vretti Bluetooth Thermal Shipping Label Printer, Wireless 4x6 Label Printer for Shipping Packages, Thermal Printer Compatible with Ebay, Amazon, USPS, Shopify, Android, iPhone and Windows

Well unfortunately my laptop is a Chromebook so it was not compatible to use this shipping label printer

I sometimes have a need to print shipping labels from my home office as opposed to waiting until later in the day when I get to the warehouse. Not wanting to spring for the expense of another Zebra printer for relatively light home office use, this was an appealing alternative...until I started to use it. First, they include a test print page in the box that I cannot get anywhere close to replicating, even after altering and tweaking the appropriate settings. I can’t see any way that test print came from this printer. The labels Im printing are not nearly as full, crisp, dark, etc.; theyre worse in every regard compared to that included test print page. Ive tried printing on two different brands of otherwise good quality thermal labels, so they cant say thats the reason... Second, set-up was slightly cumbersome, although I did finally get it working on my Dell (Windows) laptop after somehow ending up with duplicated installed drivers. Third, the printer itself is noticeably bulkier than the Zebra that Im accustomed to using. Roll insertion is more time consuming, and the overall build quality leaves something to be desired. After only 1 days use, I really have to decide if this is worth it, or if I should just get a refurb Zebra (even of slightly more expensive, even as a refurb...) and have the ease and quality that I can already tell Im not likely to get from this printer. I cant attest to the print speed, since we print labels as orders are packed, 1 at a time...others have said that its super fast for multiple-label printing, so if youre bulk printing, that alone *might* outweigh the cons for you...but for my situation, I wouldnt recommend this printer, personally. 3 stars seems fair here. I feel very neutral about this printer -- I dont necessarily hate it, but Im not even close to loving it either.

Good

We have an in-home Etsy shop that we run on-the-side, so wed always thought about getting a printer to print labels exclusively, so this was an ideal situation, and it works really well. It does jam from time to time, but that could also be the types of labels weve been using. Were not using brand name labels at all - all off-brand, full disclosure - but this has been mostly very good to us. Im not one to complain, especially when Im just giving honest feedback. I also try not to move it around much from where it sits, because I dont want to aggravate it - I feel like once I have it working well, why mess with a good thing? :)

The first thing to know about this label printer is that it doesnt come with any trial labels - be sure to buy some in addition to this! There are many available on Amazon and Im using 4x6 labels. INITIAL SETUP This was relatively easy to setup. It comes with a nice flash drive with the drivers and manual on it, so you dont have to search online for it. Install on our Windows 11 machine went smoothly and there were no problems with our machine locating the printer. The 4x6 label roll that we purchased was easily placed into the hopper and the machine automatically aligned itself (it wasted 2 labels doing so, but labels arent expensive). INITIAL USE Theres a bit of trial and error to get the print size right. My first label had the label off center and the print was way too big for the label (or the label was too small, depending on how you look at it). I double-checked the label dimensions and made sure the printer options matched the label, and they did. Without taking you through everything I tried, my tip is to simply select 4x6 as your label size and then print at 90%. When I did that, it was perfect. IMPRESSIONS The label is LIGHTNING fast. Ive never seen such a fast printer. ZZTT, done. The quality seems higher than our home printer that I have been using for shipping labels (using default quality settings). I dont see dithering, smudging, etc. The darkness is spot on. The stickiness of the labels seems pretty good. TBH, Id give this 4.5 stars for the small alignment issues that caused some initial headaches, but Im rounding up because Im very pleased with the print quality and performance. I hope it stands the test of time.

The software was awfully finicky and wasnt compatible with my MacBook despite advertising as such. It did work with my windows, but software seemed finicky. Was able to print a few test shipping labels but overall experience wasnt great. A bulky machine and not easy to get refills for the inside.

Horrible printer, prints fades, super complicated to install.

The printer is of a reasonable form factor for a desktop thermal printer. I inserted a roll of 4x6 direct thermal paper, installed the drivers and was able to do a test print easily. Printing directly to it using the system print dialog was easy enough as well. Print quality - even using the settings claimed on the provided sample - was not as good as the sample. Assuming the settings are accurate, either their label paper is significantly better, or they faked the samples on another printer. The sample is darker, has no directional smudging, and is generally clearer. Using the same settings (speed of 4, darkness of 8) generates lighter print, directional smear, and fuzzy edges. At 1/3rd the cost of a comparable Zebra printer, I definitely get the appeal. If you plan to use this in a commercial environment, I recommend spending extra for the Zebra. If you are doing small quantity or low-priority stuff at home, this might be a decent fit. Where I ran into issues was using the Zebra SDK to send print jobs directly to the printer. Ive used it with a variety of other printers via TCP and USB, however this printer by default uses a virtual printer connection and does not seem to be compatible either with the Zebra SDK or with a direct USB logic. I reached out to the manufacturers regarding this but never got a reply. Eventually I resolved it by running through the winspool.drv using C#. I know Im an outlier in designing a program to print to it, but the reason I bring this up is that it may not be compatible with some programs that need to print to it. If you print with the system dialog youll probably be fine, though.

Im not taking stars away for my own mistake but this has not worked for what I was hoping to use it for. Otherwise this is a perfectly good shipping label printer as far as I can tell.

This is just what I needed. Helped to print the shipping label directly instead print on the plain paper and tape it on to the package. The print quality is OK, it depends on the label you used. Overall happy with it.