Brother QL-810W Ultra-Fast Label Printer with Wireless Networking

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This was a rushed replacement for my old Brother Smart Label Printer 440, which died halfway through printing a shipping label. Partly for a mild case of brand loyalty and partly because of users reviews in Amazon and elsewhere, I chose this, the middle of this line. The lower model was not wireless, and the higher model had wireless but it also had an added serial port which I stopped needing years ago when Apple switched to its own connection and eventually settled on USB. This label printer made my stock of old label rolls obsolete, since the new printers require printed symbols on the backs of the tapes, particularly when using the very convenient continuous rolls of tape. Ive been using only one of the two supplied sample rolls--the wide, continuous tape. This printer can be set to produce labels of any length, as long as the width of the label does not exceed the width of the paper tape. Id think, since rolls of shipping label widths can come in 50-foot rolls, the length of the tape might only be limited by the printing software (which does not have to be Brothers proprietary software). Tape rolls must be mounted in plastic holders which, depending on manufacturer, might be replaceable/reusable or permanently attached. Compared to the previous model I owned, however, tape replacement is quite straightforward. The new feature I like is that this thermal printer can print on continuous labels that are clear, which I use for return address labels and shipping labels that dont need to be placed on printed envelopes with instructions to "Place Label Here" which would show through the clear label. One annoyance, though, despite the overall excellence of the product, is that another electronics manufacturing company with loyalties to the "other operating system" has not expended the effort and resources to make this "plug and play" with Mac OS X and iOS. This is odd, since the Brother MFC (multi-function printer) we own was quick and easy to get running on our home WiFi network. Not that WiFi-ing this label printer was laborious...it was fairly uncomplicated, though instructions had to be followed, unlike many Mac-attached devices. My guess is that this is the result of software engineers who were trying to adapt software from "other" systems to the Mac. Still, I glanced through the instructions for WiFi-ing the printer using the "other" operating system, and I felt sympathy (and pity, a bit) for how much more complicated it was to be networked on non-Macs. I like the printer very much for being highly technologically advanced compared to my old Brother label printer, but I didnt like how excitedly enthusiastic this printer is when finishing a label. After cutting it off, it does some projectile vomiting of the completed label causing it to fly (not drift) onto the floor or take wing like a glider. (Its still slightly curled from coming off a tight roll, so its the perfect aerofoil.) Maybe theyre planning a new accessory, such as an output bin shaped like a bird cage. The finished label does NOT sit like a tongue sticking out, as shown in the photo displaying the device. Its spit out.

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The printer works. Yay. I was hoping to use it out in my barn (away from my computer and internet service) with my iphone to make personalized business labels for produce boxes. Well, you cant do that. The app is awful. You can NOT create a custom label on your computer and send it to the app on your phone or ipad. If you try to create a custom label through the app, well, its nearly impossible. All the templates on the app are extremely limited and some have silly things like cupcakes or black bars that you cannot remove. If they simply had a blank template with the ability to add more than one text box Id probably be happy. But, they dont even have that. Ideally, I would think it would be possible to use the P-touch editor software on my computer to create templates and then send them to the app to print custom labels. Nope. I called Brother and they were of no assistance, aside from keeping me on hold for 20 minutes to later explain what I had already figured out: you cant do that with the app. If you are planning to use the app to print from your phone or ipad - download the app first and try it out. If you are wanting to use your own logo, more than one text box, more than one font size or desire any sort of creativity.... I dont think youll find it there. You do have more control using their P-touch editor on the computer, albeit clunky and annoying, but it works. But, you cant use any label other than what you create in the app and you cant import anything to the app. You need wifi to print with your phone and you need to be on that same network to set up the printer in the first place. I turned my phone into a hotspot and connected my computer to it when I set up the printer originally and I am able to print from my phone to the printer when my hotspot is enabled.

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I spent way too much time setting this up. Once it is done, I am quite happy with it. It would have gotten a 5 star if I didnt run into issue with printing the first label. The printer comes with 2 sample rolls (2.4 in and 1.1 in). *** The 2.4 is a black/Red label, so make sure you have it set correctly or it is complain about incompatible label. To ease some of pain I experienced, do the following: Install all the software from the installer. (default) Make sure you can print from the USB connection first using P-Touch Editor 5.2. The Lite that comes with printer is pretty useless, so you want press the LITE button to turn that off on the printer. Once you have the USB printing working, you can set up the wireless using the Printer Setting Tool. It is pretty straight forward. Once set up, you should be able remove USB and print wireless. For Mobile printer, install Brother Iprint&Label app. The templates available is adequate for address labels. I was able to print a photo from that as well, dont expect photo quality :)

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When it works it works GREAT but it is a huge PAIN to install with conflicting instructions. Tech support is spotty, from techs who REALLY know their stuff to complete bozos who contradict each other (you can tell I have contacted Tech Support A LOT. The installation comes with a Utility called P (something) Editor, which is supposed to set your Label sizes. More often than not this editor set label sizes that conflict with the printer which CANNOT be modified! In fact the Editor has a drop down that lists label sizes, which when selected do NOT modify the settings. One label size that is sold by Brother does NOT EVEN FIGURE in the drop down. But when it finally works its great. The latest one I bought STILL DOES NOT WORK because the label size (which is sold by Brother) cannot be set.

