LABELWORKS Epson LW-PX900 Industrial Label Maker - Portable Handheld Label Printer Compatible with All Epson PX Tape Types

Epson makes the best label printers - they really do. Very high quality output, very fast.A few things that really bother me:1. the only way to get images (your company logos etc) uploaded to the printer is using their (awful) Windows software. It really is terrible software. It doesn't even seem to work in a VM. I never even got even their neutered iPhone or Android software to work at all. Worse, you can only upload a few images. (I can't remember, since I have both the Z5010 and this one, but I think this one only holds TWO square images and two rectangular images. This is ridiculous.)2. It doesn't support any CUPS printer drivers for Linux or Mac - not even 'driverless' or 'IPP'. It's just invisible on the network and even via USB. Totally useless in that respect.3. There are a limited number of different types of labels for wiring labels (self-laminating over-wrap kinds of labels) - basically just black on white text.4. There are a TON of other colors and sizes for regular labels available (which is honestly REALLY great!) The only downside is that their white-on-color (like white-on-red, perfect for firewalls or critical network gear) is really more like gray-on-red. It's low contrast and looks pretty bad, even compared to our Brady, which is like half the resolution and twice as expensive for labels.5. The screen is awful too, like an 80's video game. Blocky, washed out. (Plenty bright enough though). The Z5010, by contrast, has a gorgeous full-color touch screen.6. You really can't print over the network very easily (if at all). I'm a network engineer and I struggled to connect to it, and I never had any luck at all. (Oh, and you can't even connect it to your wifi network; you have to connect to its own ad hoc network, which means you have to disconnect from everything else; you might as well just run the USB cable). It's really just designed to be a standalone printer or sit in one place.Which brings me to the good stuff:1. Labels, even Epson labels, are REALLY cheap and really high quality. I really love that. There are even really nice ones in tons of unusual colors, fabric ribbons (the gold-on-red is awesome for wrapping Christmas presents), etc.2. You can even use generics, but I haven't had any luck at all -- they seem to work but then get stuck in the printer and the ink ribbon part gets tangled up. Also, a lot of the labels need a sharpie to color in the blocks on the bottom of the label, at least on the (full color screen) Z5010, which will actually change colors to match the color of the labels being used!3. Buy the one with the case if you can - it's a really great case and holds the printer (which is VERY durable though) safely and with the magnets installed. The magnets are also fantastic- literally it'll hold the large, heavy printer vertically when the magnets are just stuck on the chrome metal bar of a Harbor Freight cart - not even a solid metal surface. We've even stuck it onto the grill metal vertically on a datacenter cabinet. Really worth those magnets.4. Their customer service is AWESOME. Seriously. Like, call them and talk to a sweet person in the Midwest in seconds. This alone is worth the price of admission! (Also they have great youtube videos.)Overall, if I only had one to buy, I'd DEFINITELY get the top-of-the-line Z5010PX, which is even fairly portable (not quite as portable as the PX900, but I still prefer it.) Keep in mind that the Z5010PX and this printer are (I think) the only ones that are high resolution which really does make for great-looking labels; the smaller/cheaper version of this one is only 180dpi. Does it matter? nah, but the labels really do look way better.Whatever one you get, snag one of their cheapest little labelers for $40 at the same time! Very handy to throw a 1/2" tape in and just use it anywhere as well.I'd really prefer to deduct a half-star for all the negatives, but Amazon won't let me choose 4.5 stars and I don't want to dock an entire star, because not only am I keeping the printer but investing MORE in the Epson labelworks ecosystem (Sorry, Brady, but you're over-priced and under-delivering!), but these things bugged me SO SO much; for the first few days, I was so frustrated that I seriously considered returning all of them and probably would have only rated them as one or two stars. Now that I've gotten a couple of company logos onto the printer, it's pretty cool, but still..Honestly, if Epson would port their label software to other platforms, use proper printer drivers, (Epson does have great Linux support for their printers - why not here?), and allow you to upload more than a couple stingy logos, they'd have a nearly perfect printer. We'll see :)Overall: recommend. Not a super-strong recommend, but I do like these Epson labelworks printers a lot!

