FreeX WiFi Thermal Printer Review

Over the years I’ve spent shipping products, personally and professionally,  one category of tool used in that endeavor has always created a level of fascination that’s practically unmatched: thermal label printers. I’ve talked about some of my existing favorites here, and that recommendation list has primarily done folks well. However, I also haven’t strayed from that list for a good reason: sometimes trying and true is the best option. The idea here is no-frills, no gimmicks.

Of the categories of thermal printers, the units I’ve found that can make or break the most are the ones folks use to print shipping labels. Any operation with even a sliver of volume will tell you that once they switched from churning through 8.5×11 sheets of paper through an inkjet or laser printer to a device with fewer moving parts, fewer supply costs, and always seemed to work, the name of the game changes practically overnight.

However, one category I hadn’t considered seriously (see idea above) is the concept of a wireless thermal printer, especially one designed to print shipping labels. Hardcore shippers would likely already have the infrastructure to accommodate just about anything, so they’ll likely throw cables around wherever they need them. Small shops would have probably set everything up at one station, regardless of the actual productivity won or lost in doing so.

But what if the compromises weren’t necessary? Imagine sitting in an office, cranking out shipping labels, then heading out to pack and seal all the boxes. Your labels are sitting right there, ready to go, in a place that makes the most sense.

That’s what we’re exploring today with the FreeX WiFi Thermal Printer.

Before we start, I have to say that FreeX contacted me and offered to send a unit to poke at and test. I didn’t pay for it. I also did not receive monetary compensation for this review either. What can I say? I like trying new stuff and always say yes to a demo unit.

What is the FreeX WiFi Thermal Printer?

The headline says it all. There is no shortage of wired label printers on the market, from my favorites to large commercial units like the Epson C7500G (an ink-based unit!) or the Honeywell PM43A, among others. The wireless market is a bit more scarce, depending on where you look and your needs. The two easiest to find that don’t cost a fortune (That Honeywell unit is wireless) are the Dymo LabelWriter Wireless (doesn’t print shipping labels), the Brother QL-1100NWB label printer, and the Zebra ZD620d (Bluetooth). Many other random brands on Amazon tout Bluetooth capability, too. Unsurprisingly, they all look either like the Rollo or the Brother QL-1110NWB.

We could go into the entire sub-genre of thermal transfer printers, but no one should be buying those. I can’t think of a legitimate reason to do so because it re-introduces supplies and complexity. So naturally, the market has shifted to direct printing, where the heating element inside the printer does the work directly on the Label.

FreeX joins the fray in the wireless printing market, looking to target the desktop-class Brother and Zebra units directly. At $299, it has large shoes to fill. In the USB-only market, the Zebra ZP-450 runs between $200-400 depending on where you get it, the Dymo 4XL at $249, and the GK420d at about $349, among others. The Brother QL-1110NWB I mentioned earlier is the only Wi-Fi-enabled thermal label printer to use for comparison that’s actively produced and targets the same market with an MSRP of $280. (When it came out in 2018, it retailed for $320.)

Unboxing & First Impressions

When taking the FreeX printer out of the box, build quality is what I’d expected and felt very familiar: it opens like a suitcase or clamshell with the printer head in the top half. However, the first thing that stood out was its weight; it’s on the light side at 1.58 kg (3.50 lbs), whereas my Zebra ZP-450 tips the scales at 1.87 kg (4.12 lbs). The weight difference is likely due to the FreeX unit having its power supply outside, as a part of the power supply from the wall, compared to the Zebra ZP-450 that carries its power supply.

Regarding size, the footprint of the FreeX is slightly larger. However, the overall space it occupies is just about the same. This is just a variance in how the printer is shaped compared to the Zebra ZP-450. Unfortunately, I don’t have the above Brother or wireless Zebra unit to compare to in person.

Turning the unit around to the back, we see the regularly issued ports: power, a kycon 3-pin power connector, and USB Type-A. The power port is a standard issue for DC power connectors of this type, so if the power supply needs replacement (a 100-240v input, 24V, 2.5A output switching power supply), you’ll be in good shape. However, the blank spaces along that same face are most interesting.

Given their size, I suspect the blanks would, in theory, support RS-232 serial and Ethernet connections at the factory if FreeX had ordered the units in that configuration. But unfortunately, FreeX doesn’t support RS-232 or Ethernet connections. I would have liked to see Ethernet support for a printer that also does WiFi, but it’s not necessarily a deal-breaker. The market this unit target isn’t as likely to have that kind of setup. Without Ethernet, though, large operations can’t be expected to climb on board, either. The QL-NWB supports Ethernet, Bluetooth, and Serial, but it’s $100 more expensive. That might be worth it to some, but on its own, I can’t say it’s enough to push me over the top.

