The Brother manufactures a wide array of color laser printers. Brother hl-l3210cw is one of the most affordable options for people on a tight budget. Brother hl-l3210cw is unlike another traditional laser printer; it’s an LED-based machine. In this blog, we will look closer at this printer and discuss how it differs from other laser printers and where the company cut corners to make it so affordable. This will help you decide whether you should invest in this machine.
Overview
The design of Brother printer driver hl-l3210cw is little to look at. At first glance, it may look like a white box that can spit out prints. Unlike laser printers, the Brother hl-l3210cw is a light-emitting diode (LED) printer that uses an array of LEDs to direct the printer where to drop toner on the page. Whereas laser printers perform the task using a laser machine. The LED printer measures 9.9'’x16.1'x18.1″ and weighs 37.8 pounds. It’s the same size as HL-L3230CDW but lighter and smaller.
The Brother hl-l3210cw comes with a one-sheet override tray that can hold up to 250 sheets. The override tray is located at the bottom of the printer. Its recommended maximum monthly duty cycle is 30,000 pages, and its recommended monthly print volume is 1,500. But the printer lacks an auto-duplexer, so you have to flip the two-sided pages manually; to some, it can be a deal breaker considering the price.
The Brother hl-l3210cw connectivity option includes USB and Wi-Fi. The Ethernet connectivity option needs to be added to the printer. However, the printer supports Brother’s iPrint&Scan app, Apple AirPrint, Google Cloud Print, Mopria, and Wi-Fi Direct. Unlike other Brother printer models, HL-3210CW does not support Brother’s cloud apps. The Brother hl-l3210cw features a primitive or somewhat outdated control panel that is fiddly to use.
The control panel comprises a one-line monochrome LCD and a few buttons, including Power, Wi-Fi, Back, OK, Cancel, Secure printing, Go, and up and down directional keys. The monochrome LCD can’t display enough information on the screen simultaneously; you must use the back-and-forth buttons to see what’s happening.
Setup Process
Once your package arrives, take out your brand-new printer from its box. Next, remove the tray at the printer’s bottom, remove each cartridge, and remove the protective seal. Put them back in their respective place, and that’s all. To setup your Brother printer on a wireless network, follow the steps mentioned below:
- Connect the power cord to your printer and then connect it to an A electrical socket.
- Next, hit the Up and Down arrow key on your control panel to choose Network, then press OK.
- Choose WLAN and press OK.
- Choose Setup Wizard and press OK.
- When to Enable WLAN? Or is WLAN Enabled? The message will pop up, enabling the wireless Network.
- The printer will search for your Network and display a list of available Network names.
- Select your Network name by pressing the UP or Down arrow key and OK.
- Next, enter the Network key, then press OK.
- Lastly, download and install the printer drivers and software.
Print Speed
Its printing speed can be termed as slow for a color laser and laser-class printer in this price bracket. Like most laser printers, Brother printer hl-l3210cw’s printing speed was slow; its printing speed was 19 ppm. The LED printer spit out a 12-page Microsoft Word text document at a speed of 10.4ppm. The printer churned out several complex and colorful graphics, Excel, and PowerPoint docs at an average speed of 8.2 ppm. The same was the case with color prints as well. It was slower to churn out 6×4 color photos.
Its speed might be slow, but the quality you get is worth waiting for. Brother hl-l3210cw consistently printed excellent, well-shaped, and highly readable text like other laser printers. The printer also churned out highly detailed color photos. But wait, the LED printer struggled to reproduce the gradient backgrounds and dark fills in various PowerPoint handouts and Excel graphs and charts. You may notice streaks in some deep black, blue, and green fills. These flaws will render the print usable for only some business scenarios. However, they are more fit for in-house presentations.
Running Cost
The Brother hl-l3210cw comes at a price tag of $199.99, and despite its relatively high-duty cycle and recommended volumes, it makes them more suitable for printing only a few hundred pages per month. It will cost you about 2.6 cents for black prints and 15.6 prints per color page if you use Brother’s highest-yield toner cartridges with the Brother hl-l3210cw. You will have to replace the imaging drum after the first 18,000 pages. It will add 0.7 cents to the printer’s running cost, which will cost 3.3 cents per page and 16.3 cents for color.
Conclusion
Brother hl-l3210cw is an affordable laser printer with many things to like. The first thing is its affordable price. If you have a tight budget and only need to print a few hundred pages a month, then Brother hl-l3210cw would be a great option. But if you need a printer with more robust features, such as an auto-duplexer, you should go for another printer.
FAQs
How to reset the Brother hl-l3210cw?
First, locate the initial setup on the touchscreen using the arrow keys and click OK to choose it. By using the directional keys, choose the Reset option and click OK. Choose Machine Reset followed by Reset. The Brother printer will restart itself.
What to do when Brother hl-l3210cw is not working?
First, you need to ensure that the router is working properly. Then you need to check if the router provides an active internet connection. Next, reconnect the printer and check whether the problem is solved.
What is the difference between Brother hl-l3210cw and HL-L3270CDW?
Both are entry-level color laser-class printers. They have the similar paper capacity, volume ratings, running costs, and several other features, But Brother hl-l3210cw is $50 cheaper than HL-L3270CDW. HL-L3270CDW has a touchscreen panel, multiple connectivity options, and high-quality graphic output, which are missing in Brother hl-l3210cw.
