Brother HL-L2405W Wireless Compact Monochrome Laser Printer

REVIEW: Brother HL-L2405W Wireless Compact Monochrome Laser Printer.

The Brother HL-L2405W replaced model HL-L2305W. Although the HL-L2405W is the new and improved version, Brother did NOT improve the WI-FI set-up connectivity. Reviewers have identified the set-up as their biggest problem / complaint / frustration. If you don’t have patience and some problem solving skills, this could be a BIG problem in setting this laser printer up.

The Brother HL-L2405W has almost no printed instructions on how to set-up the WI-FI connection. Instead, Brother refers their customer to their website for a USER MANUAL. I found the USER MANUAL to be poorly written and difficult to follow. Since the WI-FI set-up connection is one of the most important feature of this wireless laser printer, I found it mind-boggling that Brother couldn’t hire a competent technical writer to write an understandable USER MANUAL for customers who aren’t computer geeks.

Since the Brother USER MANUAL was gibberish to me, I had to watch several YOUTUBE videos on how to set-up the older model HL-L2305W. I have several devices that are WI-FI connected, but connecting the Brother was the most difficult and frustrating that I’ve encountered.

The syncing of my WI-FI router to the Brother HL-L2405W using the WPS button on the router didn’t work for me. Instead, I had to manually enter my WI-FI password which was a slow, archaic, and arduous process. The Brother accepted my WI-FI password, the WI-FI light glowed steady, and I found the Brother on my System Setting “Printers and Scanners”. I thought I was good to go for printing. I was WRONG.

My computer showed the print job was in process, but the Brother wouldn’t print anything. I double checked everything and everything looked good. I was perplexed. I thought I might have gotten a faulty printer so I was prepared to return it back to AMAZON.

As I went through my problem solving process, I remembered a possible fix. Turn off or unplug the router, the computer, and the Brother HL-L2405W; wait a few minutes and turn on or plug in all the devices. This was my last hope to get it to work. As soon as I plugged in the Brother, the printer made the distinctive “start up” sound and I knew it had worked and I could print.

AFTER going through the arduous set-up, once I got it set-up, the Brother printer has worked flawlessly. I even was able to print from my iPad. I don’t print often so this $120 printer is worth the price. I deducted one-star for the pain and suffering inflicted on me in the WI-FI set-up.

NOTE: There is a printer port in the Brother for a printer to computer USB connection. There is no printer cable included. If you decide to use a printer cable, you will have to go the the Brother website and download a driver, but one of the benefits of a wireless connection is that NO driver is necessary so the Brother can print from different WI-FI devices like laptop, iPhone, iPad, etc.

Great printer, great price.

Pretty easy to setup. I didnt have any issues, but my parents…well…maybe Iphone setup is slightly different? Dont know. They didnt have as easy of a time.

The only draw back I have with the printer so far is that the initial power draw to spool up the system is IMMENSE. If you put this printer on a breaker that is actively used or or near capacity, it will trip the breaker. I put this on a 15amp circuit, but I have two computers running on that circuit, and it it trips it everytime. So I estimate this thing pulls 8 Amps during its wakeup phase, with peak over 12amps.

I saw all the reviews that talked about trouble getting wireless working, so I went directly to the manual approach. Connect the printer to the wifi using the printer controls (tedious, but easy — I hope you have a short wifi password:). Then went to ‘Add Printer’ on my Windows 10 and Mac and clicked through. Could not have been easier. Windows and Mac include the drivers. No need to mess with Brother install software or downloading drivers. Maybe it was easier because it is a newer model, or maybe just because I didn’t bother even trying the Brother software.

(I’ve only had it a brief time. Will add more later after exercising it.)

After reading reviews I anticipated a grueling installation, but other than wasting 2 hours trying to get USB working without success, I found the wifi printing setup straightforward and quick (following the few tips posted here). Works great wireless and easy to print using the Brother Mobile Connect app ( I also installed the Mopria app for Android and iPrint and Scan app, not sure they are helpful but all I know is everything works now). I can print pdf and jpegs (even photos with lousy quality but works). The wifi settings are saved with power down, btw.

Update:

The printer connects Wi-Fi even in closed cabinet far from router. It also wakes up from deep sleep within seconds and prints immediately. It does prefer PDF’s using the Mobile Connect app displaying most recent PDF automatically. Even happier since getting.

This machine is not capable of automatic two sided printing (as stated in the product description on Amazon), only manually reinserting the pages! Considering sending it back.
If you want duplex printing this is not the machine for you

I bought this printer and found setup to be quite easy. There was an app for andriod that handled everything on the phone. The only thing I had to do on the printer was to press the power key.

Print quality is great. It is much faster than my old HP laserjet. It’s quiet for a laser printer.

