We tested five label makers with a variety of price points and functionality. Two of them — the Brother P-Touch Cube Smartphone Label Maker ($40) and the shrewdly-named DYMO LabelWriter 450 Turbo Label Printer ($73)–offer extended digital capabilities. They connect via Bluetooth to your mobile (Brother) or via USB cable to your PC (DYMO), features that let you create your own graphics and templates, if that’s your thing. The Labelwriter 450 Turbo of DYMO can print postage as well and create up to 71 labels in just a few minutes. None of which, of course, will I ever needing to do.
In order to use the sleekly designed Brother P-Touch Cube, you need to download the special P-Touch app, which right there is a deal-breaker for me, what with my can-I-just-pick-it-up-and-use-it rule. This model is for you who like the idea of creating labels directly from your smartphone.
The last model we tried was the DYMO LetraTag ($18) that came with an alphabetical keyboard as well as a noisy and slow printer, and low-quality labels with paper backings which were difficult to remove.
dymo label maker