Brother P-Touch 2100VP

With the demise of the office dymo, it was time to purchase a new labelling machine here at work.
We knew what we wanted. We knew the advantages and pitfalls of the Dymo and opted for the Brother P-Touch 2100VP.

Firstly, the Brother label printer comes in a handy carry case. Great for carting it around the office. Inside the rigid grey plastic case is the printer itself, its power supply and spare labelling reams.
Possibly its only shortcoming is the Dymo was quicker and easier to use as it was battery powered and therefore did not require plugging in for a quick one off label.

One massive advantage with the Brother device is that the keys (although small) are arranged in a true QWERTY layout. The Dymo took as long a time to find the letters as it did to finally generate, initiate and finally print the label! The build in LCD screen also gives you a clearer and bigger field of view than the Dymo equivalents. Handy when reviewing a label that has more than 8 characters on it! In fact the screen has 3 lines of text and up to 16 characters long. The machine itself reminds me of an old fashioned electric typewriter from the late 80s! However this is more than just a typewriter.

The best bit of all is you are not limited to Letters and Numbers on this printer. Instead you can print bar codes if you so desire. Handy when performing an inventory with handheld scanners. The labels themselves also appear to be very durable and laminated in appearance. This means that they should last for years. They are also extremely sticky so try not to stick them in the wrong place as peeling them off afterlonger than an hour or so will prove impossible!
You can even hook it up to your PC to produce labels direct from your PC via the included USB lead.

Rather than the monochrome labels of Dymo, this produces bright and colourful labels for those that dont want them to appear bog standard. You can also alter the font of your labels. Something the Dymo failed to do.

Pricing, well its more expensive by about £20 than the equivalent Dymo and at £75 might appear a little too expensive but i think its a worthwhile purchase in an environment you plrint a lot of labels and need it static. If you want to walk around with it in your hand, go for a battery powered Dymo instead.

Replacement reams for the printer are on a par with Dymo and you can pick these up for around £8 each.

Would I recommend it? Well yes as I find the labels very reliable. The Dymo often chewed the tape or got it stuck inside itself whereas this never jams or misprints.
I also find that the printing speed is very quick and less grindy than the Dymo. The one press printing technology makes label generation quick and easy.
The extra function buttons also give it more flexibility than Dymos and the addtional extras such as the colours, fonts and bar codes makes it the most complete label printer i have seen. Definitely worth a purchase if looking for one.
Manufacturer support is also very good and the brother website has plenty of info regarding user manuals and instructions when configuring the machine. The included manual is more than enough to get you up and running initially though.