No issues with the deep sleep mode. When there is a print job, it wakes up immediately and begins printing.

With its compact size, fast and quiet printing, and simple operation, this is a great printer.

The Brother HL-L2405W printer is easy to use right out of the box. Remove the packing tape from the unit, insert the toner cartridge, plug the printer in, connect it to your network, and you’re ready to go. Connection to WiFi is simple. Using the Brother app on your phone, you find the correct printer model, select your network, and enter the WiFi passcode. The Brother is completely plug-and-play, and my Windows, iOS, and MacBook air all found it and connected immediately.

Print quality from the brother is excellent, with crisp images delivered quickly. Operation is quiet and, at least so far, quite reliable. I’ve had no paper jams or other issues.

The contents of the box tout the Brother Creative Center, a website where you can find fun, creative projects, from work templates to origami projects. What’s a bit odd is that these templates and projects are largely designed for color printing (as you would expect), while this is a black and white printer. No matter, I’m happy to know that the Create Center exists, as it will still work with my inkjet.

Many Brother printers now come with smart cartridges and subscription plans. The cartridges monitor your ink levels and automatically ship a new one to you before you run out. This printer is not one of them. While some may see this as a disadvantage, I actually prefer not having my devices monitoring my behavior – I see it as a plus. Depending on your toner needs and preferences, you may want a unit that does offer this.

Overall, this is a relatively basic but highly functional and easy to use printer. I would definitely recommend it.

The paper tray is very tight. I always feel like I’m breaking it. There is no double side printing function, I have to waste half of the paper.

This is my first laser printer at home. I’ve used them at work plenty but always bought inkjet multifunction devices. This printer is going to allow me to stop using so much expensive ink and save it for printing photos or in color.

My first impression on unboxing is pretty much right down the middle. The printer is not particularly heavy and the plastics used feel fairly sturdy, but it’s clearly a basic, entry-level unit that is function first – exactly what I would expect. It doesn’t have any squeaks, rattles or loose bits that make it feel cheap.

Setup was easy for me, but I have a lot of practice setting up printers, networked or otherwise. One helpful thing to remember is that you are doing the first time setup once, so it’s good to take your time and read everything thoroughly, it will save you a lot of headaches and having to post a review about how horrible it is and you can’t make it work.

Setup for a non-experienced user will most likely just stop cold at trying to set up the wireless connection.

Connecting to Wi-Fi seems to be something folks are complaining about, and I think the app is at fault for not explaining clearly what you are expected to do in the very first step. Everyday people are not used to changing their phone Wi-Fi to connect to anything but a router for internet access when they go somewhere new or get a new router; the concept of connecting to the printer’s network needs to be introduced before the connection instructions. This is assuming you’re using the app to do the initial Wi-Fi setup, as the PC software is a different process.

So, to connect to your network, you’ll need to have your Wi-Fi network name and password to give to the printer so it can join.

In the first screen of the setup process in the app, you will see the instruction to push and hold the Wi-Fi button for more than 2 seconds, you’ll then see a message on the little LCD screen that says “Check PC/Device”, all just like the instructions, now the next step, which in the app isn’t listed as a step, but a note under the steps even though it’s THE step. In the next screen, the app will search for the Wi-Fi network your PRINTER is broadcasting – just be patient, it can take a few breaths to get the connection message, but your phone should prompt you to join the printer’s network. If you don’t get the prompt to join the printer’s network after a minute of waiting, you need to then go into your PHONE Wi-Fi settings and search for the network the printer has started broadcasting, which will be named “_SETUP-printermodelname_somerandomnumber”. Once you’re connected to the printer, go back to the app and it will move to the next step when it sees the printer on the network. Once this is done, the printer will stop broadcasting that network and your phone will rejoin your usual Wi-Fi.

The next step was a “Setting up…” screen that went through three actions for the app to connect the printer to my home Wi-Fi network. It then said I needed to do a firmware update, I tapped continue, then it redirected me to a web page that went nowhere. After doing this twice, I went to the computer, went to the support page for the printer, downloaded and installed the Windows 11 full software package. There is no problem with the desktop software, the issues I had were my fault for not letting the printer sit on the network for a bit. On my second try, I let the printer just sit on the network for about 15 minutes while I got some coffee, then it showed up in the software setup immediately.

The waiting firmware update worked from the PC, and I’m not sure if the strange web link the phone app took me to is something temporary on Brother’s side, but with the firmware updated, I moved on to checking out some other stuff, I don’t like using phone apps for hardware anyway. In the app settings it had “Connect Advanced Settings” (remote access) and “Data Collection” (Brother has the printer report how you use the printer to the company) were both enabled, and I was not prompted to agree to the “Brother Product Research and Support Program” (Data Collection), nor the “Connect Advanced” (remote access), yet the app had both enabled. This was not a mistake as I installed the app on another phone and got the same result with both data collection options enabled without explicitly asking my permission. Whether shady or lazy, it’s not what I would expect from Brother. The desktop software does ask if you want to participate in either of the data collection programs and lets you opt out during setup.

