Phomemo M08F Portable Inkless Thermal Printer - 8.5'' x 11'' Letter, Black

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ I was pleasantly surprised by how well this portable printer works. Setup was quick, the app was easy to connect, and the print quality came out much better than I expected. It’s lightweight, compact, and perfect for traveling or printing documents on the go without carrying a bulky printer. I’ve used it for shipping labels, forms, and other documents, and it has been reliable every time. If you’re looking for a portable printer that’s easy to use and produces clear prints, I definitely recommend this one. Great value for the price!

Disclaimer: I was compensated for the cost of the printer by the manufacturer without any request other than to provide feedback directly to them on what would make this printer better which I also offer here. Phomemo M08F Letter Size Thermal Printer Straight-to-the-Point Overall Usability Great portable printer for the times when you absolutely must have a hard copy a non-intricately detailed document. Works well for text and line art in non-permanent things like tickets or event signage which I happen to print often enough. Since this printer uses thermal paper, I would not recommend it for long-term legal documents (Quick Guide states 7-10 year print viability if kept dry, at room temperature, and out of sunlight) but if you need a semi-permanent document, it completely fits the bill. You will likely want to purchase additional thermal paper to do any appreciable printing Likes • Compact • No ink - no mess • Easy to use hardware • Easy to use Android app • Easy to print on Windows with driver installation • Relatively quick for a non-industrial thermal printer • Great quality prints for the right use-cases • Great battery life Dislikes • Paper can get misaligned on insertion every now and again • Difficult to cancel or know if a print job has been cancelled • Noisy prints if on a resonant surface Things to consider • Prints can be expensive at 15¢ to 26¢ per page • Photos and very small text are not the intended use for the printer • Color graphics should be converted to grayscale before printing In the Box • Printer carefully supported in foam • Two Quick Start Guides (one more graphical and the other more text laden) • 2 ft. USB-A to USB-C for computer connectivity and charging • USB flash drive of computer drivers • Velvet carry bag • 5 sheets Phomemo thermal letter paper which are creased in thirds from being packed in the box and best to flatten a bit before use Build Quality As with all the Phomemo products I own, the quality is tops. There is no wasted space in the case and the entire printer feels sturdy if not a bit heavy (721g / ~1.6lbs). The hinge and hinge opening buttons, which allow for paper release or roller and thermal head cleaning, have a good feel without any play. The printer has two rubber feet which do a good job of preventing printer movement but they do little to address one of my few complaints about printing. Phomemo App (Android) I have used and generally like the Phomemo label printer Android Apps ‘Print Master’ and ‘Labelife’. The eponymously named ‘Phomemo’ App is no different. In app, it is easy to connect the printer with Bluetooth or the QR code on the printer’s top sticker, change settings (Auto Shutdown – I recommend setting to at least 30 mins.), and print all or individual pages from various sources of documents (browse the filesystem or Share to ‘Phomemo’ from an open document. There is even an available library of line art drawings over a range of categories for simple sign or coloring sheet printouts. The one thing that wasn’t entirely clear with the app was the best method for cancelling a multi-page print and what I found to work for me was powering off the printer and force stopping the app. Windows 10 Driver The ‘Phomemo’ App, Quick Start Guides, and the printer’s top sticker all make it easy to locate the drivers form Windows and MacOS. I only have Windows machines and had no issues finding, downloading, and installing the M08F driver. Printing was as simple as connecting the printer to the computer with the USB-A to USB-C cable and choosing the printer by name in any print dialog. Printing My test prints were done from a 100-sheet pack of Phomemo branded letter thermal paper that was on-sale for $20.99 (21¢ per sheet, a 200-sheet pack is available for $29.99 for 15¢ per sheet). Inserting paper and getting it to be properly aligned in the printer can be tricky if done too slowly. Make sure the thermal paper is oriented with the correct side up (‘This side should face up.’ is labeled on one side) and insert it as straight and swift as you can until it butts up against the roller bar inside. An improperly aligned sheet will print but the page can be skewed and the page edges torn ragged (only 2 of 20 printed sheets). If a sheet is inserted incorrectly, it is possible to open the printer and re-insert the sheet again. I printed using both Medium and Heavy darkness settings and observed a minimal difference in quality for most documents. If you have very small details or text (8pt or less) the Heavy darkness setting will make those parts more legible. Be warned that 6pt or smaller font can be spotty or illegible. All linear bar, Data Matrix ,and QR codes on tickets that I printed scanned with ease using my cellphone. The average time for a full sheet print was ~25 seconds. Battery Usage and Charging When unboxed, the printer had 97% charge. I printed 20 sheets, 18 at Heavy darkness, and that only took the charge to 84%. I cannot envision many scenarios that would have this printer use more than 25% charge. Charging back to 100% took about 30 minutes and, as stated in the text heavy Quick Start Guide, had to be done using the 5V 2A power which I had on my computer’s USB hub. Neither my Samsung Fast or Super Fast phone chargers nor my Anker 20W or 45W chargers would charge the printer. Recommendations to Phomemo to Improve the Printer • Adding pop-out or fold-out paper guides could ease proper paper alignment on insertion • Adding thicker or more dampening rubber cushions on the bottom of the printer could reduce the amount of resonant sound generated by the printer • Depending on the desired typical usage per charge, the battery size could be halved and still allow for 50+ pages per charge while likely taking the weight of the printer to less than a pound

