Printer Review Brother HL-3070CW

Posted by Rob Errera on 01/02/2020

Toner Buzz Rating: 3.1/ 5.0 stars

Pros: Affordable LED-based color laser printer, compact, durable, good print quality

Cons: Erroneous “low toner” messages, wireless connectivity issues, manual paper feed jams

Overall: Once you find the right workarounds for repeated performance problems, the Brother HL-3070CW is a solid printer with a respectable lifespan.

Strong Start

When the Brother HL-3070CW debuted a decade ago, it turned heads as a compact color laser printer with a (relatively) low price-tag ($500). The HL-3070CW came with a 250-sheet main paper tray, a single-line display, front-port USB connectivity, and print speeds of up to 17 pages-per-minute. All-in-all, The Brother HL-3070CW (Color/Wireless) offered an impressive package and tight footprint for a good price.

The Brother HL-3070CW

LED Print Engine

Another feature setting the Brother HL-3070CW apart from other printers in its class was its LED print engine. Traditional laser printers etch an image onto a rotating photo-sensitive drum with a laser beam bounced off a spinning mirror. The image on the drum attracts charged toner particles which fuse to paper with heat and rollers.

LED printers etch the image onto the rotating drum with an array of LEDs (Light Emitting Diodes). LED printers can be easier and cheaper to manufacturer — since there are no moving parts in the print engine. LED-based printers have a smaller footprint and can deliver sharper text at smaller sizes. The HL-3070CW printed crisp, legible text even in tiny, six-point type.

All-in-all, The Brother HL-3070CW (Color/Wireless) offered an impressive package and tight footprint for a good price.

Feature Rich

The HL-3070CW has built-in wireless 802.11b/g and 10/100 Base-TX Ethernet (wired) connections to enable printer sharing. A single line, 16-character LCD display and square navigation buttons make accessing the HL-3070CW’s functions easy. There’s a front panel USB socket which allows you to print from USB drives as well PictBridge-enabled cameras.

While the HL-3070CW’s 250-sheet main paper tray may be fine for home and small business use, the lack of paper tray expansion may be a deal-breaker for busier offices. There is also no duplexer available, so forget about two-sided printing with the HL-3070CW.

The HL-3070CW print quality was pretty good in both black-and-white and color. However, the cost per page — 4.4 cents for monochrome, and 19.4 cents for color — ran a bit high.

There’s a front panel USB socket which allows you to print from USB drives as well PictBridge-enabled cameras.

Toner Troubles

With months of the HL-3070CWs release, reports of toner troubles began to filter back to Brother. The printer would display a low toner message and cease printing until a new Brother TN-210 toner cartridge was installed. However, there was still plenty of toner left inside those toner cartridges! Annoying!

Time to replace your toner cartridges...or is it?

Missed Connection

Additional frustrations occurred when users attempted to connect the HL-3070CW to wireless networks. Many found they couldn’t get the printer to join their computer network unless connected with a USB cable.

What Brother HL-3070CW Owners Think

The HL-3070CW has garnered mixed user reviews across the Internet, averaging 3.5 out of 5.0 stars. While most felt the printer delivered quality prints, many were disappointed by wireless connectivity issues and false “low toner” messages that caused the printer to stop printing even though there was still toner left in the cartridge. Some users had trouble with paper jams in the manual paper feeder, especially when printing envelopes. Other reviewers hammered Brother’s lackluster customer support.

Deep In The Amazon

The Brother HL-3070CW gets an average 3.2 out of 5.0 stars on Amazon.

Steve was pleased with the Brother HL-3070CW, writing: “I've had the printer for 14 months and have used it for a variety of printing — school papers & work presentations, invitations and flyers, address labels, even beer bottle labels for my homebrew.”

Mike Mc calls the HL-3070CW a “good compact color LED printer,” noting the machine “prints great quality, even photos aren't bad for an LED.” Update: “A year after purchase the toner is still good which is why I went with something other than inkjets because past inkjets I've owned, the ink would dry up or run out too quickly.”

The majority of negative reviews felt the HL-3070CW fell short on wireless connectivity and false “low toner” messages. Cartridges still had plenty of toner left, yet the HL-3070cw would read them as empty and refuse to print.

Just Richard was disappointed with the HL-30760CW’s network connectivity issues and short toner life, suggesting he’d purchase an HP Color Enterprise printer if given another chance. “I have a 20 year old HP 4000 that has never given me problems.”

Is this 250-page paper tray enough for you?