The reason I think these things are important to us is that this printer is on your network, not just plugged into your computer. This allows us to print wirelessly, which is convenient, but it also potentially exposes your devices to outside access if there is a software problem or breach of the company’s customer information (which is basically nonstop now). There is a web server in your printer, that’s where you can access the settings page; and even though Brother has password protected access to the printer and done what they can to make it secure, it’s always a better idea to not have the printer’s remote access features enabled at all if you aren’t going to use them. I think having the app default to sharing information and enabling remote access must be a mistake or was just overlooked, I disabled these options on the desktop software, then when I accessed the printer on the app while on my own Wi-Fi, it changed the settings to enable the data collection and remote access was re-enabled. Yick.

The other thing that might be helpful for people is to know you CAN set up the sleep and power off features on the settings web page of the printer. By default, the printer is set to sleep after 10 minutes, which turns off the droning fan. You can set the printer to not shut down after 8 hours in the printer web interface if you want to have it available all the time.
PRINTING THINGS:
The printer specifications indicate it prints up to 24 pages per minute and I believe it, it’s quite fast. The print quality is excellent with sharp text, graphics, and even does a good job printing photos embedded in documents, just as good as you would expect from a laser printer.

Then the nuisances crop up. Two-sided printing is not built into this machine, it does support manual two-sided printing, which means you will have to interact with the printer to prepare for two-sided printing before hitting print. If you do much two-sided printing at all, you’ll want to go with one of the models that has it built in. The process for two-sided printing starts with loading paper into the manual feed slot on the front of the machine. The little tray that drops down seems much more appropriate for envelope printing -which it does perfectly- and maybe printing on letterhead or fancy paper, it seemed silly hanging 50 pages of paper off the front of the printer, but whatever. I tried to use the two-sided printing process three times and wound up with jams three times when feeding from the manual tray. I gave up on trying out the two-sided printing after 6 tries, three with 28lb and three with 24lb (which jammed on try 1 and 3). Yes, I did fan the paper before loading. When printing straight from the tray, the printer puts a distinct curl on the pages and a few pages appear as if they had been lightly steamed or something. It’s not horrible, but not what I expected at all. Maybe this is just a small laser printer thing? The printer is also supposed to be able to handle 16-28lb paper, I think it’s going to be much happier in the middle of that range, using 20 or 22lb paper will probably give you much less trouble with the paper handling than I had. In my experience anything below 20lb is like tissue paper and you wind up with tears and jams in any printer, but I don’t have any of the light stuff to try, so I can’t speak to this one’s ability to handle lighter paper.

There is a fan on the side of the printer that runs when it is on and “awake”, that is not loud, but is not a pleasant sound to listen to for any extended period of time, the 10 minute sleep timer seems to be serendipitous, since it shuts off the fan when it’s sleeping. I would never want this printer on my desk within earshot if it was being used frequently, say, in a shared office environment.

I had no problems printing from my iPhone or PC or Mac when the printer showed “Deep Sleep” on the display, so perhaps the firmware update will help if you’re having trouble with the printer not responding from “Deep Sleep”. For reference, the unit came with 1.06 in the box and updated to 1.08 when I set it up.

The software/app is almost good enough, but the user experience with the software/app is not as frictionless as modern users expect. It seems really interested in getting me to sign up for services that will continue to keep Brother’s marketing team in my face rather that just buying a great printer and having a great experience with it…. I use a Brother inkjet next to my desk, and it has been nothing but stable and reliable. The printer lets me know when it is low on ink, then I order some and put it in, then the problem is solved.

I have bought, used, and recommended Brother printers to anyone who asks, but this experience has left me wondering if Brother might be losing the plot as well. User experience makes or breaks a printer, they’re all really good at spitting out high quality pages now, and without a more seamless and trouble-free setup process (never mind the paper handling), I can’t recommend this to a friend or family member unless I’m setting it up. I really hope I can take back that statement soon.

I would not recommend this printer beyond the most basic of uses – on one side of the page.

Easiest thing ever. now we can print anytime from our iPhone or MacBook!! The printer is hooked up to our wifi and is in “deep sleep” mode and at anytime we want to print we hit print on our phone and in 8 seconds it’s printed. I can’t even believe it. The years we lived in the dark ages with canon and other ink jet printers that took 30 min to print one page and would only print via a desktop being directly plugged in via usb and usually needing to run a cleaning cycle first and would need paper manually added. But the Brother has its own paper tray and needs no cords and just works! Spread the good news and get this for yourself. You won’t regret it!