BrotherP-touch CUBE Plus Bluetooth Label Maker (PT-P710BT), white

I bought this printer for basic product labeling: things like serial numbers for products I make. I chose it because it's wireless and untethered (if you choose to use it that way), and the Bluetooth interface lets me programmatically generate, print, and even autocut labels. When I start doing small runs of products, each needing a unique label (due to changing serial numbers and MAC addresses), this is going to rock. The built-in rechargeable battery won't chew through alkaline batteries or require swapping out NiMH rechargeable cells (and it prints while charging, too).Brother has some other printers which don't require AA/AAA batteries, but this one comes with a battery, whereas the others that offer a rechargeable battery require that it be bought separately, and they're overpriced. The real deal-breaker over the other Brother plug-powered printers was that the other options use 12 V DC jacks, apparently wired for center-negative, outer-positive connections. This is really bad, because it means that replacement third-party power supplies have to be this special kind, and if you accidentally plug a Brother power supply into something else that uses 12 V, but wired for the almost universally-adopted center-positive standard, you could blow that device up. I've let that happen once and now I won't allow center-negative power supplies into my household. Micro USB bypasses all that; it's very much standardized.I spent a day hacking on someone else's open-source proof-of-concept Brother driver in Python. After sufficient tinkering, I can now print arbitrary monochrome PNGs (as long as they are the right height) on my Linux laptop via Bluetooth. It looks like it also supports USB communication, if you need to use it on a machine that doesn't have Bluetooth. I haven't tried the CUPS driver (but one exists) or the Windows utility.Brother publishes an excellent and detailed programmer's manual that gives you nearly everything you need to know to do your own custom low-level printing, so I think this can be great for production or manufacturing environments on a budget.The convenience of being able to do one-off labels from my computer or my smartphone is a also huge win (you know, the intended application, lol). I had a project where I needed to print labels for hard disk serial numbers, so I used a barcode scanner app to read the serial number bar codes from the hard disk labels and then copied/pasted them into the Brother print app. This sounds clunky, but it's way more convenient and error-proof than hand-keying all these numbers with a keyboard (whether on my phone or a label maker with a keyboard).In fact, lack of a keyboard on the label maker isn't really a concern here. You're probably a lot better entering text on a cell phone than you are on a clunky label maker keyboard anyway, and you get perks like autocomplete, copy/paste, drag-and-drop WYSIWYG font adjustment and positioning, etc.More great features: it has an automatic cutter, which is great for printing a batch of labels at once. And it's possible to chain print labels to avoid the wastage you normally get at the beginning of a standalone label. You still do have to waste about an inch of tape for each batch job that you do, but that's not really a big deal.The Brother app on Android is okay and somewhat easy to use once you get the printer to pair with your phone and get the app to recognize it. It's got some quirks and annoyances, but no show-stoppers. For example, fine position adjustment of objects like text or images is tricky, because if you only move your finger a little bit, it'll think you're long-pressing the object and offer to delete the object or whatever. You have to move objects faster (and therefore further away than you want) so that it recognizes that this is a move command, and then you have to move it back to be closer to where you want. And it doesn't show the object as it's being moved, it only shows the bounding box, so it can be tricky to get objects to go exactly where you have them in mind.I decided to review it after I dropped it onto some concrete stairs I tripped on (I broke most of its fall--d'oh!), and it's still working.Weaknesses of this printer:* While this is a Bluetooth printer, it has no security, and no way to disable Bluetooth that I've seen. It's an open Bluetooth printer for anybody within range to pair with and print to. This will probably never be a real-world problem for me, but in theory some neighbor's kid could eat through all my tape with dumb/offensive messages if I left this turned on.* It automatically powers off a little zealously when left inactive while running on battery power. If plugged into a USB port, I think it still auto-powers-off, but much less quickly. Bluetooth should be pretty light on current draw if done correctly, so it'd be nice if they didn't turn it off so quickly.* It doesn't support 1.5" TZe tape, only up to 1". That's still pretty good, but I didn't realize I was limiting my options when I bought it.* The TZe tape cartridge system and/or Brother's standard print heads require a lot of top/bottom margin; the print area is smaller than I'd like. For example, for the 1" nominal/24 mm actual tape, the print area is 128 dots vertically, or 18.06 mm high. That means you have a required margin of at least 3 mm on the top and bottom. This margin gets smaller with smaller tape widths, down to almost nothing on the 3.5 mm tape. Look up the Brother programmer's manual for this printer to find the exact limitations if this matters to you.* The print resolution isn't super great, but it does have a reasonable high-resolution mode. This prints at 360x180 dpi instead of the usual 180x180 DPI, presumably by running the tape a little bit slower through the print head. This does improve text and graphics legibility, in a similar way to how subpixel antialiasing improves text legibility on a computer LCD screen: the horizontal resolution matters more, so it's good that it can boost that dimension of resolution.

Some time ago I read an article about organizing. One of the things it suggested was to get a label maker to help I.D. boxes, drawers, items in the pantry, and so forth as part of the process. This was the product that was highly recommended. And it truly is fantastic. I really like having things nicely labelled. So much better than handwritten, uneven labels. It give me real satisfaction seeing my neatly and professionally labelled things.The P-touch Cube has a lot of great features. One can download software for use on your laptop or desktop and for mobile devices—phones, tablets. The software allows you to determine the type and size of your font. It also has templates for many different types of labels—storage, kitchen, garage, office, labelling CD’s, etc. You can use the templates as is, revise or customize the templates, or not use them at all. Some templates have designs of various kinds on them. I typically find the templates are a good starting point. One can operate the label maker via Bluetooth on your phone or tablet or on your computer but connecting the cable that comes with it (with an adapter allowing for USB-A or USB-C). When I just need a quick, simple label, I make it from my phone without using a template. It’s fast and simple.The P-touch Cube has a built-in rechargeable battery, making it easy to move from room to room or take with you on a business trip. The label tape comes in cartridges that can be easily popped in and out—for instance if you need a larger size or different color background or font.I’ve used the label maker, among other things, to identify soap and lotion jars in our guest room, label small travel bottles, on the sides of notebooks, and on files. I’m about to launch a reorganization of our pantry, where I’ll be labelling the new containers I got for that purpose. Great product.

Excellent

One of the sample labeling tapes worked fine, the second just kept getting jammed. Makes me wonder about the quality of future labeling tapes I will need to buy.

Great little label maker. I upgraded from the original cube because it didn't cut the labels to size. This one does and it does it quite well. If I had to have a complaint it would be that there's no Windows interface to use it I have to do it all with my phone