Zink hAppy Smart App Printer Review - Review 2022

Picking a category for the Zink hAppy Smart App Printer ($199.99) is a challenge. At the virtually bones level, it'south a label printer. But it'southward not similar any label printer you've always seen—and not just because it prints merely from tablets and phones. Like most characterization printers, it doesn't use ink. It uses rolls of specially prepared media that changes color when heated with a thermal printhead. Different the competition, nevertheless, information technology prints in full color. That, plus the photo-quality resolution, puts the Zink hAppy ($199.99 at Amazon) in a grade of its own, equally a label printer that's besides a photo printer—a fox that'due south pretty impressive.

Compared with standard label printers—which for purposes of this discussion means anything that prints using only one color—the Zink hAppy is virtually reminiscent of the Leitz Icon Smart Labeling System ($43.lxx at Walmart) . Neither looks annihilation like most of the competition.

The standard physical blueprint for a characterization printer includes a transparent top embrace that follows the rounded shape of the label roll inside. The Brother QL-700 , which is our Editors' Pick depression-price label printer, and the Dymo LabelWriter 450 Twin Turbo , our Editors' Choice high-end personal or micro function label printer, are both good examples. In both cases, to install a new roll, you elevator the encompass, mount the roll inside, manually feed the labels through a front slot, so close the embrace.The Zink hAppy and the Leitz Icon are built around a notably dissimilar design.

Changing the Manner Y'all Alter Labels

The Zink and Leitz designs are both highly stylized variations on a box. More than important, they both make it easy to switch between different rolls quickly, eliminating the need to manually feed the labels through a slot.

The Zink hAppy measures 3.75 by 4.5 by 4.v inches (HWD), with white sides all effectually and a blackness acme that slopes from the high indicate in the back to well-nigh 3.25 inches in front. To change from one roll to another, you press one of the two buttons on the height to rewind the record back into the current cartridge, then skid the outset cartridge out from the back of the printer, and slip the second cartridge in.

Once the new cartridge clicks into place, the printer automatically feeds the roll through slot. The unabridged process takes less than 30 seconds and makes it far easier than with most label printers to switch from one width curl to another as needed.

Basics, Setup, and Software

At only 1 pound 8 ounces, the Zink hAppy is easy to move or have with you. To brand information technology even more portable, you can add an optional rechargeable bombardment ($49.99), which attaches to the bottom of the printer, adding 0.9 inches to the height and bringing the weight to 2 pounds.

Yous tin can connect the printer to a network past Wi-Fi, using an access point, and then connect to it with a phone or tablet through the access point. Y'all tin can also connect to information technology directly, using the built-in Direct Connect Style—equivalent to Wi-Fi Directly—which is the approach I used for testing. All you have to do is turn the printer on, set up information technology to the right Wi-Fi mode with one of the two front-panel buttons, download the Zink Design Studio app to your phone or tablet, connect to the printer from your device, and start printing.

The app lets you create, impress, and salve templates for anything from binder labels to photo business cards to photos that fill up the unabridged characterization. Individual labels can be as big equally up to 17 inches long by the width of the roll. As is typical for label printers, the back of each label is self-sticking if you lot remove the protective backing.

I constitute the app piece of cake to go started with, merely hard to empathise well enough to be sure I was using it to its best advantage. As tested, it also lacks some basic niceties, like automatically wrapping text in a text box. And I'd much rather exist typing text on labels using a existent keyboard rather than a screen on a telephone or tablet in any instance.

Labels, Performance, and Quality

Characterization rolls are bachelor in five widths, with each roll measuring 19 feet, 5 inches long. Prices for the 1- and 2-inch rolls are $24.99 for a unmarried roll or $42.99 for a pack of ii. The 0.375-, 0.5-, and 0.75-inch rolls are all $19.99 for a single curlicue or $35.99 for a 2-roll pack. All the rolls are continuous, with the printer's automatic cutter cutting each label to the appropriate size.

As with whatsoever printer that connects wirelessly, performance tin change depending on how skilful the connection is at any given moment. However, Zink rates the printer itself at 0.15 inches per 2d (ips) in the default Bright mode and 0.3 ips in Standard style. As a point of reference, I timed the printer for a 4-inch long photo on a two-inch-wide ringlet at 54 seconds, or 0.074ips. That's nearly one-half of the rated speed, but go on in mind this is the overall throughput, including the time needed to send the 300-by-300 dot per inch (dpi) image to the printer.

Image quality for the photos I tested with was good enough to authorize as truthful photograph quality. Text quality is as good as or better than most label printers tin offer, with crisp characters and sharp edges.

Fit, Finish, and Back up

The ane serious complaint I accept about the Zink hAppy is the lack of polish for the app, the documentation, and the support. The printer itself scores nicely on fit and end, but the app was unstable in my tests. It crashed multiple times, including three times in one 5-minute period. At i bespeak, information technology merely refused to print for no credible reason. Basically, it behaved more similar a beta-examination production than like something that should be released to actual users.

Co-ordinate to a Zink Holdings representative, the issues I ran into were probable due to the Android v.0 version on my phone. Zink says that version has some bug with Wi-Fi Straight, which were solved with version 5.1. Zink also says that for phones that still use the earlier Android version, the visitor is trying to sidestep those bug with workarounds in the app. It's worth noting that I've never see like problems with other printers I've tested with Wi-Fi Direct with the aforementioned phone. Simply wherever the fault lies, the simple fact is that the app doesn't work well with at least some phones and tablets.

The Quick Start guide and overall support have much the same feel every bit the app of being not quite set for prime time. In a department called What You Demand, the guide indicates that an access point and loftier-speed Cyberspace are required, neither of which is actually the case.

Armed with the assurance I had been given by a visitor representative beforehand that the printer supports directly connections, I managed to make it work. I also eventually discovered a reference to Straight Connect way in the Quick Start guide. Yet, it comes eight pages afterwards the What You Demand section, and later the folio that congratulates you on having set up the printer.

It doesn't assistance either that there's no additional documentation on the Zink website to assist with setup, or that phone support is available only until 6 p.grand. Eastern Time (ET) Monday through Thursday and 4 p.thou. on Fri. If you're on the W Coast and run into trouble in late afternoon, you'll simply have to expect for the side by side business day for help.

Fortunately, most of these bug are quondam annoyances that won't matter once you go the printer set upward. The just one that you may have to live with is the somewhat limited app. The printer itself is impressive plenty that if information technology were paired with a good enough app, information technology would be a candidate for Editors' Selection label printer. The app drags it downwards to the level of being merely useful.

Determination

For more than traditional label printing that needs only black on white for folder labels, mailing labels and the like, the Zink hAppy Smart App Printer is overkill. Depending on your upkeep, consider the Brother QL-700, the Leitz Icon, or the Dymo 450 Twin Turbo instead. For total-color labels, even so, the Zink hAppy is the obvious choice. Even with the limitations of the Zink Pattern Studio App at this writing, the Zink hAppy delivers enough to make it worth considering.

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Source: https://sea.pcmag.com/migrated-33102-printers/11073/zink-happy-smart-app-printer-review

Posted by: cochranhaustrand.blogspot.com

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