates the HL-L6400DW at 52 pages per minute (ppm), which is on the high side of average for this class of printer. I tested it over Ethernet from our standard Intel Core i5 testbed running Windows 10 Pro. During the first part of my test, I clocked the Brother as it printed our 12-page Microsoft Word text document at an average speed of 55ppm, or just over its rating. That's about 6.1ppm and 7.9ppm faster than the Ricoh SP 5300DN and HP M501dn, respectively; it's 8ppm quicker than the Xerox B400/DN.
For the next portion of my tests, I timed the HL-L6400DW as it churned out our collection of complex Adobe Acrobat PDFs; PowerPoint handouts; and Excel spreadsheets, charts, and graphs. Then I combined these results with those from printing the Word document and came up with a score of 21.4ppm for printing our entire suite of business test documents.
While that's an excellent score for this part of our tests, the HP edged it by 1.7ppm. The Ricoh model fell behind by about 5.9ppm and the Xerox machine was slower by about 3.4ppm. If your users print several thousand pages each month, print speed matters.
Good Grayscale and Text Quality
The HL-L6400DW printed slightly-above-average text for a laser printer, and average-quality photos and graphics. Text was highly legible down to the smallest I could see without magnification, about 6 points. With magnification, 4- and 5-point type also looked well-shaped and readable.
Overall, graphics looked fine, but I did see some minor banding in dark backgrounds, fills, and gradients, as well as similar imperfections in photographs. This was more noticeable in our 8-by-10-inch photos than in 4-by-6-inch snapshots. The Brother printer also had a little trouble rendering hairlines under about 1 point or so. Even so, output was certainly suitable for internal use, and perhaps even external PowerPoint handouts, as I could only detect these flaws when I looked for them.
Budget-Friendly Running Costs
When you're printing several thousand pages each month, what you pay on a per-page basis for toner is significant. A penny, or even a fraction of a cent, can mean a difference of several thousand dollars over the life of the printer. The good news is that when you buy Brother's high-yield (20,000-page) toner cartridges, your cost per page (CPP) comes out to about 0.9 cent, which is lower than the other high-volume workhorses discussed here except for the Ricoh SP 5300DN (0.5 cent).
The HP LaserJet Pro's CPP is 0.7 cent higher, and the Xerox B400/DN prints a page for 0.8 cent more than the HL-L6400DW. That may not sound like much, but for every, say, half million pages you print, that 0.8-cent difference will cost you $4,000—more than enough to buy several of any of these machines.
High-Volume Oomph and Room to Grow
The Brother HL-L6400DW starts out strong and provides several expansion options to help keep up with growing printing needs. One of its strongest assets is the ability to buy 20,000-page toner cartridges that provide running costs of under a penny per page. The Ricoh SP 5300DN comes with higher volume ratings and even lower costs, making it an even better value if you need to print more than 10,000 pages each month. Otherwise, the Brother provides everything you need for a busy office or workgroup that cranks out thousands of pages per month.
The Brother HL-L6400DW is a fast, high-volume monochrome laser printer with highly competitive running costs, making it an excellent value for busy small and midsize offices and workgroups.
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