I sometimes have a need to print shipping labels from my home office as opposed to waiting until later in the day when I get to the warehouse. Not wanting to spring for the expense of another Zebra printer for relatively light home office use, this was an appealing alternative...until I started to use it. First, they include a test print page in the box that I cannot get anywhere close to replicating, even after altering and tweaking the appropriate settings. I can’t see any way that test print came from this printer. The labels Im printing are not nearly as full, crisp, dark, etc.; theyre worse in every regard compared to that included test print page. Ive tried printing on two different brands of otherwise good quality thermal labels, so they cant say thats the reason... Second, set-up was slightly cumbersome, although I did finally get it working on my Dell (Windows) laptop after somehow ending up with duplicated installed drivers. Third, the printer itself is noticeably bulkier than the Zebra that Im accustomed to using. Roll insertion is more time consuming, and the overall build quality leaves something to be desired. After only 1 days use, I really have to decide if this is worth it, or if I should just get a refurb Zebra (even of slightly more expensive, even as a refurb...) and have the ease and quality that I can already tell Im not likely to get from this printer. I cant attest to the print speed, since we print labels as orders are packed, 1 at a time...others have said that its super fast for multiple-label printing, so if youre bulk printing, that alone *might* outweigh the cons for you...but for my situation, I wouldnt recommend this printer, personally. 3 stars seems fair here. I feel very neutral about this printer -- I dont necessarily hate it, but Im not even close to loving it either.

Good

The software was awfully finicky and wasnt compatible with my MacBook despite advertising as such. It did work with my windows, but software seemed finicky. Was able to print a few test shipping labels but overall experience wasnt great. A bulky machine and not easy to get refills for the inside.

The vretti Thermal Label Printer device is neither user friendly nor easy to use, at least not for me. I have multiple Dymo LabelWriters and setup has always been so simple with those. Unfortunately, I was expecting similar ease of use with the vretti and it fell short. The setup and install of the drivers was overly complicated and quite frankly burdensome. It took tech support from my companys IT department to get it up and running and even they struggled. The hassle alone in getting the install done was enough to make me want to give up on using it. The printer comes with a print sample which I assume demonstrates the quality of the print. No matter what settings I used, I could never achieve the same print quality. I tried multiple different labels, tweaked with the speed and darkness settings, but I was never able to get the same print quality. This was frustrating and the quality is subpar. At a fraction of the cost of competitor products, I really had high hopes here that fell short. Ultimately, I am choosing to fall back on my trusted Dymo for my label printing needs.

Wasnt what I wanted. Sent it back. Cant really give my honest review cuz I never even hooked it up or plugged it in. I gave 3 stars cuz that seemed like the fairest rating.

Im not taking stars away for my own mistake but this has not worked for what I was hoping to use it for. Otherwise this is a perfectly good shipping label printer as far as I can tell.

This is just what I needed. Helped to print the shipping label directly instead print on the plain paper and tape it on to the package. The print quality is OK, it depends on the label you used. Overall happy with it.

The printer is of a reasonable form factor for a desktop thermal printer. I inserted a roll of 4x6 direct thermal paper, installed the drivers and was able to do a test print easily. Printing directly to it using the system print dialog was easy enough as well. Print quality - even using the settings claimed on the provided sample - was not as good as the sample. Assuming the settings are accurate, either their label paper is significantly better, or they faked the samples on another printer. The sample is darker, has no directional smudging, and is generally clearer. Using the same settings (speed of 4, darkness of 8) generates lighter print, directional smear, and fuzzy edges. At 1/3rd the cost of a comparable Zebra printer, I definitely get the appeal. If you plan to use this in a commercial environment, I recommend spending extra for the Zebra. If you are doing small quantity or low-priority stuff at home, this might be a decent fit. Where I ran into issues was using the Zebra SDK to send print jobs directly to the printer. Ive used it with a variety of other printers via TCP and USB, however this printer by default uses a virtual printer connection and does not seem to be compatible either with the Zebra SDK or with a direct USB logic. I reached out to the manufacturers regarding this but never got a reply. Eventually I resolved it by running through the winspool.drv using C#. I know Im an outlier in designing a program to print to it, but the reason I bring this up is that it may not be compatible with some programs that need to print to it. If you print with the system dialog youll probably be fine, though.

A big improvement over handwriting or single feeding a huge label thru a regular printer. The printer works well, prints clearly and works for all the shippers I use. I like that it is a thermal printer, so there will never be ink to worry about!

UPDATE: I loved this printer and used it several times during the first 6-8 weeks that I had it. I went to use it last weekend, and its dead. It powers up and the LED shows purple which according to the manual means is formatting data and there it sits. Ive reset it, tried multiple cables and ports, deleted the driver, rebooted countless times, etc. I cant reinstall it because Windows no longer recognizes it as USB device when connected. I contacted Vrettis support on March 19, and, five days later, there has been no response. Extremely disappointing. I was looking for a dedicated printer to use for shipping labels via eBay, PirateShip, etc., and found this one. Its not quite fully plug-and-play as it does require a manual driver installation, but thats quick and easy and the driver is on the included thumb drive. It assembles quickly and easily, and feels solid, not necessarily lightweight and cheap. Loading the labels was a little fussy the first time, until I watched the tutorial video on the thumb drive. It wasnt clear how much of the roll to feed through to line it up, so I was convinced that I was going to have to spend a ton of time fussing with it, maybe calibrate it, etc., but it worked absolutely perfectly the first time. (All of my testing used 4x6 labels on a roll.) I like that the roll is entirely enclosed in the body of the printer. The print quality wont match a standard laser or inkjet, but it doesnt have to - text and especially barcodes are crisp and readable. While quality is perfectly adequate, the speed is unbelievable. This is hands down the fastest printer Ive ever had. It shoots out a fully printed label in less than a second. My only minor concern involved the warranty registration - a QR code is included that takes you to the manufacturers site, and prompts you to enter your name, email address, and order number to activate the warranty. My form was rejected and Im unable to register because their system rejected my order number. Not a big deal, but something they should address when they can. This printer adds a really nice level of convenience for anyone who does any amount of shipping from home.