Rage Against The Machine

User Mrs. Beasley raged at the HL-3070CW: “This printer, so far, has been a money pit. The quality is okay, but it seems like I'm always buying cartridges and drums for this printer! In addition, we had a defective leaky yellow cartridge, and a black cartridge (or drum?) that started putting out "blobs" on the paper prematurely. The toner is always nagging to be refilled, even though it has plenty. The starter cartridges are a joke. I have spent SO much money on ink and supplies for this printer since I got it! I'm going back to Canon inkjets for color and buy another Samsung laser for black printing. This thing is going in the trash heap the next time it dares nag me for something else…”

Disappointed user Original Vidiot said the HL-3070CW’s short toner life, coupled with repeated “low toner” messages, render the machine unusable. “It's currently listed on Craig's List for $45 and still not a single person is interested in this giant piece of feces. I can't stress enough how turned off I am to Brother products after this experience. We still use the HP Deskjet 6540 that I bought for my wife on a whim in 1997 and it still works flawlessly.”

Workable Workarounds

Amazoner My Eyes Are Up Here offers this tip to solve the HL-3070CW’s false “low toner” message, claiming, “after I found this trick, I got another 1,000 pages out of that ‘empty’ toner cartridge.”

Turn the printer off and then on again.
Open cover.
Press Cancel and Secure Print buttons at the same time.
Press the + button and scroll through the colors that need to be reset. (reset both STR and STD when prompted. I just reset them all.)
Press OK (twice, once for STR and STD)
You're done. You don't even need to take the cartridges out and the printer thinks you just installed four new Brother toner cartridges.

Reset menu for the durable parts counters:

Open cover where you access toners
Press GO and + button at once, you'll see menu come up displaying reset counters for drum, fuser, etc.

My Eyes claims this reset method worked three times on the same toner cartridge! “I'm still on the original magenta cartridge. This ‘secret’ reset method has saved me $200.”

Helpful Brother HL-3070CW Videos

Unpacking Brother HL-3070CW LED printer

How to Repair Brother Color Laser / LED Printer. Blank ,light pages

Brother Cleaning and Replacing Fuser

How To Refill / Reset Brother Tn-210 Toner Cartridge Brother HL-3070CW

HL-3070CW Brother digital color wireless printer

Brother Canada Playlist

Brother HL-3070CW SPECS

GENERAL

Printer TypeWorkgroup printer - LED - color
ManufacturerBrother International

CONNECTIVITY

Wireless ReadyYes

POWER DEVICE

Typepower supply
Nominal VoltageAC 120 V
Frequency Required50/60 Hz
Power Consumption Operational480 Watt
Form Factorinternal

PRINTER

TechnologyLED
Print SpeedUp to 17 ppm - B/WUp to 17 ppm - color
Built-in Devicesstatus LCD
Connectivity Technologywired, wireless
InterfaceUSB, LAN, USB host, Wi-Fi
PostScript Supportstandard
First Print Out Time B/W15 sec
Language SimulationPCL 6, PostScript 3
Media Handling1-sheet multipurpose tray, 250-sheet input tray
Typeworkgroup printer
Min H-Document Size3 in
Min V-Document Size4.57 in
Max H-Document Size8.5 m
Max V-Document Size14 in
Media Typebond paper, envelopes, labels, plain paper, recycled paper
Media SizesA4 (8.25 in x 11.7 in), A5 (5.83 in x 8.25 in), A6 (4.13 in x 5.83 in), B5 (6.93 in x 9.83 in), B6 (4.92 in x 6.93 in), Executive (7.25 in x 10.5 in), Legal (8.5 in x 14 in), Letter A Size (8.5 in x 11 in)
Min Media Weight60 g/m²
Max Media Weight162 g/m²
Total Media Capacity250 sheets

MISCELLANEOUS

Microsoft CertificationsCompatible with Windows 7
Consumables Included1 x toner cartridge (black) - up to 1000 pages1 x toner cartridge (cyan) - up to 1000 pages1 x toner cartridge (magenta) - up to 1000 pages1 x toner cartridge (yellow) - up to 1000 pages1 x drum - up to 15000 pages - Brother DR-2100

POWER

Power Consumption Stand by / Sleep70 Watt
Frequency Required50/60 Hz
Power Consumption Operational480 Watt

