November 2002

OUR IMPRESSION

Every so often, a piece of equipment comes along that makes you think: why has no-one thought of doing it this way before? Brother's new M-print printer (the M is for micro) is a bit like that. It's certainly different from any other mobile printer we've come across.

For a start, it literally is pocket-sized, not just compact and portable like other mobile printers. The M-printer is just 17.5mm thick, measures 100mm by 160mm and weighs less than 300g. It has a sleek silver case - indeed, if you didn't know it was a printer, you might think it was a PDA, and I'm sure that's the look Brother designers were aiming to achieve. If you want a want a bit more robustness, there's an optional carry case, cleverly designed so that both the infra-red and USB ports can operate without the need to remove the printer from the case.

What about leaky ink cartridges spoiling your suit, briefcase of car seat? No problem. There is no moving printhead on the M-printer, so no ink or toner to spill. Instead the M-print uses thermal print technology. Those of you familiar with thermal printing probably associate it with old fax machines and retail receipts. The quality of early thermally printed documents was poor, admits Brother, and there was that annoying tendency to fade over time. However, Brother says you only have to look at a current supermarket till receipt to appreciate there have been big advances in thermal print technology.

 

The printer uses A7 paper that is automatically fed from its own internal paper cassette. Refilling or changing the cassette is simply a matter of flipping up the top lid. The printer driver software automatically reduces A4-sized documents to A7, and there are separate drivers for notebooks and PDAs. There is even a choice of papers. A 50-sheet A7 pack is standard, but the Brother has also added 30-sheet packs of 2- or 4-labels, as well as re-stickable labels and even a pack of carbon-copy paper. The thermal printing burns the carbon on to the paper, so it should not fade.

Brother had not yet announced the price of the paper refills when we closed for press, and certainly in the beginning you will probably have to source them through Brother stockists.

We can certainly vouch for the print quality of the M-printer, although it's too early to comment on the fade-resistance properties. Brother itself predicts a two-year life before the print fades. The resolution is 300 dots per inch.

The printer connects to a PDA via an infra-red interface and to notebooks via USB port. It has a rechargeable lithium ion battery which is good for 60 sheets of paper or up to three hours' operation. The print rate is four pages per minute.

OUR VERDICT:

Brother's debut product for the mobile computing market is hard to fault on portability. It will appeal to corporate users because its sleek looks match those of PDAs and notebooks. Whether it is robust enough for delivery and field service operations remains to be seen. Brother will need to pitch the cost of the special-size refills at the right level if it wants the M-printer to be accepted as a everyday work tool.