In a pinch, great printer. I DO NOT have to worry about ink which was awesome. Now I will say I love the compact size of putting this into my bag and it was good to go with me, very easy to set up and to use. I could use it with my personal computer, phone and tablet with ease. Need to do everything through their app, so FYI on that. I did return it because I wanted one that could also do the roll of paper and the individual paper and the other paper that comes in a stack. Great printer, just bought the wrong one, that’s on me. I have bought a different one from the same company that I should have gotten the first time around. This printer only does single sheets or the paper that is conjoined together. Great printer. And there is no ink so that makes it better. It is compatible with iPhone, android, tablet, iPad, computer for Mac and windows too. And it is very small which is great. It fit right into my backpack and went all over the country with me for a few weeks.

I’m very happy with this printer. It is more expensive than many other portable printers, but for me it’s worth the price. I had the same model before and it lasted a very long time, so when I needed a new one, I decided to buy the same one again. It prints very well, the app works great, and it’s extremely convenient for work while traveling. For me, it’s an indispensable tool on the road. Highly recommend!

The hardware is fine. Compact, decent print quality on thermal paper, battery lasts long enough. The problem is everything around it. There is no standard printer driver. On a phone you are locked into the Phomemo app, which is very spammy, requires an account, requests excessive permissions, and phones home constantly. Spyware. On a PC you get a proprietary driver that only works over USB, not Bluetooth. There is no IPP, no CUPS integration, no way to print from arbitrary applications the way you can with any normal printer. You cannot select this device from a system print dialog on any platform. What is the point? The printer does not accept text. At all. It is raster-only, meaning every page must be pre-rendered as a full-width bitmap image (1680 pixels across for A4) and transmitted over Bluetooth Low Energy one row at a time. A single A4 page is roughly half a megabyte of image data pushed through a BLE connection. This is SLLLOOOOWWW... and there is no way around it without their app or writing your own BLE driver from scratch using reverse-engineered protocol documentation. YEAH, nope. There is no open protocol specification from Phomemo. Everything known about how to talk to this printer has been figured out by clever hardware hackers sniffing Bluetooth packets. The command set is a nonstandard dialect loosely related to ESC/POS but incompatible with any existing ESC/POS library or tool. Seriously. It's like they tried really hard to design a hostile product. What this means in practice: you are completely dependent on the horrific Phomemo spyware app for the life of this device. If they drop support for your phone OS version, change their backend, or shut down, you have a nice paperweight brick. There is no fallback. No generic thermal printer driver will work. No third-party app can print to it without reimplementing the entire proprietary protocol. If you need a portable thermal printer that works as a normal printer -- one you can print to from any app on any device -- THIS IS NOT IT. Buy it only if you are comfortable being permanentlylocked into a single vendor's app ecosystem with no exit strategy.