First of all, I am not going to get into depth on all of the settings and option differences. That would just take too long. There are a few minor programming differences in the setup screens but overall they don’t amount to much. The PX-900 has a few options that are not available on the PX-700 but for the average user, you wouldn’t miss it. You might want to look at the online user manual for the 900 and see if anything really jumps out at you as a “gotta have”, then see if the 700 does not offer that option. But any of these differences would be deep in the specialty settings and hard to find in the first place. To sum it up, the 900 does everything that the 700 does with a few bonuses, but the 700 does most of everything that the 900 does that you are ever likely to want. I personally love extra options in a device, even if I am never likely to use them. But I can honestly say that there was nothing in the settings arena for these two that would even remotely make me second guess buying the less expensive model.One small thing that I did notice, which was more of a curiosity than anything, occurred when I was printing three lines of text on a 1/2" tape. The 700 would automatically default to a larger 10 point font size while the 900 would use a smaller 8 point. The 10 point printing was perfectly clear, and obviously there is room on a 1/2" tape for the larger font since the 700 can do it. Yet for some reason the 900 would not allow the larger text, no matter how much I tried to tweak the settings. That was just strange. The 900 is supposed to have a higher resolution capability so it seemed counter-intuitive that the less capable machine would be able to fit more into the same space.As far as capability goes, the 900 can print on tapes up to 1-1/2” while the 700 tops out at 1”. That is really the take-home for that category. So far I haven’t really noticed a remarkable difference in the print resolution but if you are going to do a lot of graphics or barcodes that might be a consideration.Moving on to physical characteristics: The 900 has a larger top end to it to allow for the larger tape sizes. I find that makes it somewhat more top-heavy and awkward to hold when using it. I prefer the 700 from an ergonomic standpoint. They both have the exact same number and arrangement of the keys, but the keys on the 900 are slightly larger and take up more space. Normally that would be an advantage but I did not find that to be the case. BOTH of these machines have VERY sensitive keys and you really have to pay attention to what you are typing so that you don’t inadvertently bump an adjacent button and enter an extra character. The 900 has flat buttons while the 700 buttons are slightly rounded at the top, making them easier to center under your fingertip and type accurately. I like the 700 better in this aspect even though the 900’s keys are larger targets and more spread out. I would have liked the 900 design better if they had used the smaller, rounded keys and just used the extra room to increase the space between them. Making the buttons a little more “clicky” and less “mushy” would help too. The tactile feedback of the buttons on both models could be improved greatly.I would definitely recommend buying the combo kit for either model, with the case and the lithium battery. The cases are the same for both and are well-designed with well thought-out storage areas for extra tape cartridges. I currently have two 1-1/2” cartridges in one box along with a 1”, a 3/4" and a 1/2". Add to that the cartridge which stays in the printer and I have a total of six in there. The charger and cords fit easily into the recess designed for them and I could even get a couple more tape cartridges on top of that space if I wanted to. There is nothing that annoys me more than buying something with a case only to find that I still have to have a separate tool box to carry the accessories that you KNOW are going to be added at some point. There is a space for an extra battery too. Now, absolutely none of you reading this are wondering about this detail right now but I will mention it anyway: I said the 700 is smaller than the 900 didn’t I? Same case? Smaller printer? Isn’t it going to be rattling around in there? Nope! The case that comes with the 700 has a foam strip in there to take up the extra space and it fits snug as a bug. Big kudos to the guy that designed the case. Give that man a raise!The magnet “feet” that come with the kit are kinda cool. I don’t really use them that much but I could definitely see the advantage if you were labeling metal racks in a warehouse or something. They have good strength to hold the printer on a vertical metal surface and have their own dedicated storage space in the box. Here is the kicker: You don’t have to take them off to get the printer back in the case! It still fits! Again, two big thumbs-up for the case guy!So that leaves the battery. You can’t go wrong with a rechargeable lithium ion. They hold their charge in storage and the printer is designed to use this battery. It’s not some clunky afterthought that you have to jam into a battery compartment that was not designed for it. It charges with the supplied power cord without having to remove the battery from the printer and, BTW, the printer will work just fine with no batteries using the power cord alone. You can still use AA batteries if you want to but I don’t know why anyone would. I have had too many devices gunked up or destroyed by leaking Dumacell batteries or, to a slightly lesser extent, Energreazers. Those guys have serious quality control problems. If you have to use AA’s I would suggest the Amazon brand. I have not had any of those leak on me yet. Even the cheap generic batteries that come with some devices are better than Dumacells. I will probably get edited for mentioning name brands but if you suck you suck and Dumacell sucks. (end rant)Hope that was helpful. If I had it all to do over again I would probably still buy both the 700 and the 900 just because I’m weird like that. But if I had to pick just one I would go with the 700. For the price difference you don’t really get much more unless you absolutely HAVE to have labels that are bigger than 1 inch. Even then you could print two and stack them. The tape cartridges prices are comparable to the P-Touch brand that I graduated from and they seem to be easier to find in supply. Win-win for Epson. Well done.Oh, almost forgot… I bought both of these from “BuyHeatShrink and More” here on Amazon. The shipping was very fast and the packaging was good. They even threw in a little sample chunk of heat shrink tubing with their logo printed on it. Freebies are always nice.

Great value for the money! This thing is great if you need a fast and very durable printer with the works. It can survive drops from at least a couple feet, it's already fast but even faster with the rechargeable battery or when plugged into wall power, it has every feature imaginable for a thermal label printer, it can print very tiny to very large letters, and the replaceable automatic cutter can score / pre-cut labels and their backing... But it also accepts generic labels and Epson has their own line of magnetic labels, labels for network cables and electrical wiring, fluorescent labels, and it supports having low to zero margin printing! Something the other brands deny users.Awesome for electricians, IT / networking personnel, warehouse and stock managers / workers, car / truck tuners (for labeling the ends of wire looms), stereo installers, construction workers, machinists, crafters, DIY enthusiasts, and more!