After years of battling inkjet printers that seemed designed to fail (looking at you, HP and Canon), the Brother DCP-L2640DW feels like a revelation. The setup was shockingly easy—I had it printing in under 30 minutes, including unboxing. No wrestling with drivers or cryptic error messages.

The speed is where this printer truly shines. At 36 pages per minute, it chews through documents like a hungry office assistant. I’ve printed 50-page contracts without a single jam, and the duplex printing actually works—no more flipping pages manually like some printers force you to do.

Toner costs were a major concern for me, but Brother’s TN830 cartridges last forever compared to inkjets. My old Canon would demand $100 ink replacements after barely 50 pages. With this? I’ve printed over 500 pages and the toner gauge barely budged.

The mobile app is surprisingly useful—I’ve scanned receipts directly to my phone while lounging on the couch, and printing from my iPhone works flawlessly. Though fair warning: the initial WiFi setup might take two tries (power-cycling the printer fixed it for me).

Is it perfect? No. The software installation feels bloated with marketing pop-ups (disable ‘PowerENGAGE’ immediately), and laser printers will always be louder than inkjets. But after six months of reliable service, I’d buy this again in a heartbeat—especially now that I’m no longer held hostage by ink cartridge prices.