The Brother MFC-L3720CDW ($399.99), a moderate-speed color laser-class all-in-one (AIO) printer, offers top-notch print quality at an attractive price. In fact, it delivers essentially the same print quality as the Brother MFC-L3780CDW, our Editors’ Choice pick for budget color laser AIOs, at a significantly lower cost. On the downside, the MFC-L3720CDW prints much more slowly than the L3780CDW, with lower duty-cycle ratings and less-generous paper input capacities to boot. Perhaps the biggest strike against the L3720CDW, though: its print costs for color, which are higher than with the L3780CDW and many other laser-class AIOs. By contrast, the monochrome print costs are much more competitive. So, given its superb print quality and low purchase price, the L3720CDW could be a good fit for workplaces that don’t often print in color; otherwise, its MFC-L3780CDW kin is a better value, even at its higher price.

Design: Equipped for Everyday Office Printing

Before we get started, one quick caveat: The L3720CDW, like the L3780CDW, isn’t technically a laser printer. Rather than use lasers to etch a page image onto the imaging drum before transferring it to paper, it uses a light-emitting diode (LED) array. From the user’s point of view, laser and LED printers are essentially interchangeable, which is why they’re usually grouped together under the general heading of laser printers. Brother currently sells both monochrome and color printers that use LED arrays.

Now, on to the design. At 15.8 by 17.5 by 16.1 inches (HWD), the L3720CDW is fairly typical in size compared with similar laser-class multi-function color printers. It’s a little wider than most models, but otherwise reasonably compact. For example, the Ricoh C125 MF is almost 3 inches taller than the L3720CDW, while the Canon Color imageClass MF753Cdw is just over 2 inches deeper. On the other hand, the HP Color LaserJet Pro MFP 3301fdw is about 2 inches shorter and 1 inch narrower than the L3720CDW. The L3780CDW has the same height and depth, but isn’t quite as wide (17.5 versus 18.2 inches).

(Credit: David English)

At 44 pounds, the L3720CDW is also fairly lightweight compared with other models. The L3780CDW, for instance, weighs in at 47.8 pounds. The MF753Cdw takes a tad more muscle at 48.5 pounds, while the C125 MF strains the scales at a hefty 66.1 pounds. (All of them are easily undercut by the 37.7-pound 3301fdw.) All in all, the the L3720CDW could be just about the right weight for people who fear that a really light printer has too much flimsy plastic inside.

Given the lower price for this model, you have to expect some configuration cutbacks when compared with the higher-cost L3780CDW. Consider the paper input capacities. The L3720CDW comes with a standard 250-sheet paper input tray, a single-sheet manual feed slot, and a 50-sheet automatic document feeder (ADF), with no provision for adding an optional tray. Its fancier cousin, the L3780CDW, delivers the same 250-sheet paper input tray and 50-sheet ADF, but adds a 30-sheet multipurpose input tray and optional 250-sheet tray. Both the Ricoh C125 MF and HP 3301fdw have the same onboard paper input capacities as the L3720CDW, but the Ricoh also offers an optional 500-sheet tray. The Canon MF753Cdw beats them all with its 250-sheet input tray, 50-sheet multipurpose tray, 50-sheet ADF, and optional 550-sheet tray.

The L3720CDW does fare better with its paper output bin. Matching the L3780CDW, Canon MF753Cdw, and Ricoh C125 MF, it has a generous 150-sheet capacity—especially important if you tend to leave the unit unattended when printing large projects. The HP 3301fdw, meanwhile, has a 100-sheet output bin.

(Credit: David English)

The 3,000-page recommended monthly volume rating for the L3720CDW translates into a moderately heavy workload, and beats both the 2,500-page recommendation for the HP 3301fdw and the 1,500-page recommendation for the Ricoh C125 MF. However, none of the above can match the 4,000-page monthly volume rating for the Brother L3780CDW and Canon MF753Cdw.

Brother also rates the L3720CDW as having a 40,000-page maximum monthly duty cycle, matching the HP 3301fdw and besting the Ricoh C125 MF's 30,000-page rating. The Brother L3780CDW beats the field with its 50,000-page rating. (Canon no longer releases "official" maximum monthly duty cycle ratings for its printers.)

