Epson LabelWorks LW-PX300 Review
Epson offers its LW-PX300 name printer for $59 alone and for $89 as portion of the Epson LabelWorks LW-PX300 Full Printer Unit. (The unit, which we looked into, is well worth the additional $30, for reasons we’ll get to in no time.) It capably handles a assortment of media, counting standard plastic names for domestic or commerce utilize, heat-shrink tube tape for labeling cables, and attractive decals that make fabulous special cooler magnets. The level of capability for the cost makes the LW-PX300 a clear Editors’ Choice for low-volume printing of mechanical labels.
Pros & Cons
- Affordable, industrial-style labeling
- Easy-to-use handheld design with QWERTY keyboard
- Tape choices include plastic, vinyl, magnetic, and fluorescent up to 18mm
- Saves up to 50 labels in memory for easy reprinting
- Lifetime warranty
- Noticeably slow print speed
- Doesn’t connect to a PC or mobile device for printing
- Bat
Epson LabelWorks LW-PX300 Specs
| Name | Value |
|---|---|
| Type | Printer Only |
| Color or Monochrome | Monochrome |
| Printing Technology | Thermal (Plastic Labels) |
| Connection Type | None |
| Maximum Standard Paper Size | 18mm roll |
| Number of Ink Colors | 1 |
| Number of Ink Cartridges/Tanks | |
| Direct Printing From Media Cards | |
| Direct Printing From USB Thumb Drives | |
| Rated Speed at Default Settings (Color) | N/A |
| Rated Speed at Default Settings (Mono) | 6 mm / 0.24 inches per second |
| Monthly Duty Cycle (Recommended) | Not rated |
| Monthly Duty Cycle (Maximum) | Not rated |
| LCD Preview Screen | |
| Printer Input Capacity | 1 cartridge roll; sizes up to 30 feet |
| Cost Per Page (Monochrome) | varies with width and label length |
| Cost Per Page (Color) | N/A |
| Print Duplexing | |
| Automatic Document Feeder | |
| Scanner Type | N/A |
| Duplexing Scans | |
You Likely Need the Kit
The cheaper alternative incorporates the name printer, one tape cartridge, and an owner’s manual. The $89 pack includes an AC connector, a hard-shell carrying case, and a detachable elastic case cover—Epson calls it a bumper guard—to offer assistance ensure the printer against harm. All the augmentations are well worth having, and each costs more when acquired alone than the included cost of the unit. You can control the printer with six AA batteries, for illustration, but chances are you’ll at slightest in some cases need to plug in the AC connector ($59.95 sold separately).
Similarly, if you require to carry the printer to a work location or need to store it absent securely, the difficult shell case ($79.95 sold independently) is a must. And the elastic watch ($49.95 sold independently) can offer assistance keep the case from splitting if you drop it. The as it were great contention for not choosing the Full Pack is if you’re completely beyond any doubt you will never require any of these three extras.
In differentiate to the more costly Epson LabelWorks LW-PX750PCD Unit and Editors’ Choice award-winning Brady BMP41, which can both be utilized as standalone printers but too let you print from your PC, the LabelWorks LW-PX300 is a entirely self-contained printer, like the Brother P-touch PT-D202 looked into here as of late and the 2015 Editors’ Choice honoree, the Brother P-Touch D210.
Sitting on a level surface, the printer ranges from 1.2 inches tall in front to 2.25 inches at the back, giving the beat board a slight tilt that make the keys a small less demanding to utilize and the 140-by-80-dot, two-line illuminated LCD a small less demanding to examined. But the physical plan is most suitable for handheld utilize. The printer measures 4.5 inches wide by 6.5 inches profound and offers pleasantly adjusted edges on all sides. I found it comfortable to hold for thumb writing and might helpfully hit the manual cutter with my right record finger after printing. It’s too light sufficient to hold effortlessly at 1.1 pounds (1.8 pounds with six penlight batteries).Setup comprises of small more than embeddings a tape cartridge and the batteries if you like. The printer turns off consequently after five minutes without a button press, so the LCD backlighting won’t deplete the batteries superfluously if you disregard to turn the gadget off.
