Brother HL-L8570CDW review: Strong print quality and fair running costs, but this robust color laser printer could be complex to maintain

Brother recently launched a new range of business color laser printers aimed at demanding workgroups and small businesses. The 8XXX range comprises three multifunction peripherals and two single-function printers. Here we're reviewing the HL-L8570CDW printer, which sits above the HL-L8430CDW. Both have a decent specification, centered around a 31 pages per minute (ppm) print engine also capable of 20 images per minute (ipm) duplexing.

Both single-functions in the 8XXX range come with a 6.8cm (2.7") color touchscreen and a USB slot for direct printing. This being 2026, both support both 2.4 and 5GHz wireless networks, or you can just connect them up via the gigabit Ethernet ports at their rear.

With many core specifications in common, the HL-L8570CDW is chiefly distinguished from the HL-L8430CDW by a wider range of consumables and expansion options. Neither printer's standard paper handling is exceptional out of the box, with a main cassette holding 250 sheets supplemented by a 50-sheet multipurpose feed. You can expand the HL-L8430CDW to an 800-page maximum by adding up to two 250-sheet cassettes – less convenient than a single 500-sheet unit. The HL-L8570CDW we're reviewing is more impressive, accepting 520 or 250-sheet cassettes up to a potential 1,340-sheet total.

It's a similar story with consumables. The HL-L8430CDW arrives with a fair 3,000 pages of black toner and 1,800 in color. It accepts replacements up to 7,500 black and 6,500 color pages. That's not bad, but the HL-L8570CDW turns up with these XXL consumables in the box – a generous starting allowance even at this price. It also accepts larger replacements rated for 10,000 pages of black or color.

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While competing printers from the likes of Canon or HP tend to stick with a limited consumable set, that of the Brother HL-L8570CDW is truly staggering. It supports no fewer than four different toner sizes: standard, XL, XXL, and the super-jumbo 10,000-page items. In addition, there's a waste toner bottle and drum kit, each rated for 50,000 pages. As if that wasn't enough, you can also buy a replacement fuser unit and transfer belt – both nominally good for 100,000 pages. It's unlikely you'd need to replace any of these on a lightly used printer, and even a busy one might not need the fuser or transfer belt, but managing them all could be a pain. On the flip side, the fact that they're available may help extend a heavily used printer's life.

Many buyers of the HL-L8570CDW will opt for a managed print contract, but if you are buying consumables, stick to the biggest available. Do that, and you can expect toner costs of 0.9p (ex VAT) per black page, or 6.8p in color. Even with all the lifetime consumables priced in, per-page costs rise to 1p in black and 7.1p in color – competitive in this class, and significantly less than you'd pay with a cheaper workgroup printer.

Brother HL-L8570CDW review: Setting up

Brother says it's reduced the size of this range by up to 30% compared to the previous generation, but it's still not exactly svelte. The HL-L8570CDW weighs 21kg, and is significantly bulkier than a consumer-level printer. It feels nicely made, though: its main paper cassette slides on robust rails, and the paper guides within it feel like they're there for the long-term: not always an impression we've had from cheaper Brother printers.

We're not sure why Brother has put this printer's USB slot on its left-hand panel. Quite apart from the fact that it hides it away from those who might want to use it, it also means you can't place the printer snugly against a wall or cubicle divider on that side. You can't on the right, either, as there are two vents towards the back.

As with most printers, you may need access to the back of the Brother HL-L8570CDW to get at any paper jams in the duplexer, but most of the day-to-day features are at its front. The front panel pulls forward to form the 50-sheet multi-purpose input. Pressing a button on the top panel releases a bigger front section, allowing you to access the toner and drum assembly.

Business and enterprise printers are sometimes cursed with complex or unwelcoming interfaces – a mistake given the bulk of their users aren't likely to be technical. Fortunately, Brother's touchscreen menu mirrors its consumer printers with straightforward language and a sensible layout. One oddity is it doesn't support swipe gestures, but it's nice and responsive to taps.

Brother's software package for this printer installs a full-featured PC driver, supporting useful features such as watermarking and password-protected secure prints. Administrators are more likely to be interested in the wide range of wired and wireless network security features, and additional settings, including IP filtering and Active Directory/LDAP authentication.

Brother HL-L8570CDW review: Printing

This printer's 31ppm claimed print speed isn't exceptional for a workgroup laser, and it's towards the low end for a busy enterprise device. Good thing, then, that it didn't fall too far away from it in our tests. The Brother HL-L8570CDW delivered a first page of black text within 12 seconds of us clicking Print, although it needed a further nine seconds to warm up if it had first been idle for an hour. It went on to complete 25 copies of a formal letter in 56 seconds, a rate of 26.8ppm.

Our tests include the time taken to spool and start printing a job, which has less impact over longer jobs. We timed a 50-page text document at 101s – at 29.7ppm this was only fractionally below Brother's stated speed.

The HL-L8570CDW was a little slower when working with complex color graphics. Its 16 seconds time-to-first page reflected the additional processing time taken to prepare our graphics-rich 24-page document, and partially accounted for a slower 21.2ppm performance. That's still OK, but perhaps not on days where speed is everything.

This printer takes an unusual approach to duplexing, seemingly pulling two sheets of a job in to have their reverse printed, rather than one. Accordingly, it's some time before the first duplex page lands in the 150-sheet output tray, and paper stops being picked a couple of pages before the job itself is done. It didn't seem to harm the speed too much, with the HL-L8570CDW managing a fair 11.3ipm when printing a 10-page color document onto five sheets of paper.

We normally print our photo tests using a printer's best quality, which in this case is a claimed 2,400x600dpi. When we came to select Fine mode, we discovered this is in fact the default setting. Hopeful that dropping to 600x600dpi might result in quicker everyday prints we re-tried our text job, but the speed was identical regardless of setting. Using Fine, we timed two 10x8" photos printed onto A4 paper at 28 seconds. Six 6x4" photos on three A4 pages completed in 33 seconds.

Brother HL-L8570CDW review: Results

What this printer lacks in outright speed, it makes up for in quality. Text was about as good as you'll see, with characters across our tests showing neat outlines all the way down to tiny 5pt. Only under magnification was a tiny amount of stepping visible on curved lines, and even then, this only really showed up on bold characters.

This printer tended towards undersaturating photos, reproducing clear skies with a shade too much blue, and removing the zing from one test photo of brightly colored Australian currency. In illustrations this showed up as slightly pale skin tones.

This aside, the Brother HL-L8570CDW was great at printing photos and graphics. Illustrations were detailed and sharp, while color fills were uniform and mostly bold. This printer excelled with the shade progressions on our test presentation slides, smoothly transitioning across blue and red shades without obvious stepping as it moved through the dither patterns used to recreate them. Even color text – often a challenge – was crisp and neat. Here, this printer's extremely fine halftoning helped avoid the impression of jagged outlines, improving legibility in smaller color fonts.

Brother HL-L8570CDW review: Is it worth it?

This isn't exactly a printer to get excited about. While swift, it isn't fast, and while it's durable and maintainable, keeping a heavily used example running could involve the complicated juggling of consumables and accessories. Here, a managed print contract would undoubtedly help – Brother's own offerings start for less than £7 a month.

With the complicated consumables dealt with, the HL-L8570CDW quickly begins to look more appealing. It's reasonably specified out of the box, and can be upgraded to store a handy amount of paper – good for businesses juggling plain and header paper, or simply those trying to minimize the hassle of loading media. Ultimately, however, its strongest suit is its print quality. If you want good results at a fair pace, without punitive running costs, the Brother HL-L8570CDW is a strong option.

Brother HL-L8570CDW specifications