Dymo radically changed their range of LabelWriters, adding a model that handles two rolls of identical or different labels, and a model that includes a labelmaker, the Duo. I tested the Twin Turbo and was very impressed.

First of all, the new LabelWriters have become quite good-looking label printers that look good on any desk, and next to any PC, including a flashy Power Mac G5. The finish of the product has much improved. Its predecessors lacked some sophistication, but the 400 range comes in an elegant, subdued metallic llok with blueish-greenish transparent plastic hood.

The transport buttons on the front—with which you can fast-forward blank labels if you wish—have a large blue LED. The buttons themselves are larger, and the top half is reserved for the LED. On my machine, the right LED was much brighter than the left one, but that is a detail of course.

The internals of the machine have been refined too. To position a label so it becomes usable, it is no longer necessary to use the internal lever and try slide the label in its starting position—which often failed in my experience. The LabelWriter will by itself, automatically pull the label in, and position it just where it belongs, without wasting any labels.

Inside the machine the levers (in a Twin, there are two of them, one for each label roll) are still there, but there’s also a small button. This button serves to pull back a label from its start position, so you can easily remove the roll and replace it by another one.

The plastic roll holders have been provided with a sort of ribbons along the axis, so that the label roll will stay in its position and will not wander from left to right while you’re printing. The roll holders themselves are a tad smaller than the old ones.

That’s worth a word of criticism in my opinion: with the 400 range you must buy new roll holders if you need the ability to quickly switch rolls. Another criticism is that you really need the latest labels—the ones with the black bars printed on the back. Those have been around for some time now, but if you still have a stock of let’s say 2 years ago, the labels won’t be provided with those marks.

The LabelWriter Twin Turbo could handle those oldies well, but positioning them initially was just a bit more difficult than when the bars were present.

The new 400 range has become faster as well. Labels printed at normal resolution and with an address on them, will print at a speed of roughly 1 label every second. That’s very fast. The LabelWriter churns out these labels without noise as well. Quite a difference from the previous version that sounded like an old saw when printing.

Speed drops when you print barcodes or graphics, but even then labels are produced at high speed. The print quality hasn’t changed; it’s just as good as the previous LabelWriter Turbo.

Conclusion

The Dymo LabelWriter 400 Twin Turbo is a great label printer to have and use. It looks good, its finish is excellent, printing speed is high, quality is great, and sound is low.

The software provided for Mac OS X is a tad less efficient than the Windows version, but it works extremely well. And you don’t really need it anyway. There are at least two label printing software programs written by third party developers that are just as good or better than Dymo’s own software (SOHO LAbels & Envelopes is my personal favourite).