Keeping along the back, the FreeX has a slot for rear-fed labels. So if you’re a fan of large rolls (greater than 500 each) or fan-fold labels (UPS shippers can get them free from the carrier), this feature is for you.

There’s not much to say about the sides. The seams are good, and the releases to open the unit work well.

I went looking through my packing material, thinking I missed the sample roll of labels. Unfortunately, FreeX does not supply a sample roll in the box. It looks like you have to get your own. If you’re coming from another printer, you likely already have your own, too, so there is no significant foul there.

Returning to the inside of the unit, there’s not much to talk about that you wouldn’t find by other brands. A spool holder guides to keep the paper on track, depending on the side, thermal print head, and roller. One thing I didn’t notice at first, but now that I see it is a neat trick: with the spool and arms expanded all the way, a small latch keeps them in place. Being spring-loaded, this is a nice touch. For the next revision of the product, I’d love to see them take this one step further and have a default position for 4 inches, too. The spool holder supports label roll cores of multiple sizes, though one-inch cores seemed to fit best.

The FreeX printer supports label rolls of up to 600 per roll, which is fantastic. Most printers support about 400-500, depending on the core size. Unfortunately, the only place one can get a 600-label roll is FreeX. You can buy larger rolls elsewhere, but they won’t fit. The FreeX team tells me the 600-label roll is more of a space saver. I’d believe it if the core was smaller. The 500-label roll used for this test had a much larger core than it needed to.

However, at the time of this writing, the 600-label roll was an eye-watering $25 and sold out. While more labels per roll equate to time saved, you might still be better off with this 4-pack of 450 labels for just a few dollars more. I’ve never encountered a printer that couldn’t use one specific brand–or only first-party–of labels.

Loading the paper was straightforward, though I highly recommend not doing so when it’s on. The printer beeps aggressively at a high pitch when it’s open and on. It’s uncomfortable and entirely unnecessary. I asked about this, and FreeX tells me the next batch of units won’t do this. Whew.

When loading the printer for the first time, it had trouble detecting the perforations of the roll I was using. My test roll doesn’t have alignment holes. After a second attempt (and from there on), it detected the seams just fine. The Zebra ZP-450 and others like it have a dedicated calibration mode that will detect the paper (alignment hole or none). Low-quality labels or continuous feed labels might not work well here since there’s no way to tell if that’s the

The Software

The FreeX WiFi Thermal Printer has a quick start guide for macOS and Windows. I wanted to jump straight into printing over WiFi, but the way the Quick Start Guide is written, implies I have to start printing via USB first. That’s not entirely the case, but after working through the steps, I’d recommend going in order so you’re not missing anything. The FreeX printer requires things to be configured in a specific order.

(I’m on a Mac, so screenshots from here on out are based on that OS)

The experience and usability of any product extend heavily to its software presence, especially the setup stage. I was surprised to see the drivers served via a Google Drive folder. Given their size (just a few MB), serving the files directly from the Web site is table stakes. This is primarily a nitpick based on my professional background. It’s an acceptable method to serve driver downloads, but some professional polish is lost.

Beyond that, the software doesn’t do a whole lot. If you wanted to stop after installing the software, you’d be fine to start printing and be on your way!

The download also includes a toolbox application that tests the printer and its connection.

The printer is set up to connect to WiFi inside that toolbox application.

The instructions provided by FreeX make this process pretty straightforward, but if you didn’t have the directions open while setting up and didn’t understand what all of these terms mean, it could feel a little daunting.

(For example, there’s no explanation about the Mode that can be either STA or AP. (STA means station, the option to configure a device as something that connects to a WiFi network, and AP representing access pointMeaning the device creates a WiFi network.)

This is also the first time I have learned that the printer only supports 2.4 GHz wireless networks. It’s an unfortunate but typical implementation in IoT and IoT-like devices to skip the 5.0 GHz radios for cost savings. Missing the faster WiFi hardware can affect speed, too—more on that in the Testing section.

I suspect that since this is version 1 of the software, we’ll see some polish and tightening of the user experience in future major versions. But, for now, the guide will keep you on track. The rest of my notes on the toolbox interface aren’t relevant to this review and wouldn’t impact the product in any way–just stuff I noticed based on my background.

Working through the configuration to completion, I encountered an unknown error several times. However, whatever was erroring didn’t affect the device’s wireless configuration because it spits out a correct WiFi name and IP address when I start it up.