Setup and Software: Organized and Efficient

The L3720CDW's setup process proved easy and uneventful in testing. The four toner cartridges come preinstalled, though you’ll need to temporarily unload them to remove an unusually large number of plastic restraints. Once the printer is fully unpacked, you can load some paper, plug in the unit, and enter the basic info (such as language, date, and time) into the control panel. If you plan to use the unit wirelessly, you can also have it search for any available Wi-Fi networks.

(Credit: David English)

To use the printer from a computer, over either a USB or an Ethernet connection, you can visit the URL mentioned in the printed guide to download the necessary drivers and software utilities. Brother handles this somewhat differently than other manufacturers. Rather than asking you up front to specify which product you’ll be setting up, you’re directed to download a general-purpose EasySetup application. While running that application, you’ll be able to select your product and choose the configuration that fits your needs.

(Credit: Brother)

A full software installation includes the Brother iPrint&Scan app, which lets you directly print to or scan from a connected L3720CDW, as well as changing a wide range of the printer’s settings, including print parameters, color and brightness settings, administrator restrictions, security protocols, and maintenance routines. Likewise the scan settings: You can fiddle with options such as the scan resolution (up to 1,200 by 1,200dpi), file properties (including a searchable PDF option for OCR capabilities), and scan destinations (including customized folder options and email addresses). In addition, the L3720CDW has a handy graphics-based display of the toner levels for the individual cartridges.

Meanwhile, the Brother Utilities app provides a status monitor, software update notifications, a network connection repair tool, and convenient access to the user guide and online FAQs. And the Brother Creative Center app loads a web-based collection of templates that lets you create and customize printable calendars, invitations, business cards, party decorations, brochures, pamphlets, and various paper crafts.

Reflecting its lower price, the L3720CDW offers just a subset of the L3780CDW’s full range of connectivity options. In addition to the usual USB and Ethernet options, you’ll find dual-band Wi-Fi (2.4GHz/5GHz), as well as Wi-Fi Direct—but not the L3780CDW's dedicated USB port for walk-up printing via a thumb drive and integrated NFC card reader for security-based badge authentication. The previously mentioned Canon, HP, and Ricoh models also support USB, Ethernet, Wi-Fi, and Wi-Fi Direct, and add a dedicated USB port for walk-up printing via a thumb drive. The Ricoh also has an integrated NFC card reader; the Canon and HP don't.

(Credit: David English)

The L3720CDW is compatible with AirPrint and Mopria for mobile printing, as well as with popular cloud storage services such as Dropbox, Evernote, Google Drive, and OneNote. You can also use the company’s own Brother Mobile Connect app to wirelessly print, scan, and copy documents from your devices. And if you ever need to send out a fax, this model has enough internal page memory to fire off documents up to 500 pages in length.

As for controls on the device itself, the L3720CDW has the same bright and colorful 3.5-inch touch screen and customizable menu system as the L3780CDW. The control-panel interface has distinctive, well-labeled icons, making it especially easy to navigate the onboard menus. In addition, you can set up as many as 48 shortcuts for frequently used settings related to copying, scanning, faxing, emailing, or storing/retrieving documents. Your saved shortcuts will be stored inside eight tabs, with each tab having as many as six shortcuts. With a bit of planning, you could use the eight-tab structure to organize your shortcuts by type of document, function, or destination.

(Credit: David English)

While the 3.5-inch color touch screen is more than sufficient, it’s not quite state-of-the-art compared with the touch screens on similar models. Both the HP 3301fdw and Ricoh C125 MF boast 4.3-inch screens, and the Canon MF753Cdw offers an impressive 5.0-inch screen.

Despite the L3720CDW’s low price, its built-in scanner is very capable. Brother rates it at 29 pages per minute for monochrome scans and 22 pages per minute for color scans. Scans from the ADF are limited to a 600-by-600dpi resolution, but scans from the glass platen can go as high as 1,200 by 1,200dpi optical or 19,200 by 19,200dpi interpolated. Advanced scanning features include automatic de-skew, scan previews, file split, blank page skip, and multi-page to single-page conversions.

This model also has an extendable hinge that allows the ADF section to be raised for scanning books, magazines, or other thicker-than-usual documents. Among its peers, the Brother L3780CDW, Canon MF753Cdw, and Ricoh C125 MF also have extendable hinges, while the HP 3301fdw doesn't.

