by Polono PL60 Thermal Printer: Basic Specifications
Size: 16.7 x 20 x 29.5 cm
Connectivity: USB
Print speed: 150 mm/s
Maximum label width: 4.65 inches (118 mm)
Compatibility: Windows, Mac & Chrome OS
Weight: 2.21 kg
The Polono PL60 fills an absolute need in today’s courier society. It’s an office tool primarily made for printing 4-by-6-inch postage stickers and labels, but it can also print smaller labels and stickers. It’s a thermal printer, so it doesn’t use toner or ink, which is definitely a saving grace in these eco-friendly and high-cost times.
When it comes to placing it among the best thermal printers (opens in new tab)the Polono PL60 is more easily compared to the MUNBYN thermal label printer in terms of size, shape, function and connectivity, so Polono is targeting small businesses with this device.
I received a review sample to test for several weeks, and as a reviewer for this site, I receive and ship products on an almost daily basis, so the Polono has been getting a pretty good workout at my desk over the last few weeks. And I’m happy to report that I’d happily buy one of these.
Plan
The Polono PL60 is a compact printer, due to the fact that the largest thing you can print with it is a 4-by-6-inch label or sticker. It only counts
16.7 x 20 x 29.5 cm, but you should also consider the label holder when placing it in your office space, which actually takes up more space than the printer itself.
It looks really neat and clean and comes in four color options, grey, green, pink and purple. The plastic on the casing doesn’t detract too much from the overall feel of the printer, and the two-tone design is pleasing.
Everything is easy to connect and set up, with the driver included on a USB stick, along with an installation guide and user manual, and the self-assembling hard plastic tag base snaps together satisfactorily. Loading the label paper into the printer is also easy. I just had to open it by feeding the paper through the big gap at the back, I placed the front over the roller and once I closed and pressed the single button on top, the automatic label detection starts, rolling the paper forward and back to find out what you’ve got stuck in there.
Features and performance
I’ve touched on automatic tag detection above, which is a real easy-to-use feature since you don’t have to select or set anything manually. Installing the driver on my Windows PC was also easy, and it’s ready to print within minutes of unpacking.
The Polono PL60 is a thermal imprint printer, so instead of using toner or ink, it uses the power of heat to print. This also comes with the ability to print very quickly. The PL60’s stated top speed is 72 4-by-6-inch labels per minute, and while I’ve never needed to print that many labels at once, whenever I’ve needed to print multiple labels at once, it rolls through labels with almost no pause between each label, spitting out each page/sticker very fast indeed.
This means it’s a real workflow boon for small businesses in particular, as it prints shipping labels and box labels quickly and without fuss.
The clarity and sharpness of the printed results is also impressive, with even small text looking very clean and legible, and I never experienced distortion or blurring with things like barcodes or QR codes, which is vital when you have busy couriers that need your parcels scanned in a hurry.
Of course, the downside of this speed is that flexibility is sacrificed. First, the compact form factor means that the largest label or sticker you can print is 4 by 6 inches, and second, it only prints in black and white. It’s by no means a deal breaker for someone like me, who mostly uses it to label product boxes and print postage stickers. You will need to find a color thermal printer and they cost a bit more.
Price
The Polono PL60 thermal printer will set you back £119.99 / $139.99, making it more expensive than the cheapest options on the thermal printer market, but cheaper than its most closely related competitor, the Munbyn Thermal Label Printer. Additionally, you can get discounts on this unit fairly regularly by shopping around or waiting for the next seasonal sale event if you’re able to make it until then.
Should I buy the Polono PL60?
If you run a small business or are a sole trader who makes arts/crafts/design products that you need to post on a regular basis, having a dedicated thermal printer to print labels and postage stickers will save you a lot of money in the long run due to the savings in toner/ of ink you don’t need to use. And the Polono PL60 fulfills this role very well. The only minor downsides are that it only prints in black and white and there’s no wireless printing either, but if you’re not precious about either of those things, the PL60 is a solid choice for you.
