Be aware before buy the DYMO 5XL, 550, or 550 Turbo
DYMO has recently made a significant decision. They has integrated proprietary technology in the 550 series printers that will not allow for the use of 3rd party labels at this time. What if computer printers said you have to use our brand of paper? DYMO 550 series printers no longer be able to print compatible labels at all.
This is double proprietary. The first proprietary is their design with the notches that uses a sensor to recognize the distance between the label with that notch and you would have to have these notched labels.
When you unrolled the Dymo brand labels, you can found the second proprietary. They added an RFID or NFC chip on their cardboard rolls, which the printer itself has to sense in order to allow the to operate. Dymo 5XL, 550 and 550 Turbo are all designed like this. So the 550 series printers will not print without this.
Sadly, DYMO authentic labels are oftentimes more costly than Betckey Labels. This make the use of the 550 series printers prohibitively expensive.
When you put the RFID core into the printer. The RFID does two things. It allows the printer to know what labels are in there. It's like a communication between the printer and the label. So when you put it in it automatically recognizes the the size, type, and it tells you how many labels you have left. So my RFID says these are 4x6 labels and it has 33 labels on the roll.
So Dymo software can read that RFID, count down every time it prints until it hits zero and basically render that RFID useless render the printer inoperable until you put in another roll of labels with an RFID.
As a consumer, who really cares about how many labels you have left? Because, when the labels run out, you just put have another roll of them in the printer. It no matters on a consumer standpoint to know how many labels that you have remaining. Dymo just going to monopolize the use of their expensive brand labels in the printer.
Even older Dymo branded 450 labels will not work with the 550 series printers. They does not support custom printed printer compatible labels, either. That means, only Dymo 550 branded labels will work in your Dymo 550. They do not work with generic or compatible labels like the 450 series did. In the long term, it would be expensive. If you can, find a 450, 450 Turbo and 4XL printer.