Lots of Tapes and Tape Types
As for tapes, you can select among 45 assortments of standard mechanical plastic in 30-foot rolls with widths of 6mm (0.24 inch), 9mm (0.35 inch), 12mm (0.47 inch), and 18mm (0.71 inch). Each comes in different colors or clear and costs $24.85 per cartridge for the biggest width and $20.85 for the others. All are persistent rolls, so your cost per name will change with name size.
In expansion, Epson offers six sorts of strength tapes in a assortment of widths and colors, bringing the add up to number of tapes to 81. Silver matte, solid cement, and vinyl tapes are estimated like standard tapes. Fluorescent tape, which is accessible in five colors, is a bit pricier at $30.95 per 30-foot cartridge.
Epson LW-PX300 as handheld printer
Two of the strength tapes are thicker, coming about in shorter rolls. The heat-shrink tube tape for labeling cables, accessible in six colors, comes in 96-inch rolls ($31.90 each). The attractive tape cartridges, accessible in five colors, are 4.9 feet and fetched $10.15 or $10.49 depending on width. Given the brief length, in any case, that works out to a small more than twice as much per inch compared with the standard plastic.
All the Name Creation Choices You Need
The LW-PX300 offers simple name creation. You can basically sort a few content on the QWERTY console, begin a unused line by hitting the Enter key, and studied up to two lines of 15 characters on the illuminated LCD. When you’re wrapped up, hit the Print button, hold up for the name to print, and press the manual cutter. The printer’s 180 dpi determination, commonplace for this course of gadget, conveys fresh edges and exceedingly lucid text.
Buttons underneath the console incorporate Move, Move Bolt, and a context-sensitive highlight button that lets you include your choice of complements to the character you fair entered. Other buttons let you select a textual style, alter text style estimate and fashion, include a outline, or enter one of eight bar codes or 859 images chosen for mechanical and proficient use.
Other alternatives let you indicate the name length and generally arrange, counting vertical, reflect picture, and a few varieties of hail organize (which lets you wrap the name around a cable and glue the closes together to take off a small hail staying out). You can see the current name some time recently printing, and spare up to 50 names in memory to print as needed.
Print alternatives incorporate printing up to nine duplicates of a name, with the choice to stop after each one for manual cutting or include scarcely unmistakable tick marks to let you cut them with scissors afterward. A especially decent touch is that if you set the printer to cut each name after printing, it naturally prints the another one after each cut. If you realize you made a botch, you can effortlessly cancel a print work by hitting the Delete key or turning off the printer.
Epson rates the LW-PX300 at 6mm or 0.24 inch per moment (ips) with AC control, which is moderate sufficient to feel drowsy when printing indeed a one-inch name. More costly mechanical name printers tend to be quicker; the Epson LW-PX750PCD is evaluated at 1.18 ips whereas the Brady BMP21-Plus and BMP41 oversee 0.4ips and 1.3ips respectively.
In my tests, the LW-PX300 took 16.4 seconds to print a 3.8-inch name (0.23 ips). I didn’t take note any speed contrast when utilizing batteries or maybe than AC control, but saw a few minor variety with distinctive sorts of tape—magnetic tape, for occurrence, was imperceptibly slower. If you’re printing fair a few names at a time, the LabelWorks’ moderate speed ought to be acceptable.
Top Marks for Everything But Speed
The hold up for names to print is the as it were genuine negative almost the LW-PX300. If you require to print parcels of names for, say, labeling cables on a every day premise, you’ll be superior off with the Brady BMP41 or Epson LW-PX750PCD. Each has a diverse blend of name sorts, so check to see which is the way better coordinate for your purposes.
If you require as it were intermittent name printing for cables and other things in your domestic or office, the Brother P-touch PT-D202 offers somewhat more speed than the LW-PX300, along with a few tape choices such as photo-safe (acid-free) and iron-on texture that amplify its capabilities for domestic use.
For light-duty industrial-style labeling, however—whether for a little commerce recognizing cables, channels, and containers; a specialist rectifying up a workshop; or a little retailer or kitchen-table-based online shipper including bar code names to merchandise—the Epson LW-PX300 is near to perfect. It will indeed let you print fridge magnets to advance your commerce or turn your kitchen Frigidaire into a message board. Getting this much capability for so small cost—with a lifetime guarantee, to boot, which covers coincidental breakage—makes the LabelWorks LW-PX300 an simple Editors’ Choice champ.