Print Speed Testing: This Brother Takes Its Time

Brother rates the L3720CDW’s print speed at 19 pages per minute (ppm), a moderately fast showing for an entry-level color laser-class AIO. The HP 3301fdw and Ricoh C125 MF are rated at 26ppm, while the Canon MF753Cdw hits 35ppm. And even though the two Brother models share many of the same features, the L3780CDW is rated at a significantly faster 31ppm.

The L3720CDW comes out of the box configured to print two-sided (duplex) pages. In that scenario, we time and record both a printer’s one-sided (simplex) and duplex performance over an Ethernet connection from our standard Intel Core i5 desktop testbed running Windows 10 Pro. When printing our standard 12-page Microsoft Word text document (excluding the first page), I clocked the unit at 8.8ppm in duplex mode and 21.1ppm in simplex mode. That simplex result was 2.1ppm quicker than its rated speed.

That speed, though, was also 5ppm slower than the Ricoh C125 MF, 6.1ppm slower than the HP 3301fdw, and 13.6ppm slower than Canon MF753Cdw. Looking more closely at the numbers, the L3720CDW slipped some on its first page out and lost even more ground as it printed the subsequent pages.

Next, I timed the L3720CDW as it printed our collection of colorful and complex business documents consisting of Adobe Acrobat PDFs, PowerPoint handouts, and Excel spreadsheets and graphs. It took 169 seconds to print the entire suite, which works out to about 8.9ppm.

The L3720CDW wasn't the slowest in the group, though: Its 169-second result edged out the Ricoh's 170 seconds. Both models were easily surpassed by the neck-and-neck HP (96 seconds) and Canon (95 seconds).

While no laser-class printer can match a dedicated photo printer for quality prints, I did time the L3720CDW as it printed some of our 4-by-6-inch snapshots. It averaged about 12 seconds per image, which is rather sluggish for a color laser-class printer.

Running Costs: A Penalty Charge on Color

If you’re favoring the L3720CDW over the L3780CDW, it’s likely because of the significantly lower purchase price. There is a potential snag to that, however: the L3720CDW’s higher color toner costs. Your initial savings could begin to shrink (and even disappear) after you deplete the included color cartridges.

Both models are compatible with Brother’s standard-yield and high-yield toner cartridges, but only the higher-priced L3780CDW can use Brother’s super-high-yield toner cartridges. Those generous cartridges help to lower the L3780CDW's costs to about 2.5 cents for a monochrome page and about 12.9 cents for a color page.

The L3720CDW has to settle for a less-desirable 16.4 cents for a color page. Perhaps to soften the blow from the color costs, Brother does provide the option to purchase a cost-efficient bundle of two high-yield black toner cartridges, allowing the L3720CDW to hit the same 2.5-cent cost for a black-and-white page that the L3780CDW does. In short, when comparing the print costs between these two Brother models, their monochrome pages would cost about the same, but the L3720CDW would cost you an extra 3.5 cents for each color page.

Meanwhile, the Canon MF753Cdw will cost about 2.4 cents for a monochrome page and 14.7 cents for a color page. With the HP 3301fdw, you can expect to pay around 3.1 cents and 17 cents, respectively, and the Ricoh C125 MF totals about 3.8 cents and 18.2 cents, respectively. The C125 MF is the only printer in the group without an option to buy high-yield toner cartridges.

Print Quality: No Compromises

I found the print quality of the L3720CDW to be essentially the same as the L3780CDW. With any laser-class printer, you should be able to produce near-typesetter-quality text that’s suitable for most business text documents. The L3720CDW easily clears that bar: I was able to read typical business fonts down to a very small 4-point size.

Everything this model printed was both clean and professional-looking. There were no stray dots, unexpected vertical lines, or misaligned pages. Charts and graphs looked very good, with well-defined colors, and the colors were always accurate, though with some documents, the contrast levels could have been a little stronger. And while the contrast was sometimes a bit restrained, the saturation levels were consistently spot on and set appropriately to match the content.

The L3720CDW's printed photos also had an attractive and blemish-free appearance. The colors were true-to-life with pleasing saturation levels. Some of the photographic content had a slightly subdued contrast, but not a significant difference. As with any laser-class printer, you won’t be able to print borderless pages, as you can with an inkjet printer, but the L3720CDW’s photo print quality is more than adequate for brochures, newsletters, real estate flyers, or similar business documents.