Now that I have the FreeX connected over WiFi, I have to go back and re-add the printer, which is fine. Writing software to do this automatically is hard, especially with modern OS security restrictions. However, the additional step could have been more straightforward, at least on macOS, with the support of Bonjour (Apple’s printer discovery profile), drivers not being auto-detected, and lack of support for IPP. But, again, this is all fringe stuff that doesn’t affect the printer’s functionality but does affect the setup experience.

Also, while undocumented, the printer has a hidden web server on port 80 of the device. If that means something to you, here’s what it looks like, with languages both in Chinese and English:

This interface also lets us know the WiFi module inside the printer is the HF-LPB100. It’s a standard module that has been around for almost six years. It doesn’t serve much purpose outside of configuring network settings and settings for components it doesn’t have (like the serial connection I mentioned earlier). I imagine it’ll create a pretty stable connection to your network.

The default login credentials are easily guessable but also can be changed. It’s probably worth doing if for no other reason than being able to lock down the device. I couldn’t find anything inherently unique about the Web interface that can also be set via the provided software.

If you’re into doing things the ~complicated~ way, the printer’s WiFi settings can be set through this web server, so the FreeX toolbox isn’t explicitly required. It’s still a good idea to install the printer drivers, though.

With all the setup done, we’re ready to print!

Printing

This is part of the review that’s relatively straightforward. With the printer configured, it’ll just print; at least, that’s what I hoped would happen. Then, using a test label from Pirate Ship, I had to ensure the paper size was correct. (The printer can communicate this to your computer automatically if it’s set up to do so; it appears the FreeX does not do that.) The default page size was 8.5×11; I clicked print after changing it to 4×6.

If you print any volume of shipping labels, these are the specs you’ll want to pay attention to the most. In this exercise:

• I printed the Pirate Ship test label, both wired and wireless, from the FreeX and the Zebra ZP-450.
• These numbers are an average of five runs in seconds.
• The 10-label and 25-label tests used the same file, duplicated to have 10 and 25 pages in a single file.
• The 10-label and 25-label tests mimic batch printing from shipping software.
• Default print qualities are used. For example, the Zebra ZP-450’s default darkness level is 13.5 on a scale of 1-30, and the speed is 5 inches per second. The FreeX’s darkness level is eight on a scale of 1-15, and the print speed is 5 inches per second.
• Time is measured from the moment the Print button is clicked when the print is complete.

Benchmarks

Single Label

Test	FreeX	Zebra ZP-450
Network	18.0s	4.75s
USB	2.99s	3.01s

10 Labels

Test	FreeX	Zebra ZP-450
Network	DNF (see note)	20.24s
USB	15.56s	15.82s

25 Labels

Test	FreeX	Zebra ZP-450
Network	DNF (see note)	46.24s
USB	36.47s	38.44s

Editor’s Note: During testing, it became clear that ten labels over WiFi were too much. A 10-label or 25-label batch yielded a blank page plus only the last label. The limit seems to be eight labels. I suspect this is a buffer/storage issue on the device and cannot hold more than eight labels. Printing eight labels took an average of 1 minute, 43 seconds, or ~12.9s per label.

The two printers did exceptionally well in the USB tests. For the FreeX printer, the single-label turnaround time of 18 seconds felt prolonged. The buffer time for printing over wifi scales with the number of labels sent over, though not linearly. In other words, it won’t take 18 seconds per label up to the eight it supports. This is because most of the time was spent not on printing but on transmitting the job to the printer. Likewise, printing the duplicate files to the Zebra ZP-450, which is also on the network, though not over WiFi, took much less time. Part of this, I suspect, is to do with the WiFi radio inside the unit. Once the print job was fully transmitted to the printer, the print job began producing wonderfully quickly.

Print Quality Sample

The FreeX generates labels exceptionally well. At no point did I wish it was darker, slower, or crisper.

The print quality and speed can also be changed in the toolbox app if you find a tweak is necessary.

Conclusion

I appreciate any new entrant into the thermal printer space that’s not simply a slight re-badging and re-skinning of the same printers that come out of China. So the FreeX WiFi Thermal Printer landed on my desk, and it gave me high hopes that we’d see a viable, fresh, aggressive new bit of competition to knock the rather lackluster Brother and expensive Zebra off their perch.

Unfortunately, I don’t think that’s happening here. While it’s a fast and crisp-printing USB thermal printer, I’m not sure it’s ready for WiFi prime time. The Rollo X1040 Wireless Thermal Label Printer is a much better unit for the price.

The insert inside the packaging made me believe the SuperRoll labels they sell are proprietary, and I wondered if I should have ordered some before testing; would the printer work well or at all without them? Unfortunately, nothing appears remarkable besides the fact that there’s a 600-label roll option.