Brad
28 de diciembre de 2023
Thermal technology has limitations, but it's implemented well in this printer
Despite seeing only sponsored Vine reviews, I went ahead and decided to give this printer a shot since I knew Amazon would make returning easy if I needed to. The printer doesn't quite give the quality I'd dream of, but it definitely is usable and is a worthy competitive option. Before I get too far into my review, let's review the leading printing technologies as of Dec 2023:--- Inkjet. If you've ever printed in color, this is probably what you've used. It's really the only color game on the market, that's its selling point. This technology works by spraying your paper with finely controlled jets of ink. It works well, but I personally am daunted by needing to have 3 consumables just to keep them running: color ink, black ink, and printer paper. I also don't love that printer companies make it so difficult to purchase these consumables from 3rd parties, and hate that some are even trying to put arbitrary expiry dates on said consumables to keep you trickling your income their way.--- Laser. The black and white backbone. These printers work by depositing toner on your paper and curing it with a laser. As you guessed, these only have 2 consumables: toner and printer paper, but this comes at the cost of limiting you to black and white printing only. However, this tech also works well (good quality) and abusive business policies aren't quite as rampant here.--- Thermal. The backbone of manufacturing and operations teams everywhere. When you get a receipt for your groceries or your hamburger, chances are it was printed on a thermal printer. These work by using heat to cause chemical reactions in special paper (not printer paper) which cause them to darken, creating (again) a black and white image. The detail possible with thermal printers is notably lower than the other two technologies, but it's still serviceable. The big selling point here is that you drop down to only a single consumable: thermal printer paper. That, and because there are no moving parts required to move any nozzles or lasers around, the devices can be quite small (think of the size of a home printer vs a receipt printer at a fast food restaurant).Thermal printing has been historically targeted at businesses and is a growing market for consumers. A few years back, if you wanted an 8.5 x 11" printer, you could really only choose between inkjet and laser. If you wanted color, you wanted an inkjet. If you didn't, you wanted a laser. That decision tree is mostly still the same, except nowadays you have two options if you don't care for color: still laser, but also thermal.So, between the two, how do you know which is right for you? Well, there are three larger items to consider:--- Quality. As I mentioned, the quality of prints you get on this thermal printer are in line with thermal tech, but thermal tech is not as great as laser tech. Prints you'll get from a thermal printer are definitely usable. If you want to print return labels, simple documents, etc, a thermal printer is totally fine. However, if you want very presentable print quality, I would personally go for a laser. I do sometimes need this, but very rarely. In those rare situations, I personally am totally fine going to a print shop and paying a small fee to use their printer.--- Size. Thermal printers can be very small. They just need to be big enough to move paper across a thermal print head. That usually only requires one motor with a few other supporting components. Laser (and ink jet printers) have to be a bit larger. They're slinging other things around and they need some space to do so. They also need space to store toner/ink. I personally live in a fairly small apartment and am super interested in keeping things as small as possible.--- Consumables. Thermal printers only need one consumable: thermal paper. Laser printers need two: printer paper, and toner. If you run out of paper, you can't print. If you run out of toner, you can't print. Storing backup quantities of those things also takes up space (linking back to the size topic). I personally enjoy the simplicity of thermal printing - if I have paper, I can print. If I don't, I can't. Thermal paper is usually in rolls (it is for this printer), and so storing backup quantity is pretty easy.Some other things you might consider are:---Your support of consumer abuse. Many big printer companies are trying lots of "innovative" ideas to keep consumers sending cash their way. If you buy their printers/consumables, you fuel their crusades. Thermal printers are pretty safe in this regard today (big companies haven't figured out how to strangle this yet). Phomemo, for example, (the brand of this printer) seems to be pretty respectable (as of Dec 2023). If you decide a laser/ink printer is more up your alley, I'd recommend the brand Brother (as of Dec 2023). They seem much more reasonable in their respect for consumers than some other ink/laser brands.---Portability. You can use a thermal printer on the road (literally in a moving vehicle if you wanted, but also in a hotel or other location after traveling). You'll struggle to do the same with inkjet or laser.---Maintenance. Printers are pretty solid but simpler systems are usually more reliable. There's only some many things that can break in a thermal printer. There are quite a few more things that can break in an ink/laser printer.If you've read through all this and decided thermal is right for you, then I do recommend this M832 printer. I've only printed a few pages on it but it seems to work well. Getting it setup took ~3min (feed paper, install driver, click print). One feature I like about the M832 vs some others is that it supports printing on both internally-stored rolled paper and external-fed precut sheets. Internal roll is pretty common for most thermal printers (again, think fast food receipt), but it's not always a given once you get to large 8.5x11 sizing. Some may prefer external feed paper, as it means your sheets all have very clean edges by default (to remove a sheet from a roll print, usually you tear it using the built-in tearing blade which leaves a zigzag edge - you could alternatively cut it off with scissors but I personally don't care). I like roll printing as it means everything needed to print is all stored in the printer - much easier to store and use and store again. By the way - this printer also supports smaller sizes (again, think of receipts). This said, I'm not sure if roll diameter is a concern for other sizes: the 8.5x11 rolls seem to be a fairly modest diameter which I think is smaller than some other thermal roll diameters. I plan to test this. I also appreciate that this printer uses USB-C (all other USB style connectors are becoming obsolete, for good reason). Although I bought a grey unit, I also think it's fun that there are colors available. I could see myself buying a colorful unit if the right color mix was available. Lastly, I appreciate that I can use this connected to a PC like a normal printer. The only negative I could think of is that, personally I could have done without the printer having a built-in battery (everyone has USB battery banks these days if mobile printing was needed). I think the cost reduction of pulling the battery and supporting components out could have made the printer able to reach the budget of more consumers, all the while making it a more environmentally friendly device, but product development is complicated so it's hard to say if I'm right or wrong (maybe some consumers don't want to use USB battery pack for that purpose).Ver másVer menos
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