While heavy and bulky compared to the Dymo it replaced, the tape cartridges available for Brothers are much less expensive and the ease of use made this unit a must-have for me. While I don't like the fact that it does waste a full inch of tape prior to printing, I'm assuming that that's the distance between the print head and the internal cutter, so it's kind of like a "paper check" for the system. I haven't used it a lot, just made labels for my tool chest and some personal items at work, but the time saved by designing and typing the labels on my phone compared to the ABC-layout keyboard and convoluted menu system on the old Dymo made it worth paying three times the price. Throw in the built-in Li-Ion battery vs 4 AA batteries or 9V A/C adapter (limiting where you can move) with the Dymo, and the deal becomes even sweeter. There is a huge range of tape colours and sizes available for this unit, and if I so chose I could throw in a 24-mm tape to print BIG labels on this, whereas the Dymo could only take 6-, 9- or 12-mm cartridges which cost nearly twice as much and have half the length of the Brother cartridges. This also works with cheaper third-party tapes.