Best Handheld Portable Printer! MBrush (PrinCube) vs Evebot Printpen. These are handheld portable ink printers that can print nearly any text image or design onto almost any surface and material from paper cardboard wood clothing even skin will look sorta its this new sort of gadget I’ve had a ton of fun playing with and I’m excited to show you guys what it’s all about I’m Ben from authentic and today we’re checking out these two handheld printers and I’ll show you how they work which is pretty incredible technology comparison between the two which one I found is better which spoiler alert.
Best Handheld Portable Printer
I like to stay efficient for you guys theMBrush wins by leaps and bounds and is the cheaper option which is very cool the PrintPen has some great potential but one major downfall so let’s jump in and I’ll show you first up disclaimers no sponsorship on this video but huge things to Evebot for sending me their PrintPen and huge thanks to GeekBuying.com for sending me the MBrush as always all the links will be down below first let’s start with the pricing the M brush which looks just like the print cube.
I’m not sure if it’s a rebranding model or something it’s currently priced at only a hundred bucks on geek bine plus there free shipping though as a heads up depending on your location the shipping time might take a little while the print pen, on the other hand, is two hundred and fifty dollars quite a bit more as for ink cartridges another win for the M brush the cartridge that it came with had this little sticker attached that said replaceable with 62 XL.
So, when I look those up on Amazon that tricolor is going for around 40 bucks and you heard that right it’s tricolor so the M brush can print and basically full color they also say a single cartridge is good for around 415 full pages of printing so that should last me a pretty long time for the print pen while they sell these proprietary designed cartridges for $60 which not only means it’s more expensive but we can’t buy third party replacements and it’s the only single color right now no full-color printing which is kind of stinky they currently offer a skin-friendly navy blue but they told me they are working on a nonremovable ink which could result in semi-permanent tattoos and such which seems sort of cool maybe like a henna tattoo.
I’m sure but there’s cool potential there I really want tricolor permanent ink for this and brush here so I can print on t-shirts cuz as it currently is it looks pretty cool but it can wash away with just simple water I see that the PrintCube sells these permanent ink cartridges that use eco-solvent this might even work on metal glass and plastic but I’ve seen a lot of shipping delays and complaints from backers so I’m not sure what’s going on over there let me know.
if you have info or ideas on a water-resistant ink option for me let me know down in the comments under product design and what’s in the box each are well packaged both come with a user manual and the EM brush includes these two paper ruler templates for multi-line alignment and that’s right the EM brush can also print multiple lines of text or large scale graphics and photos again a very cool and fun option to play with the print pen does not seem to support multi-line printing yet.
But note the printhead on the printing is 26 millimeters in height which is almost double that of the M brush whichI believe is about fourteen points three millimeters in height as for width while the M brush wins again in a single pass it can print up to around ten feet or three meters the print pen looks to be limited a little over three feet or one meter both are small and portable and I actually like the ergonomics of the print pen better it sort of feels like.
I’m holding a marker or a large pen in my hand where the M brush is of course alittle bit more blocky and wide but honestly not a big deal both are rechargeable via USB type-c and brush has this convenient rubber brush built into the cover for cleaning and nozzle though it seems to dry out easily more on that in a second the print pen uses a roller sensor while the M brushuses an optical sensor the print pens roller sensor.
I found is actually a little bit better for rolling onto skin since it can keep that print head hovering just slightly above the surface and you can almost watch the in shooting out of those microscopic nozzles that’s kind of amazing the Mbrush was harder to slide across while hovering above my skin and it didn’t seem like the ink could shoot out as crisp or clear now I think this little plastic piece is meant to attach to the Derwin sliding across your skin might help prevent smudging but I found it still did be a bit smudgy so I bet maybe with some practice it might get easier next is probably the biggest deal in my book and that’s the usability of each printer the print ban had great potential but one major flaw.