PROCESSOR

TypeVR5500
ManufacturerNEC
Clock Speed300 MHz

NETWORKING

NetworkingPrint server - integrated
Remote Management ProtocolHTTP, HTTPS, IPP, SNMP 1, SNMP 2, SNMP 3, Telnet
Network / Transport ProtocolAppleTalk, LPR/LPD, NetBEUI/NetBIOS
Security Protocols & FeaturesLEAP, SMD, SSL, Secure Print, TLS, WEP, WPA-PSK, WPA2
Data Link ProtocolEthernet, Fast Ethernet, IEEE 802.11b, IEEE 802.11g
Compliant StandardsIEEE 802.11b, IEEE 802.11g, Wi-Fi CERTIFIED
Connectivity Technologywired, wireless

RAM

Installed Size64 MB
Technology / Form FactorSO-DIMM 144-pin
Max Supported Size576 MB
Slots Qty1
Empty Slots1
Form FactorSO-DIMM 144-pin

ENVIRONMENTAL STANDARDS

ENERGY STAR CertifiedYes
ENERGY STARYes

PRINTING

Max Resolution B/W600 x 2400 dpi
Max Resolution Color600 x 2400 dpi
Max Printing Speed B/W (ppm)17 ppm
Max Printing Speed Color (ppm)17 ppm

MANUFACTURER WARRANTY

Service & SupportLimited warranty - 1 year

MEDIA HANDLING

Min Media Size (Custom)3 in x 4.57 in
Max Media Size (Custom)8.5 in x 14 in
Media Weight60 g/m² - 162 g/m²
Output Trays Capacity100 sheets
Media TypeEnvelopes, labels, plain paper, bond paper, recycled paper
Total Media Capacity250 sheets
Media SizesLetter A Size (8.5 in x 11 in), Legal (8.5 in x 14 in), Executive (7.25 in x 10.5 in), A4 (8.25 in x 11.7 in), A5 (5.83 in x 8.25 in), B5 (6.93 in x 9.83 in), A6 (4.13 in x 5.83 in), B6 (4.92 in x 6.93 in)

DUTY CYCLE

Monthly Duty Cycle (max)25000 pages

COPIER

Copier Typenone

ENVIRONMENTAL PARAMETERS

Sound Emission (Idle)30 dB
Sound Emission (Operating)53 dB
Min Operating Temperature50 °F
Max Operating Temperature90.5 °F
Humidity Range Operating20 - 80%

DOCUMENT & MEDIA HANDLING

Media Type Classenvelopes, other, plain paper
Media Size ClassA4/Legal

HEADER

BrandBrother
Product LineBrother
Model3070CW
Packaged Quantity1
CompatibilityMac, PC

INTERFACE REQUIRED

Connector Type4 pin USB Type A, RJ-45
TypeGigabit LAN, USB 2.0, direct print port
Total Qty1

OFFICE MACHINE

Typeprinter
Functionsprinter
Monthly Duty Cycle Range (Printer Class)20,000 - 49,999 pages
Monthly Duty Cycle (max)25000 pages
Printing TechnologyLED
Printing Output Typecolor

DIMENSIONS & WEIGHT

Width16.1 in
Depth18.3 in
Height9.8 in
Weight41.89 lbs

DIMENSIONS & WEIGHT (SHIPPING)

Width (Shipping)24.7 in
Depth (Shipping)21.9 in
Height (Shipping)18.1 in
Weight (Shipping)48.5 lbs

PRINTING SYSTEM

First Print Out Time B/W15 sec

CONSUMABLES INCLUDED

Product NameBrother DR-2100
Colorblack, cyan, magenta, yellow
Included Qty1

SOFTWARE

TypeBRAdmin Light, BRAdmin Professional, Web BRAdmin

PRINTER OUTPUT

Max Speed17 ppm
Output QualityB/W, color

PRINTER MEDIA

Media Load Typeautomatic, manual
Media Feeder Qty1
Media Feeder Max FormatLegal (8.5 in x 14 in)
Min Media Weight60 g/m²
Max Media Weight105 g/m², 162 g/m²
Media Feeder Capacity1 sheets, 250 sheets

PC CONNECTIVITY

InterfaceLAN, USB, USB host, Wi-Fi

SERVICE & SUPPORT

Type1 year warranty

SERVICE & SUPPORT DETAILS

Typelimited warranty
Full Contract Period1 year

GENERAL

ManufacturerBrother International

Rob Errera

Rob Errera is an award-winning journalist embedded in the world of printers and printing supplies. Rob has nearly two decades of experience writing about cutting edge technology, business trends, and the ever-evolving industry of printing.