This device seems to have been on the market for a while. And the 3-tape version is an excellent deal when not inflated (check price history); 3 official full-length tapes might cost you more than the bundle. Brother ships "starter packs" with deliberately shortened tape lengths. Ergonomics are great on a handheld device with an okay QWERTY layout. The buttons are rubber but at this price point you're simply not going to get hard plastic keys. MIA are basic punctuation like dot and dash, and shift operates as a lock only. Unfortunately there's a lot not great with this device: * 6 AAA batteries is a little rough, and half of the battery contacts are directly contacting a pad on a PCB. This is not going to wear well over time. The device is cheap but not so cheap that I would consider it disposable. 6 AAs would be better, 4 AA would be much better. * Cost savings have removed the cleaning tool that is supposed to be included with the device, to keep the cutting blade from getting gummed up. "If missing, contact Dymo" says the download-only instructions. Hand you over my address for junk mail because you wanted to be cheap? Nah. * Interface is definitely out of the 90s. Non-backlit low-resolution LCD display. The interface is simple, but some of the experience is absolutely stone age like no button to clear the text, no copy/paste, no macros of any kind. You have bold, italics, underline, but it's an all-or-nothing: entire label in that style. You'll generally find these better features in higher tier devices but it's such a minor software thing it feels like they're being cheap. * Compared to the equivalent Brother competition, the selection of clip art and borders are lacking. This isn't my thing, but if it's important to you, you might want to take a second look at the competition. * I had to send back the first unit back as the printer was broken out of the box. Amazon replacement are easy, but it was still a hassle, and definitely shakes my confidence in the longevity of my purchase. And the biggest problem: the tape menu!! Looking at the description and Dymo's site, it looks great. Lots of color options, width options, and material options. The problem is that you're not going to find every combination manufactured, and even those that are technically "listed" are vaporware and nowhere to be purchased. Interestingly enough, the clone-compatible China market is where you really can get all combinations and, honestly, it's pretty pathetic that the manufacturer doesn't support the device as well as the knock off manufacturers do, at the crazy profit margins of the official tapes, too. Now the official tapes are quite good quality. The backing is easy to remove, the standard adhesive exceeded my expectations on degreased PET plastic, and the middle split makes it easy to apply without getting finger oils where they shouldn't be. The counterfeits just aren't nearly as good. But, when I need White on Black at 1/4", I'm SOL unless I support an industry I don't necessarily agree with. While talking about genuine vs copy, the official tapes are good but they're maybe only 2 or 3x as good as the counterfeits and certainly not worth 8x the price. For maximum utility and not getting taken to the cleaners, you're probably just going to have to be a little morally flexible. Counterfeits harm the industry, but plain not serving the customers and soaking them when you do is more like suicide than just getting attacked. And, honestly, Brother seems to have the same problem. A lot of "theoretical" part numbers that just don't exist or are perpetually not in stock. It's a bit of a shame. Knowing what I know now about the supply chain, I'm only moderately happy with my choice. If Dymo gets their act together it will only improve my current purchase, but only another decade or so will show how that plays out.