I connect to the pen via Wi-Fi on my phone while using their app I spent hours and hours trying to connect to the Wi-Fi and it constantly timeout or say incorrect password even though it was the correct default one I tried my iPhone 11 pro iPad Galaxy Note 2 n plus Google pixelShamim e9 everything I could think of and with some back-and-forth emails with the company it turns out the print pen has an own Wi-Fi issue I think it’s very easily interfered with other Wi-Fi signals and it won’t allow me to connectto the pen with a lot of those signals going on either way I had a walk like five blocks south and my neighborhood away from all the houses and then I was finally able to connect it to my phone and now even today the janky little trick.
I found that works in my home is that I pinched the pen between my legs to try to block out all the Wi-Fi interference and then only once in a blue moon I can actually get a connect to my phone for just a couple seconds to quick shoot over a text or image and then it quickly disconnects so that really stings but I gotta remain honest with you guys and that’s why I can recommend the print pen today I hope they’re working on an updated model because again it has nice potential in a breath of fresh air while the M brush is miles ahead in terms of usability three major factors that.
I prefer first there is no app needed to download to your phone or computer instead we connect directly to the M brushes Wi-Fi hotspot default password the same one-two-three four five six seven eight and then scan the QR code on the base cover or enter the address of 192.168.0.0 in the browser I can even push over a new design keep it connected swipe across dick pushover a new file rinse and repeat another major win to the EM brush like their app design better the print pen had nice potential being a simple single line editor but I found it glitchy even with dealing simple graphics and photos and their editors kind of janky looking at the EM brush in comparison it has a little steeper learning curve.
I’d say but once Ifinally understood how it worked it’s much faster and easier to whip up some text graphics or even photos crop them in size then duplicate the print linesover and over for the multi-line function just hit print sends it over tothe unit then I can disconnect and sort of saved in the memory of the device soI can print it over and over turn the device off then back on and it remembersmy last saved print the print pen sadly does not work the same after I turn itoff and turn it back on it does not allow me to reprint what I last pushed over as for quality of the print surprisingly.
I have to give some pointsto the print pen as it almost created these more crispy looking text andgraphics and I’m not sure if it’s because maybe it’s single color only ormaybe the DPI is slightly lower on the M brush cartridge that I received in thisbox or maybe it’s just because the print pen nozzle height is taller creatingthese larger looking graphics I’m not sure the M brush allowed me a lot morecontrol though over density brightness and saturation and we can dial it injust right for each print I found it takes a bit more finessing around but once.
I find good settings it looks pretty sweet and again pretty major dealbut to have a tricolor ink gent over a single color opens up a lot more funprinting possibilities there’s plenty of device settings to tinker with on the Mbrush and I bet dialling these ink could result in even better prints as well onemajor negative I found on the M brush okay.
So if I don’t use it very often itgets dried out so as a quick test print we hold that button it’ll give us threestripes and there’s nothing even in the instructions it says if nozzle is dry please put a little water on the table remove the cartridge and soak the nozzlein water for about a minute Google set timer for one minute the bestsolution I found even though they suggest soaking it in water I didn’tthink that worked that well and said maybe a wet paper towel rubbing inwiping it getting those juices flowing again on the ink cartridge nowinterestingly the print pen has this stamp pad like insert on its cap notsure if maybe that’s doing a better job at preventing dry out while the EM brushhas this little rubber gasket thing but maybe it doesn’t work as well.
I don’t know another random guess of mine but maybe the cartridge used here in the boxwas old or janky and maybe a new fresh higher quality HP cartridge could workbetter we’ll see so who is this little gadget made for well besides it being afun tech toy for me to play with if I can get that permanent ink to work maybeI’ll create my own custom authentic shirts at home that would be awesomeI could also seen this being really fun for lots of different arts and crafts itcould be used for branding and advertising labeling shipping barcodesand QR codes.
if I had an Etsy shop this thing could be a lot of fun to experiment with overall I’m fascinated by this thermal inkjet technology and I’m excited to see where it goes my dream gadget would allow multi-lineprinting without needing to lift the printer off the surface allowing me topaint back and forth on the surface and that optical sensor would know exactlywhere it’s at now I think I saw the print brush XDR can possibly do this butI couldn’t get my hands on one to test and as price at 300 bucks which ispretty steep maybe a firmware update will unlock this feature on the endbrush all links will be down below let me know of other clever uses you canthink of in the comments and until I see you next time let’s