Disclaimer: The manufacturer compensated me for the cost of the printer, with the only expectation being that I provide direct feedback. I found this to be a great backup printer to my HP Ink jet. The cost of printing a page is slightly less than the cost on my InkJet and I use it for any printing that is temporary in nature. The setup was somewhat easy but I had to locate the printer driver online for my laptop. I was unable to get the printer to work through through a Bluetooth connection from my laptop. It works from my IOS phone but I typically do not print from my phone. I am pretty old school that way. The portability of the printer is sufficient when traveling by car since I don't need to worry about space much. It is a convenient extra to be able to print away from home.

Traveling for work, I don't always have time to find a printer. I purchased this and have used it a handful of times. It was easy to set up and easy to use. The only down side is using thermal paper, but I bought a pack and have yet to use it all. Great sleek design and does not take up too much space in my work bag. Great product!

I received the Phomemo Portable Wireless Printer to review and here are my thoughts: 1. The print quality is surprisingly good for a thermal printer. Better, sharper than the retail receipts I have received. 2. It's as small as can be and still print 8.5x11 paper. That's impressive. (Note: I'm sure it prints other sizes, but this is what I was given to try out.) 3. It prints easily via Bluetooth. While I did use their app to print, the app itself is lightweight and intuitive, and I was able to print from just about any document format. I use Google Drive for everything and it was able to print an exported PDF easily. No hoops to jump through, and no hiccups. 4. It is completely wireless. After it's charged, all you need is paper and a Bluetooth connection to print. There is an option for directly connecting to a laptop, but I didn't test that option because I am rarely at my desk. The charge seems to hold -- I've printed 6 sheets on a partial charge and it shows no signs of being out of juice anytime soon. Now for the cons, which are relatively picky and few (I am reviewing this for others, after all...). 1. The paper has to be *thermal* paper. It's do-able -- they sell it on Amazon, as well as at Staples, OfficeMax, and probably others. It's not hard to find, however, if you're geographically far from a thermal paper seller, and you run out, and you need it *now,* that could get tricky. BUT, that's the same story as any thermal printer (retail receipts, etc.), and I would assume if you're using this for business, you'll be sure to stock up on thermal paper to avoid this. 2. Thermal paper is more expensive than office paper. This may seem obvious. But here's the thing: if you are geographically far from a conventional printer, this is one way to print anyway. You can balance out the cost of driving to and printing at a copy center or the office with the cost of having the paper on hand and ready to use immediately. 3. The actual printing is a little noisy. Not loud, but noisy. So don't print next to a light sleeper or in church. 4. I'm not sure how to tell how much of a charge is left. Perhaps there is a way, but it's not obvious to me. Overall, I'm impressed with this printer. It definitely worth considering if you'd like the option to print on the spot. I think anyone who travels and does estimates would find this pretty handy, as it would easily integrate with any program or app that can export a PDF or other common file type. Thank you for taking the time to read this, and thank you to Phomemo for valuing my honest review.

a mi hija le encantó, la impresora es pequeña, fácil de transportar en la mochila, obviamente no ocupa tinta es térmica y se pone fácil el papel

Very good print quality for tasks used (printing simple documents). Very easy to use the app (but wish there were less apps).

Es práctico y sencillo, te saca de problemas cuando necesitas imprimir un archivo de imprevisto. La imagen es clara y precisa. El problema es la aplicación que usa, aunque es sencilla de usar, hoy detectó un problema de archivo troyano tipo que puede causar problemas y robo de información. No se si se puede usar otro tipo de aplicación para esta impresora, se tuvo que desinstalar la aplicación hasta que no sepa y no sea seguro no puedo usar la por el momento.

Works like a dream

"I am very impressed with the Phomemo M08F. The setup process was incredibly straightforward and I was able to start printing within minutes. It is very user-friendly, making it perfect for printing on the go. The printer arrived very quickly, and I was pleasantly surprised to find some sample thermal paper included in the box to get started right away. Additionally, the included carrying pouch is very practical and high-quality, providing great protection for travel. Highly recommended for anyone needing a reliable and portable A4 printing solution!"