Quantcast
Subscribe to magazine

PCW Shop & Compare

Brother PT-1280 Electronic Labeling System

PT-1280 Electronic Labeling System

Compare Prices

* Total cost includes estimated tax and shipping in the continental US. Prices and availability are subject to change by merchant without notice. Sales taxes and shipping costs are only estimates. Please check with merchant for details.

SIMILAR PRODUCTS
Most recent User Reviews for

Brother PT-1280 Electronic Labeling System

  • Reviewed by: edavid

    12-26-07

    Duration of ownership:

    Strengths: - labels are clear and stick well

    Weaknesses:- labeler requires 6 AAA cells, cutter wastes too much tape

    Overall Evaluation: I have had a Casio labeler for some time, so I got this one to compare. I found the quality of the Brother label tape to be better - the lettering is clearer and the tape doesn't peel off as much. However, I didn't like the labeler very much. It requires 6 AAA cells, which seems very wasteful. I stick in 6 rechargeable cells when I want to make labels, but that's a pain because loading and unloading the batteries is harder than it should be. They should have made the body a little larger so they could fit in AA cells in a row of 6.Also, as everyone else has mentioned, when you cut a label there is a huge amount of wasted space on each side, even more than with the Casio. There is just no reason why they couldn't design the cutter to leave just 1 character worth of space.

  • Reviewed by: kgpang

    12-25-07

    Duration of ownership: 7 Months

    Strengths: Good device, useful and well designed

    Weaknesses:Wastes too much tape

    Overall Evaluation: I've had a PT-1280 for about six months now, and I'm very happy with it. I like the qwerty layout, the TZ Tape system is compatible with several different sizes and many different colors, and the interface is extremely intuitive without being limiting. Most importantly, it can print two lines of text on a label...extremely useful! Though I've never found any use for the "favorites" buttons on the front, it has some nice extra features, like a handful of cute banner styles, and a surprising variety of useful symbols, including electronic engineering symbols. It will also do automatic numbering, mirror print for clear tape, and vertical print. It's surprisingly quick and easy to switch out tape cartridges, so it works well if you have different colors and sizes that you switch between frequently. There are no mechanisms to engage; just swing open the bottom and place the cartridge in. It's clear that Brother is in the business of selling tape and not printers, though, and this device makes it clear. It puts ridiculous 1" wide margins on everything it prints, and almost always requires me to trim the labels manually. You can adjust the margin sizes, but this only actually shortens the left margin, and then prints a marker on the right telling you where to trim it yourself. The margin setting is also one of the most buried options in the labeller's menu, and has to be reset every time you clear the display. Overall, I'm happy with this device, but I have to keep scissors with it, and my desk is confettied with waste after even small printing jobs.

  • Reviewed by: chimanwny

    12-23-07

    Duration of ownership: 6 Months

    Strengths: It is good - keep some scissors handy

    Weaknesses:none

    Overall Evaluation: The product serves its purpose and does so competently. However, I discount two stars for the following reasons: 1) It is wasteful of label tape. Even when reducing margins to the narrowest setting, the product still leaves a chunk of needless white space that you need to cut off on the front of each label. 2) The product can use an AC adapter but does not ship with one. Of course, this addition would probably increase the low price. 3) It has a pesky way of clearing both text and settings when the "clear" function is used. It would be nice if it only cleared the text. The workaround is manual backspacing of each character, which is not as convenient. All in all, these are small inconveniences given the low price for an otherwise high-quality product. It is probably one of the best labelers available in its price range.

  • Reviewed by: maypang

    12-09-07

    Duration of ownership: 3 Months

    Strengths: big button, easy to work

    Weaknesses:Not the best model, have to reset everything.

    Overall Evaluation: I don't like this Brother labeler model because it doesn't save the size format from use to use. Every time I turn it on I have to start over and re-size and change fonts for my labels. Every other model I have had saved your changes from use to use. Not exactly a time saving feature.

  • Reviewed by: detiger

    12-05-07

    Duration of ownership:

    Strengths: enough basic styles, good-looking labels, does not suck much battery juice

    Weaknesses:expensive tapes, waste tons of tapes

    Overall Evaluation: This thing works well right out of box. Printed labels looks professional, with enough printing styles. It uses 6 AAA batteries, which is not included in the original package. However, the battery can last long time in this machine.The problem with it is the tape's price. Think about it, $15-20 for a 26' tape. And the thing is this machine wastes tons of tapes, no matter what how you tweak it. I think it is just Brother's marketing, selling the machine for cheap and then making money to mark up the price of tapes way way high. By the way, it only comes with a starter tape, which is only half of a regular one, 13' instead of 26'.

See more user reviews »

Featured APC Accessories

  • APC Back-UPS ES Safeguards your equipment from damaging surges and spikes that travel along your utility & data lines.
  • APC SurgeArrest Performance Highest level of protection for your professional computers, electronics and connected devices, as well as provides surge protection.
Shop & Compare Sections