One step up in Brother's line from the P-touch PT-H300LI, the Brother P-touch PT-H500LI ($149.99 list) label printer shares the same ability to print (mostly) plastic labels. As with the PT-H300LI, it can run on the included rechargeable battery or on six AA batteries, so you don't need a power outlet to use it. That makes it an obvious candidate, along with the PT-H300LI, if you need a labeler that you can move easily from desk to desk or place to place. However the PT-H500LI($140.37 at Amazon) adds at least two important extras that justify its higher price and make it our Editors' Choice for combination standalone and desktop label printer.

First, it prints on wider tapes, at up to nearly one-inch wide. Second, where the Brother PT-H300LI can print by itself, taking commands from its own keyboard and printing labels from it's own memory, the PT-H500LI can print either by itself or from a PC. That gives you the option of using your PC's keyboard, mouse, and screen instead of being limited to the screen and keyboard on the printer.

Basics and Setup

Setup is easy. Snap in the tape cartridge and supplied lithium-ion battery and connect the power cord. Wait for the battery to charge, and you're ready to print. If you're in a hurry, you can just connect the power cord to use AC power or substitute six AA batteries for the rechargeable battery.

As with the Brother PT-H300LI, the PT-H500LI follows the same general physical design as handheld labelers like the Brother P-touch PT-H100. At 3.5 by 4.8 by 9.7 inches (HWD), it's much longer (or deeper, if you prefer) than it is wide. Unlike handheld labelers, however, the width doesn't taper down much near the keyboard, so it won't fit comfortably in most hands.

The reason the width doesn't taper down is that the PT-H500LI uses a QWERTY keyboard, rather than the alphabetical layout typical for handheld printers. If you're used to a QWERTY keyboard, that makes it a lot easier to enter text. You can even hold the printer in the palms of both hands and type with your thumbs. The one pound, 15 ounce weight (with the battery) will limit how long you'll want to use it that way in one session, but it can be done.

Tapes

The PT-H500LI prints primarily on the sort of laminated plastic labels suitable for indoor or outdoor use. Brother offers 65 choices of tape cartridges, with various combinations of types, widths, and colors, at prices ranging from $13.99 to $29.99 (list) each.

The choices in tape types include standard laminated labels; flexible labels; labels with extra strength adhesive for uneven surfaces or harsh environments; non-laminated iron-on fabric labels; labels with acid-free adhesive; and security labels, which show a checkerboard pattern of missing color if you try to remove them. Color combinations include black or white on an assortment of background colors, plus red on white; Gold on black, gold on satin silver, and blue on white. Tape widths range from 0.13 inches to 0.94 inches.

Creating and Printing Labels

As with other Brother label printers, creating and printing labels with the PT-H500LI is easy, whether using it as a self-contained labeler or printing from your PC.Brother's PC-based software can be overwhelming, because it offers so many features. But if you have the self restraint to ignore what you don't need, it's easy to get started with.

To print without a computer, you simply enter the text and symbols on the keyboard or pick a predefined label stored in memory, and hit the Print button. Next, set the number of copies, hit the Print button again, and wait for the label to emerge from the back, with the automatic cutter neatly slicing off the tape for you. Printing with a computer is similarly easy: Enter the text, give the print command, and wait for the label to emerge.

Speed

Brother rates the PT-H500LI at 1.2 inches per second (ips) with AC power and 0.79 ips with the rechargeable battery. In my tests, however, it was a touch slower for printing a 3.5-inch label with the text PCMag: A Printer Test. Ignoring the added time needed for automatically cutting the tape, the fastest speed I saw was for printing without a PC using AC power, at 4.6 seconds (0.76 ips).

This makes the PT-H500LI a little faster than the Brother PT-H300LI, at 5.8 seconds for a 3.5-inch label; about the same speed as the PT-H100, at 4.7 seconds; and notably faster than the Brother P-touch PT-2730 that it replaces as Editors' Choice, with the PT-2730 taking 11.8 seconds. That puts the PT-H500LI's speed well within the typical range for the technology and price, but still fast enough to count as a plus.

If you don't need to print from a PC and don't need to print on tape wider than 0.71 inches, you can find other printers, notably the Brother PT-H300LI, that cost less and serve your needs. Similarly, if you don't mind the slower print speed, you can save some money by getting the Brother P-touch PT-2730. But given all of its strong points—including portability, the QWERTY keyboard, the wide variety of tapes, the ease of creating labels, and the ability to print on tapes up to nearly one-inch wide—the Brother HT-H500LI is hard to beat, making it an easy pick for Editors' Choice.

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