Brother PT-P750W P-Touch Label Maker with Wi-Fi, NFC, and more

This is a review process that has been quite entertaining. Mostly because the results blew away what we’ve previously been using and it led to us getting the request approved to replace most of our older/previous machines with this one. We have been using the Brother’s new PT-P750W P-Touch Label Maker for a few weeks now and so far, the company seems to have nailed the industry on the head.

Before now, we have been making use of the Dymo printers–specifically the 405 Turbo and the LabelManager PnP USB model. The first of the two is actually pretty good for larger labels, but the latter of the two options (the smaller PnP model) has been quite terrible. Terrible on the level of multiple units having to be replaced over the years due to their internal batteries failing and bricking the devices as well as multiple software bugs that never get fixed (you can read our review of it here to learn more about that).

We have been patiently waiting for a chance to blow that model away so we can have an excuse to get rid of them–and Brother has had a few models that were about to do just that. However, the moment we were about to buy into one to use as proof to get rid of the old, the company releases this new PT-P750W P-Touch Label Printer that is packed with features, causing us to take a step back in aww (thinking that is couldn’t really be that good, right?).

After some weeks of tossing it back and forth, we ordered one and have been using it daily ever since. As mentioned, Brother really does top the market with some of the best models and quality out there when it comes to thermal printing. However, this model takes the cake.

Connectivity

It has the ability to print from your phone (including AirPrint) as well as from your PC/Mac computer. Nothing new there since Brother already has models capable of doing this. So to make things better, the company expands on both ends to make it as versatile as possible (as if the company actually cared about the evolution of its products–what a concept).

On the mobile side of things, it offers app support for either Android or iOS. In addition to that, the printer also has NFC built into the top of the unit (where the circle pattern is located). As long as your mobile device supports NFC, all you have to do is tape your phone to this to pair the printer with the phone. Making it easy for multiple users to quickly make use of the printer. Use the app to create your labels on your device and print them wirelessly to the printer.

As for computer connectivity, you have both USB (wired) and Wi-Fi (wireless) to choose from. Initially, you begin via USB to set everything up. Then you get to choose to remain on USB or join it to your Wi-Fi so that the printer can live virtually anywhere, just like a Wi-Fi enabled ink/toner printer.

Therefore, you have all the connectivity you could possibly need for a label printer. Brother didn’t hold back with this model at all and we highly appreciate this.

Setup

This part is a breeze. It’s a bit more complicated than some printers, but the software does a great job of handling all of this. If anything requires your interaction, it does a good job of walking you through what decisions to make.

Upon loading the software, it immediately detected the printer (connected via USB). It walks us through what is needed, including the P-touch Editor software, which is what you use to design the labels on a PC.

It walked us through adding the printer to one of the local Wi-Fi networks, and before long, we were running the printer wirelessly without the USB cable and were able to move it anywhere (as long as there was an outlet nearby). You can run it on batteries too, so an outlet isn’t really required. However, we do advise using it with wall power if you can. As with any battery-powered printer, it takes a lot of them and that can get costly. However, you can run it without any as long as it is plugged in (there is also a rechargeable battery pack you can buy for it).

At this point, the printer was working and we were making immediate use of it.

Software (PC/Mac)

The P-Touch Editor software is some of the best out there. It is user-friendly and packed with features that allow you to make the perfect label. Not only can you work with graphics, clipart, frames, text, and more. But you also have various templates to choose from to get started with.

This software works smoothly and without crashing (unlike the “Dymo Label” software that was clunky and crashed frequently with memory errors). It also allows us to use more space on the label where Dymo wastes a lot of space above and below the printed content, limiting the size of your text/content.

So you have a larger print area than Dymo printers and the software is smooth as butter.

Performance

So far, we have touched on the software performance and setup. Both of which are fantastic. So that brings us to the user-friendliness of the printer and its features (as well as other things).