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I had the non-wireless, QL700, hooked to my system, and once set up, it worked flawlessly. When I added this printer (in order to be able to print labels in another room) after I loaded the drivers, I found that some of my saved label formats had shifted position, and were then getting text chopped off at the top. I went back into their files, made some modifications to their settings, re-saved the files, and now they work just as well as before. Did lose a batch of 75 before I caught it though. Oh well, tuition of the learning curve... In fairness to me, however, preliminarily, I DID call the company help line, and had a young fellow, (whos REAL name definitely wasnt "Wes," as stated, I am certain.) tell me that I should just install the new printer with the included disk, and that it would NOT change of delete any of my saved label files. By accident or design; he LIED. So, the printer works even better than our old one, but be aware, that under the same circumstances, this change in your saved label settings might become an issue.

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This should be really easy to use, and it is once you do a LOT of trial and error.... this is necessary because the documentation is terrible. Theres lots of it, but its poorly written, painfully laid out, does not contain very basic information, and defines objects by repeating the name. For example, the hardware itself has two buttons: Feed & Cut. But nowhere do the docs say what these buttons *do*. Searches indicate troubleshooting uses for these buttons such as orange light is lit : The roll cover is opened. Close the roll cover correctly. Starting reset or CUT button pressed while resetting. This is an actual quote. There is online help as well, which no more useful. I honestly cant remember having encountered a worse set of user documentation. Its so bad that next time I need this kind of machine I’ll buy another brand.

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Superb, snappy piece of work. Installation was a snap (Im using this on Mavericks on an iMac) - I downloaded the drivers and the editor software from the Brother site and didnt use the bundled CD. I like the ability to vary the label length (using the P-touch Editor), so Im not restricted to the standard address size (when using a continuous roll, naturally). So, I can use it for addresses, or to print out instructions, or lists and so on. Ive also embedded my logo using a jpg so when I send something to a customer using this, I get some brand reinforcement. Also nice is the ability to print vertically or horizontally and the auto-cut feature and because its wireless I only have the power cord to deal with and not an additional USB. (BTW, Im using this on a 220W power connection so its plugged into a step-down converter that I bought at the same time off Amazon - no issues so far and its been a month or so.) The only (minor) fly in the ointment is the P-touch Editor on the Mac - its not a bad piece of work, just idiosyncratic. You need to get used to its somewhat weird interface and the fact that you cant use Command-Shift-V to paste and match style, and selecting text to edit is not exactly user-friendly and... but these are relatively minor quibbles. It works on my Mac wirelessly and its fast and clean. Cant ask for much more.

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The print quality and speed is just what I need. I dont want to spend a lot on labels, this device does the trick. Its small, and I can keep it on the floor, hiding underneath my desk in a dark corner. Printers should always fit in a some dark corner, and this device fits there perfectly. The problem with the WI-FI is that it only supports 2.4Ghz networks, my network is 5GHz. In order to print over WiFi I have to switch my tablet connection from my 5Ghz network to the 2.4GHz network - which is noisy, as I live in a condo with lots of 2.4Ghz interference. Thee stars, but I would have easily given this 5 stars if it had Cloud Print support. Oh, and setup is a pain, but, I wont deduct from that because all printer setup is a pain. Budget a half day for unboxing to setup.

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Works well for what I need. Image is sharp and printing is quick from my phone. Cons are that you need an laptop or pc to install the software and get it connected to your network. Experienced the typical pains of installing a network printer...long waits, errors, me cursing, etc. Also, the app has a bit of a learning curve to know the steps. You have to backtrack every time to change the print count. Ex - my previous job was 8 labels. My new job I only one, but didnt go back to change the settings, so I ended up w 7 copies I didnt need. You cannot stop a print job once you hit the button. Has some work to make it more user friendly.

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This device gave me conniption fits trying to make it function with a wireless connection. The so-called "User Guide" is useless, and the procedures given there do not match the devices functions. After a couple of hours fooling around, I now have the wireless aspect working just fine. The key was to use the utility on the DVD called "BRAdmin Light" instead of trying to follow the verbose tomfoolery in the User Guide. A minor surprise was that it managed to disconnect my Brother color laser printer. Re-installing the latter from its own DVD cured this. The accompanying P-touch Editor has been improved over the years and now is only slightly crazy. One annoyance...the device MUST BE turned on manually...it wont wake up when a file is sent to it for printing. It takes about 20 seconds to find the LAN/router.

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