Description
The Brother TN660 is a high yield black toner cartridge for Brother monochrome laser printers, sold here as a two-pack. Brother rates each cartridge at approximately 2,600 pages. The important part of this listing is not the yield figure but the compatibility list, which names fifteen specific printer models, and this review leads with that.
Which Printers It Fits
The listing names the following: Brother DCP-L2520DW, DCP-L2540DW, HL-L2300D, HL-L2305W, HL-L2315DW, HL-L2320D, HL-L2340DW, HL-L2360DW, HL-L2380DW, MFC-L2680W, MFC-L2685DW, MFC-L2700DW, MFC-L2705DW, MFC-L2720DW and MFC-L2740DW.
That is a well populated generation of Brother machines, many of which are still in daily service in homes and small offices. If your printer is on that list, this is the correct high yield cartridge for it. The widely owned Brother MFC-L2700DW is on the list, which makes the TN660 the cartridge that machine takes.
If your printer is not on the list, do not buy this cartridge. Brother’s monochrome toner families are not cross compatible across generations, and a physically similar cartridge from a newer family will not work. Newer Brother monochrome machines take a different cartridge entirely; the Brother TN830XL covers that later generation and its compatibility list has no overlap with this one. Checking the cartridge family against your specific model number is the single step that prevents the most common ordering mistake in this category.
What the Yield Figure Means
Brother describes each cartridge as yielding approximately 2,600 pages. Toner yields are measured under a defined test standard at a fixed page coverage, roughly equivalent to a business letter with a short paragraph of text. Documents with tables, images, dark headers, logos or scanned pages consume considerably more toner per page, so a real world yield below the rated figure is expected behavior rather than a defect.
The high yield designation means the TN660 holds more toner than the standard yield cartridge in the same family. For anyone printing more than occasionally, high yield lowers the cost per page and reduces how often the cartridge has to be changed. Two cartridges in one pack extends that further: the second sits on a shelf until it is needed, which for a household printer might be a year or more away.
The Drum Is Not Included
This is the part of laser printing that catches people out, and it is worth stating plainly. Brother monochrome laser printers of this generation use two separate consumables: a toner cartridge, which is what this listing sells, and a drum unit, which is a different part with a different part number and a much longer service life.
The drum typically outlasts several toner cartridges, but it does wear out, and when it does the printer reports a drum error rather than a toner error. Symptoms of a worn drum include repeating marks or streaks down the page at regular intervals, which no amount of new toner will fix. This listing does not include a drum, does not state a drum part number and does not say how many toner changes a drum is expected to cover. If you are budgeting the running cost of one of these printers, include the drum in the calculation, and check the correct drum part number for your model before you need it.
Highlights
- Two Brother Genuine TN660 high yield black toner cartridges per pack.
- Approximately 2,600 pages per cartridge, per Brother’s rating.
- Named compatibility with fifteen DCP, HL and MFC monochrome laser models.
- Higher capacity than the standard yield cartridge in the same family.
- Brother’s cartridge recycling and return program referenced with the product.
- Listed as a current product rather than discontinued.
Things To Consider
The first thing to note is the seller. The description on this listing reads simply “Reseller Brother TN660 High Yield Toner 2-Pack”, which indicates a third party seller rather than Brother’s own listing. That does not make the cartridges anything other than genuine, and the compatibility options field does say Genuine, but it does mean the packaging, the batch dates and any warranty handling come through the reseller. If cartridge age matters to you, and on toner it matters less than on ink, ask.
The specification block contains fields that make no sense for a toner cartridge and should be ignored:
- “Duplex: true” and “Dualsided printing: Yes”. Two sided printing is a printer capability, not a cartridge one. Several of the listed printers are duplex models and several are not; the cartridge is identical either way.
- Product dimensions of 15 x 9 x 12 inches, which describe the shipping carton for two cartridges rather than a cartridge.
- A material type of “plastic” and a UPC field containing seven concatenated codes.
Two practical points. First, buying two cartridges is only an economy if you will use both. For a printer that produces a few hundred pages a year, one high yield cartridge may last several years, and a second sitting unused ties up money without saving any. Second, store the spare sealed, flat and away from heat and direct sunlight. Toner is stable in its packaging but the cartridge is a mechanical assembly and should not be dropped or shaken hard.
Who Should Buy It, and Who Should Not
Buy the TN660 two-pack if your printer is on the compatibility list, you print enough that the standard cartridge runs out at inconvenient moments, and having a spare on the shelf is worth the up front cost. For a small office or a busy home printer, it is the sensible way to buy this consumable and it removes the scramble when the low toner warning appears mid job.
Do not buy it if your printer is not on the list, if you print rarely enough that one cartridge will outlast the printer, or if what you actually need is a drum unit rather than toner. Owners of other brands should look at their own equivalents, such as the HP 26A or the HP 78A. Our toner cartridges category lists what we cover by brand, and the laser printers category is where to start if you are choosing the machine rather than the cartridge.