We have read from others that some of these functions failed to work for them (ie, Amazon reviews, etc). Stating that they couldn’t get the Wi-Fi or mobile functionality to work at all. However, we haven’t run into any of these troubles. Wi-Fi started working the moment we setup and it has worked since. There is a very good chance some of these users simply skipped a step or failed to read something. For example, the install process lets you know that you need to disable P-Touch Lite to use Wi-Fi connectivity to the full P-Touch Editor software (this is done using a button on the top label “P lite”). They might have skipped this step.

Some have complained that the printer shuts off automatically after some time (ie, an hour) when not in use. Forcing them to walk over to it to turn it back on. This is a power-saving feature and it can be changed. They might not have taken the time to read the instructions or play with the software that gets installed. One of which is the “Printer Settings Tool” that allows you to adjust these settings, including the ability to disable the “auto power-off” for both when the printer is plugged in or on battery power).

We turned off the auto-off and it remains on at all times, ready to print. It hasn’t lost connectivity to Wi-Fi and it connected to the network without hassle during setup. NFC works and the mobile app works. Although we prefer to use the desktop software as it is much easier to work with than a small mobile screen.

Print speed is on par with anything else on the market. It isn’t really any faster, but it isn’t any slower either.

It does have a neat option called “half cut”. When enabled, it does one of two things. It will print a blank section and then perform a half-cut that only cuts through the sticker portion but not the back layer. Second, if you are printing the label multiple times, it will perform a half-cut in between every label. This allows you to easily peel the label away from the backing withing having to pick at the corners. Just lift and peel away like a normal sheet of stickers.

That feature is absolutely game-changing when compared to other small ribbon-style printers. The only downside is the amount of empty space it spits out for that initial tab. It doesn’t add any empty space in between labels, but it does create an initial tab to get started with and it seems to spool out a little more than it has to. This can be wasteful and add up over time.

Finally (for this section), there is label size. Some printers, like the Dymo PnP only support a single size while some offer a few options. The Brother PT-P750W supports any option between 3.5mm and 24mm within the TZe series cartridges.

You can also find generic cartridges that work great that are more affordable. Although this can be said for almost all label makers. We just felt that the ones we came across (these, by Labelife) resulted in the same quality as the actual Brother-made options.

Print Quality

This is also where Brother takes the win. The Dymo PnP model did an ok job with print quality. Mostly with text than anything else though. Images were mostly printed in poor quality. Some clipart came out pretty good but importing images/photos/logos resulted in poor to terrible quality. The Brother printer resulted in much better quality and this includes using images/logos.

This can be seen in the above images. The labels (both using 12mm label width cartridges) on the left came from the Brother, while the labels on the right came from the Dymo PnP. The Brother printer even has a standard vs high-quality option, allowing it to focus even harder on detail. Dymo offers this in its Dymo Connect software for its larger printers like the 450 Turbo but has no effect/option for the PnP model.

The Brother PT-T750W can print up to 4 lines of text and can work with images. clipart, barcodes, frames, and more.

Our Conclusion

In the end, in case it wasn’t already obvious, the Brother printer really won us over. The print quality was better, the print area was larger, it has far better connectivity/options, the software is better (it doesn’t crash while using it), the half-cut option is amazing, and it will operate regardless of the state of the battery inside (or without a battery completely). The printer really does have a lot of things going for it and there isn’t any competition to match it (at least, at the time of writing this).

If we could complain about anything, it would be about the amount of tape that is sometimes wasted to give you peel space when using half-print (as mentioned). That would add up over time and is just enough to dock it half a star as nobody likes waste. Beyond that, we haven’t found anything else to hold against it. In fact, this led to it receiving Editors’ Choice from us (which we don’t hand often, unlike some publications).

It’s also not often a product gets this much praise from us (or this high of a score). So congratulations to Brother for delivering a great product.

We are also happy to say that all of the Dymo PnP models we had on-site have (finally) been officially donated to a local charity and will be forever forgotten (good riddens). We wound up only holding onto the Turbo models, which work well (as long as you use the Dymo Connect software).

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