QL-570 Professional Label Printer

I run a small business on the side, making a very specialized piece of tooling for sportsmen. Because this tool is a rather unique item, I do all but a very small fraction of my transactions via the internet. This, of course, means that nearly every item I sell has to be shipped. Prior to purchasing the QL-570, this meant that each item went into a padded bubble mailer, an address label went on, then I had to use an Avery template in Word to create the destination address for printing on my inkjet. Of course, since I only used one or two address labels at a time, I had to keep track of which parts of the 40-label sheet I had used and which ones I had not. After shipping 80+ items, this was getting to be a real hassle, and some improvement was definitely called for.Enter the Internet. A reasonably extensive search indicated that the best solution to my shipping aggravation would be a dedicated thermal printer, running off of pre-cut address labels. To save time, I wanted to be able to use a die-cut blank large enough that I could print my return address, the destination address and perhaps a small business logo, all at the same time. Two front-runners quickly appeared in the <$100 range that I considered affordable for the quantity of business I would be using the unit for. This Brother and one well-reviewed Dimo entry showed about equally for customer satisfaction, and after looking around town for the availability of supplies I decided on the Brother.Upon receipt of the unit, I opened the box to find a well-packaged printer, the requisite cords for power and attachment, a software CD and manual, and two sample-sized rolls of media, just as the advertisement specified. The software installed very easily, and in "Professional" mode very quickly allowed me to insert the .PNG graphic I had created in Photoshop to be my business' logo, add a good-looking boarder, and set up a field I could easily paste the address into from the Excel spreadsheet that I keep my customer information logged in. I did not find the software cumbersome or clunky, although I am definitely not the most "artistic" person, so a user with a more demanding requirement might. While the printer was in shipment, I purchased a roll of the large-size shipping labels from a local office-supply store. As promised, I dropped them into the unit and it automatically adjusted and resized everything for the new media without any input from me at all. It took perhaps ten minutes, including time to install and poke at the software, from unboxing to the first finished label suitable to go on a product.Print quality is very good, as I would expect from thermal process, and the print speed has to be seen to be believed. The automatic cutter (which I have set to 'cut every 1 label(s)' works quickly and efficiently. One minor quibble I have with it is that the little pull-down catcher tray on the front is somewhat useless. The cutter works very briskly, and the finished labels tend to fly a rather impressive distance, for me in excess of six inches from the front of the printer. I was aware that this might occur from another review, so I was prepared for it and have it sitting it on my desk where the errant fliers will not escape down a crack or behind the desk. This is more of a quibble than an actual problem, perhaps something to address in the next iteration of the printer.Overall, the QL-570 exceeded my expectations in every way, and has made my shipping much faster and simpler. If you do any amount of E-commerce, I would very highly recommend it, it will simplify your life.

I bought the Brother QL-500 for half a benjamin three years back and it's been a workhorse for my online business. It prints labels quickly and reliably, and was very easy to set up and use, going from a Vista 32 bit machine to a Windows 7 64 bit machine without a hitch. I downloaded the drivers directly from brother's website, and I recommend everyone to do the same. I have absolutely nothing bad to say about the QL-500, it has earned it's keep many times over.I recently grabbed the QL-570 during the black friday/cyber monday sales (I grabbed two in fact; at thirty each why not? One for use, one for backup). I was already impressed with the specs from reading online. It improved on the QL-500 in most ways; better print quality, faster, smaller and more compact (but without sacrificing build quality), detachable power cord (the QL-500's power cord was attached; I like detachable cords as they're easy to replace in the event the original is damaged) and an auto cutter. I know the QL-550 had an auto cutter, but at the time I was in the market for a label printer it was twice what I paid for the QL-500 and the only advantage was the auto cutter. A big deal not mentioned a lot is the cutter life. On the QL-500, the cutter life is 5000 continuous labels (the kind I use for shipping labels). For the sake of comparison this is around 14 labels a day for one year. I've never done that many (my max was maybe 100 labels a month, or 3-4 a day) and my QL-500 is still cutting pretty smooth. On the QL-570 the cutter life is 150,000 continuous labels, or 411 labels a day for one year. I doubt I'll ever hit that mark. I think the cutter will outlast the printer! One small disadvantage though, is that the cutter on the QL-570 isn't replacable like the one on the QL-500. But by the time you factor in the cost of replacement blades, after buying replacements 3 or 4 times you've spent enough to buy a QL-570 and don't get nearly as many cuts (for 4 sets of 2 replacement blades plus the one that comes with the QL-500 and you'd be at 45,000 cuts), so really, there's no reason to buy the QL-500 over the QL-570, especially with the price of the QL-570 constantly falling under half a benjamin.Other small advantages over the QL-500 include a multi-color status light (the original was the single green led) and a 25' sample roll of continuous paper tape (the QL-500 only included the sample roll of address labels) along with the sample roll of address labels.As with the QL-500, setup was a cinch. I made sure to first go to brother's website and grab the correct drivers for my operating system (Windows 7 64 bit) and the latest version of P-Touch Editor. Again, I was up and printing my labels within minutes of opening up the box. I really can't understand why so many others have so much trouble, and then blame Brother and rate the QL-570 poorly because of their own incompetence.The QL-570 prints quickly and reliably, and the print quality is spot on. I don't bother using the label catcher tray since the completed labels tend to "jump" a little when cut. I just catch the labels with my hand as they come out. Or let them land on the shelf where the label printer is stationed. Changing rolls is quick and simple, as it should be. The labels themselves can be expensive, but I usually stock up when they're on sale. There are also aftermarket alternatives.I paid less for the QL-570 than what I did for my QL-500 and couldn't be happier. It's an excellent label printer, especially if you sell things online.