The Brother LC 203XL will let you print twice as many pages with industry average coverage as the Brother LC 201 standard cartridge will. Both can be purchased in black only or black and color, they are both compatible with the same Brother printers as detailed below and neither will work with any other manufacturer’s printer (HP Epson etc). As always we recommend you use compatible cartridges as you will save usually 50%.
The hard numbers are:
LC 201 black cartridge 260 printed pages (@ 5% coverage) and again 260 pages for each color cartridge.
LC 203 XL black prints up to 550 printed pages, in color again 550 printed pages per cartridge. Click here to buy LC 203XL 4 pack cheap we use Combo Ink to buy our own inks.
The color cartridges are individual cartridges so you only need to replace the one that runs out where many cheap printers have a tri-color cartridge which means if one color runs out you have the replace all the colors to get the printer working again.
The OEM Brother LC201 goes for $12.49 for the black and the three colors. The LC 203 XL costs $24.95 per cartridge. To print full color you will pay $49.96 for the LC 201 and between $89.95 and $100 for the Brother LC203 XL OEM cartridges. The prices quoted do not include delivery costs and are for cartridges produced by the original equipment supplier Brother. These are expensive and that is why we recommend you use compatible cartridges at less than half the cost.
Your average sized office will eat through a 500 page ream of paper on a Monday. That means you used two LC 203 cartridges or most of one LC 203 XL in a day.
While the normal user prints a few pages a day the cost of using what Brother sells to retailers or getting an official replacement from Brother’s website is not really cost efficient. There are much more economically friendly options for replacement cartridges.
Compatible ink cartridges offer better value economically and in the number of pages that you can print per cartridge. Brother compatible ink cartridges print the same number of pages and even more than the original equipment.
Printer manufacturers warn you to not use any other printer cartridge than their own models. This is called a captive market. It can be interpreted as a lifetime of paying higher prices than is necessary or expedient.
Compare 260 pages to 550 pages and then compare prices for compatible cartridges to find a way to save money and increase cartridge yield.
The LC203XL and LC 201 are compatible with these models from Brother: J885DW, J460DW, J480DW, J485DW, J680DW, J880DW, J885DW, J4320DW, J4420DW, J4620DW, J5520DW, J5620DW, and J5720DW. All models are led by the MFC designation.