The One With the Touchscreen and the Tap

Two features define this model before you ever think about toner. First, a 2.7-inch color touchscreen replaces the button-and-LCD panel of its plainer siblings, complete with on-screen shortcuts and direct print-from access to cloud services such as Dropbox, Google Drive, Evernote and OneNote. Second, an NFC reader lets a compatible phone print with a physical tap against the printer — Brother calls it "touch to connect" — without joining the network first. Underneath sit the familiar family numbers: up to 25 ppm, automatic duplex printing, a 250-sheet tray, and Wi-Fi, Ethernet and USB connections.

That screen matters to this article for a practical reason: it is where the printer reports each cartridge separately. Four toner gauges, four low warnings, four decisions — this post is about making those decisions cheaply.

The Cartridge Shelf, Priced

Part number	Color	Rated pages	Our compatible price	Cost per page
TN227BK	Black	~3,000	$25.26	~0.8¢
TN227C	Cyan	~2,300	$25.26	~1.1¢
TN227M	Magenta	~2,300	$25.26	~1.1¢
TN227Y	Yellow	~2,300	$25.26	~1.1¢
TN223BK	Black	~1,400	$25.26	~1.8¢
TN223C / M / Y	Colors	~1,300 each	$25.26	~1.9¢

Prices come from the main price element of the product pages, read on November 2, 2026; yields are Brother's ISO/IEC 19798 figures. Because our standard and high-yield singles are priced identically, the TN227 row wins every comparison in this table. A household printing mostly school projects might still choose TN223 to keep less money sitting inside the machine, but on pure running cost there is no contest while the prices stand as they are.

Buying by the Color

Follow the link for the exact cartridge your touchscreen names:

High yield — TN227BK Black · TN227C Cyan · TN227M Magenta · TN227Y Yellow

Standard yield — TN223BK Black · TN223C Cyan · TN223M Magenta · TN223Y Yellow

Set or Singles on a Touchscreen Machine?

The TN227 four-color set was listed at $52.79, barely more than two singles ($25.26 each) and close to half the $101.04 that four singles cost. The touchscreen actually helps you time this: when the gauges show two or more colors in their final stretch, order the set and change everything in one cover-open session. When a single color collapses early — magenta often does in photo-heavy homes — the single is the honest purchase, and the set's discount is not worth shelving three cartridges. Watch the gauges, let them make the call.

Swapping a Cartridge

Open the top cover and pull out the drum assembly for the flagged color. Press the lock lever, lift the old cartridge clear, and rock the fresh one from side to side a handful of times before stripping its protective cover — this loosens the toner for even coverage from the first page. Press it into the drum cradle until the lever locks, slide the green corona cleaner tab to the far end and back, return the assembly, and close the cover. The touchscreen will clear the warning once it reads the new cartridge's counter.

Beyond Toner

The toner cartridges rest in a four-part DR223CL drum set, rated around 18,000 pages and listed on our store at $86.11 when checked. Faded bands that survive a toner change usually trace back to these drums. Still further from daily life are the BU223CL belt unit and WT223CL waste toner box, each rated near 50,000 pages — end-of-warranty-era parts for most homes, but good to be able to name when a message eventually mentions them.

HL-L3270CDW Questions

Can I print from my phone without Wi-Fi? Yes, if the phone supports NFC: tap it to the printer's NFC mark and the touch-to-connect feature pairs you directly. AirPrint, Mopria and Brother's mobile apps also work over the network.

Does the HL-L3270CDW scan or copy? No. Despite the touchscreen and cloud apps, this is a print-only machine — the cloud connection is for printing documents stored online. Scanning and copying live on the MFC models in this family.

Why does the screen warn about one color while others look fine? Each cartridge carries its own counter and its own real consumption. Color use is rarely even — documents lean heavily on black and cyan — so staggered warnings are the normal pattern.

Are the cartridges different because this model has NFC? Not at all. Connectivity features do not touch the supply bay; the HL-L3270CDW takes the identical TN223/TN227 shelf as the most basic model in the range.

How do I see how much toner is left? The touchscreen's toner menu shows a gauge per color. Treat the last segment as your ordering signal — at 25 ppm, a busy week can finish a cartridge that looked merely "low" on Monday.

The Bill for One Full Set of Drums

Color machines need a different accounting unit, because every page draws on four cartridges at once. The natural horizon here is one DR223CL drum set — about 18,000 pages — and across that span, at rated yields, this printer works through roughly six black cartridges and a little under eight of each color. Priced on both shelves (genuine at Brother USA list, checked November 3, 2026):

Across one drum-set life (18,000 pages)	Genuine Brother	Our compatibles
Black toner — about six cartridges	$577.74	$151.56
Color toner — about eight of each color	$2,899.33	$593.06
The drum set	$160.29	$86.11
Total supply spend	$3,637.36	$830.73
Blended cost per page	~20.2¢	~4.6¢

Read the model honestly: it assumes every cartridge runs to its rated yield, and real households print far more black than color, so the color lines land lower in practice on both shelves. What survives every adjustment is the ratio — the genuine column runs about 4.4 times the compatible column. The difference across one drum-set life comes to $2,806.63.

Touchscreen-Era Troubleshooting

One color fades while the other three print cleanly. Resist changing all four. Check that color's gauge on the touchscreen first; if the cartridge still shows life, rock it gently to redistribute its toner, and sweep the green cleaning tab on that color's drum section. A single-color fade is a single-color problem, and the screen tells you which one.

Streaks show up immediately after a cartridge change. A fresh cartridge occasionally drags a smear of loose toner across its first pages, or its drum section's corona wire needs the cleaning tab run across and back. Print a handful of pages and clean the flagged color's tab before suspecting the cartridge itself.

The screen still displays the old cartridge's level after a swap. The printer reads the new cartridge's counter as it recalibrates; a gauge that lags one job behind is normal. If the level never updates after several prints, reseat that one cartridge — the touchscreen reports each color independently, so only the stubborn slot needs attention.

Standard or high yield — the short version: choose the TN227 tier. Our singles are priced identically at both sizes, so the standard TN223 simply delivers less toner for the same money — about thirteen standard black cartridges cross a drum-set life where six high-yield ones do. Standard keeps a case only for a color you print so rarely that a smaller fill, changed more often, suits it better.

Other Printers That Use TN223 and TN227

The same supplies serve HL-L3210CW, HL-L3230CDW, HL-L3290CDW, MFC-L3710CW, MFC-L3750CDW and MFC-L3770CDW — seven models, one cartridge shelf, which is why keeping a spare set in a shared home office is painless.

Ready to order? Start from our HL-L3270CDW toner page, which lists every cartridge and set that fits this printer.