We tested five label makers with a variety of price points and functionality. Two of those models–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 by Bluetooth to your smartphone (Brother) or USB cable to your computer (DYMO) with features that let you play around with your images and templates, if that’s your thing. The DYMO Labelwriter 450 Turbo Thermal is also able to print postage and create up to 71 labels in one minute. None of these I’ve ever had 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 ideal who like the idea of creating labels right 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, as well as low-quality labels with paper backings that were hard to remove.
dymo label maker