DYMO LabelWriter 330 Turbo

Author's product rating:   

Picture quality	Excellent
Printing speed	Very fast
Colour sensitivity	Poor
Ease of use	Very easy
Value For Money	Good

Advantages:	Fast, Looks neat and sexy like me !  !  !  !
Disadvantages:	only black and white .

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

The Dymo Label Writer 330 Turbo.

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At the beginning:-
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The reason my company bought this label printer was that my computer is new to the office and I therefore had no 'creature comforts' that the other girls have got on their computers and desks. All the other computers have Seiko label printers, however we have 3 of them already and they are expensive to run and the print quality is only OK. So I managed to con my boss into letting me have one of these sexy red machines on my desk!
I rooted around and we eventually bought it from Euroffice for £89 in the end of season sale as it was an end of line. It retailed at over £200 normally so I was so chuffed id bagged a bargain for my company so early on!
Unfortunately, it was out of stock when we ordered it due to the great demand for the offer so we had to wait over a week for delivery. But we did get it eventually.

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When it arrived:-
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It was delivered by Parcel Line (not that that matters!) in a big box. I ripped open the box and inside proudly sitting in the middle of the box was yet another box with the label printer in it. The box itself was really colourful and just welcomed you to open it.

So, I opened the box! Inside I was greeted with:- the little printer itself, and installation CD, a load of cabley bit and bobs and a roll of labels.

My boss is extremely picky that things are done properly in our office. So, the good girl that I am, I laid all the bit out on my desk and read…yes READ the instructions for installation. Something I'm not used to doing I must say!

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What it looks like:-
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As can be seen from the picture above, it looks like a biome at the Eden Project! With the see-through flip-top on it. This is where you can see how many labels you have left. On the front of it there is a little gap where the labels shoot out and there is a cutter inset in the gap so you can rip the labels off with ease.
At the bottom on the from there is a little red button that matches the red bottom of it (like me ;) ) and this button, when pressed, will dispense a label for you. Im not to sure of the use for a blank label, but the option is there for you if you wish.

On the front it has "Dymo LabelWriter" …. "330 Turbo" www.dymo.com

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Installing the printer:-
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This was also very easy to do. When you work out how you want to connect to your computer, USB port or the old-fashioned serial port (both cables come with it) it comes with the Power cable to which is quite invaluable to be honest!!

I used the USB port option as there was a few spare at the back of the computer. Also, if you do this option and you use Windows XP, windows automatically recognises a new thing there and tells you exactly what it is. However, you are not supposed to plug the printer into the computer before you do the below (install the software).

The labels are very easy to install. The clear top of the little machine flips up with great ease and there you will see a reel for the role of labels to go on. Again, this is simple to install. Simply take the reel off the lid of the printer and the two ends of it part so you can slide the role of labels on. Put the two ends back on with the role in the middle and place back on the runners in the lid. But do make sure you have the role the right way around otherwise you will print on the back of them!!! Then all you have to do is feed the first label of the role through the back of the front (If that makes sense!) and it automatically feeds it through for you.

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Installing the software:-
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I was pleasantly supprised how easily this bit went. Normally it's a really complex and boring long wait for the program to install, computer to restart, register program etc etc…snooooze! However, this wasn't the case. The installation CD auto-runs. You choose the location for installation (drive) and off it goes! No sooner had I put the CD and the computer was asking to restart to complete installation. "already?" I thought…yup, Already!
So, I restarted the computer. Waited, (which isn't long as it's a fast computer) back into Windows, 'installation complete'. Gosh! There has to be a catch..surely. …Nope!! I opened the Dymo Label program, in installation it adds a button on your desk-top and in the Start menu for you.
Then it shows a little box for registration. Again this is very simple. All you have to do is put your name, business address (if it's a business registration) and the code from the bottom of the little printer.
As we are on the net, registration is done for you over the net. But if you don't have a net connection, you can phone it through, fax it or post it.

Once this is done, you can…..

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Get printing:-
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Yup, its that simple. When you have done the registration the program will carry on and run so can get printing immediately. In the future, you will have to either go to the start menu and click the button or click on the icon on your desktop. Either way, it will run the label program.

When you click one of the buttons to run the program, a very cute little box pops up with a picture of a label printer on it with a label scooting out of it! And then the program runs.
Here, you can do whatever you like!
One thing to remember though, at the top of the screen you will see a flip-down menu for you to choose the size of the labels you have installed. There are many many options of label sizes, and so many, im not going to sit here and list them all! You can though, get all different coloured ones and we use Clear labels all the time.

The screen looks somewhat similar to that of Microsoft Word with all the options along the top. Being:-
File, Edit, Format, Address Book, Help.
Then there is another row of buttons namely:- New Label, Open, Save, Print, How many copies you want, Paste from Clipboard and Label files (where you choose the size of your labels)
Down the left-hand side there are the buttons:- Address Book, Designer, Help, User Guide, Dymo Website, Labels online.

There is a label on the screen for the size chosen and this is where you type in the address.

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What to do with it:-
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There are many things you can do with your Dymo Label Writer. I use it all the time for client address labels which look smart and we also use it for Royal Mail Smart Stamps which is one of the reasons we bought the printer. As Seiko are not (at least ours aren't!) compatible with the Smart Stamp program.

Because it is uses thermal printing technology, there is no cartridges to change and therefore cheap to run apart from the labels. Unfortunately though, the downside of no cartridges is that it only prints in black and white which for the cost of the machine full price, is a downside. However, we never use colours on labels anyway so this doesn't really bother us.

When it installs, it installs a button for you in Word for ease. All you have to do is highlight the address or what you want putting to label and press the Dymo button. It automatically copies the address for you over to the Dymo program (which doesn't need to even be open for this) then all you have to do is hit print.

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Speed:-
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What can I say but….. Mighty Fast! Apparently it can print a label in 2 seconds but to be honest I haven't counted! When we did a mailout, it run off 200 stamps like they were blanks and took about 2 or 3 minutes. So that's fast!

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Costs:-
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As mentioned at the beginning, the machine cost £89 but normally £200. which is quite expensive for a label printer, but this one is top of the range so you kind of expect the price for that. they do have lower priced ones which may be worth a look at if you don't need all the feature and speed.

Labels are the only costly up-keep of the printer. I had to order some yesterday and they cost £28 for 2 roles or £14 each. And for that we get 260 clear labels 89mm x 36mm which are the largest ones they do in clear.

Apart from that, there are no other running-costs to it and is therefore quite efficient and works for its money well.

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Where to buy:-
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We bought ours from Euroffice last year, however, it seems that Euroffice have stopped selling this model now.

I have looked on the net and you can still buy them from techstore.co.uk for £140.24, office365.co.uk for £147.80 and OfficeGiant for £175.08.

We still buy the labels from Euroffice and, as stated above, they cost £14 a role but it does differ depending what size label you want.

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For more information:-
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For more information take a look at www.dymo.com where you can also buy the printers and labels direct.

If you wish to write to Dymo the address is:-

DYMO Corporation
Waterside House
Cowley Business Park
Uxbridge
Middlesex
UB8 2HP

Or phone them:- 020 7341 55 29 for UK and 014 11 89 34 for Ireland.

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I hope you have enjoyed reading this review and that it helps if you are wishing to purchase a Dymo Label Writer.
However, if I have missed anything out or you would like to know more, just leave a message for me.

Thanks for reading.

Naomi.