Phomemo is a brand that focuses on Innovative label makers & mobile printers and has had a hard-earned reputation in the Printer area for almost 10 years. Since its founding in 2017 has been on the rise until it became the pioneer in the industry of making all kinds of portable printers for its reliable, cost-effective, and environmentally friendly printing solutions whether it’s for home, commercial or industrial use. Phomemo products are characterized by bringing new advanced technology, high quality, and an affordable price, and that’s why they are on top.

Phomemo’s advanced thermal printing technology eliminates the cost of ink or toner, the compact design of the printer makes it a simple and attractive addition to any modern workspace, and the abundant label paper makes your life more convenient. So, today we have one of its finest A4 portable printers, the Phomemo M08F which is a small and compact black and white printer with lots of improvements that make it a lot more convenient for students and workers to use it in the office, the library or at home because, unlike regular printers, this one doesn’t make any noise thanks to the new thermal printing technology and the absence of any moving parts.

Phomemo M08F Review

This device provides a bunch of features that make it way too practical and solves a lot of struggles we deal with daily, for instance, it has got a seamless Bluetooth connection, compatibility with most Bluetooth devices in addition to an app on IOS and Android for instant printing, as well as a huge battery life that will last a whole day of usage.

Phomemo M08F Features

  • Convenient to Print Files or Papers in any Place
  • Monochrome High-definition Inkless Print Technology
  • Compact with Android / IOS / Mac / Win10
  • Stable Bluetooth Wireless Connection
Phomemo M08F Review

Unboxing & Testing Video

What’s in the Box?

After unpacking the package we find the box itself, and let me say that is a very basic box, In white with a graphic of the printer and some features. Once you open the box, you are presented with the Phomemo M08F mobile printer itself inside a flannel bag and held very firmly with two plastic pieces as well as the USB C data cable and package with international standard A4 paper print size, in addition to a user manual with clear instructions on how to use to the printer. Even I found a USB 500 MB with printer drivers for different devices.

Design And Build Quality

If we look at the design, The Phomemo M08F appears that a rectangular shape with little round corners, it is made out of plastic and looks very stylish with black color and matt finish, and doesn’t leave noticeable fingerprints behind, the overall design is pretty minimalistic and nice, I personally prefer discrete designs over colorful and loud ones. it feels very nice to the touch, does not slip out of hand, and gives you a feeling of a sturdy and overall very well-crafted device, and is compact and portable, 80% smaller in size and weight than traditional printers by about 921g, which makes it a very compact device that can be carried around easily in a backpack to school or work and that’s the level of portability it brings to you, a fully functional printer in your backpack ready to use anytime hustle free.

Phomemo M08F Review

I was able to carry it around with ease, and more importantly, the small form factor makes this printer very accessible, I was able to fit it in a corner on my desk and use it daily for my printing needs and it was almost as if it wasn’t there since it occupied very little space yet it was beneficial, especially that it doesn’t need a cable, it replaced my main printer which is at least 5 times bigger and occupies a whole part of my desk as well as using charging and a data cable, even on the go, slipping this printer inside my backpack and taking it with me was actually doable and I found it quite useful.

On top, you can see the power button and LED power indicator right beside it, and a sticker showing how to operate. From the front, there is a slit through which the paper is inserted, and next to it there are two blue buttons on each side to be pressed at the same time to open the lid automatically revealing what’s beneath it, and absolutely nothing needs your intervention, and that’s the beauty of it since you don’t need any ink or ribbon for this printer to print, just place the thermal paper and you are good to go. on the back side, we find the USB C charging port, factory reset hole and the slit from which the paper comes out after printing.

From underneath you are going to find only a sticker that has information about the product and how to contact customer service, in addition to rubber pieces on each side to help it stick better and not slip when being used.

So, After a good period of testing, I found the printer very convenient and easy to use, whether it is the connectivity, the portability, or the quality of the prints, I much liked the whole thing and had a positive experience.

The Thermal Printing Technology

The best feature of the Phomemo M08F printer is that it doesn’t require any ink, toner, or ribbon. The only supply you need to buy is A4 thermal paper. it uses thermal paper and heat to print very high-quality prints with all the details that will meet your daily needs whether you are in the office, school, or simply at home without the need to ever worry about running out of ink or going through the hustle of changing it, this will save a lot of money on the long run of up to 30% when compared to a regular printer, plus its more efficient and environmentally friendly.

The way this printing machine works is not magic, but it definitely seems like that at first, the thermal printing technology used here is called direct thermal, which no longer needs ink, toner, and ribbon, only needs A4 thermal paper composed of three layers, the protection layer, the print layer and the paper layer which is a special paper that turns black when heated up, and so what this printer does internally is that it heats a metal head and hits certain parts of the paper according to the printed document and that’s how you get your print.
This technology right here helps reduce your environmental footprint since it doesn’t require ink or ribbon, saves your money by 30%, and gives this printer a more extended lifespan since it has got no moving except for the mechanism that rolls the paper out of the printer.

It’s worth noting that regular A4 paper will not work with the M08F, the Phomemo company always advises getting thermal paper from the original manufacturer since the quality of the final print depends mainly on the quality of the thermal paper itself.

The only disadvantage of the product is that the thermal paper is significantly thinner than standard letter paper. Therefore, it doesn’t hold its shape very well when I pick it up. You’d probably still need to stick with inkjet or laser printers for professional documents. The Phomemo printer is more suitable for printing less formal documents like invoices, contracts, etc.

The main function of a wireless printer, is definitely to be as easy to take on the go as possible, Phomemo M08F made sure of that, by giving this device a huge battery autonomy, a small size, and making it lightweight for everybody to carry around with ease and forget completely about it until you need it because you have no ink ta carry along, but the functionality is very high, anytime you wanna print something, you can quickly pull out your phone and print it out using the app and the M08F will give a high-quality document while making no noise whatsoever.

How to Pair the Phomemo M08F

Phomemo M08F is compatible with macOS, Windows, Android, and iOS; Which means you can use it with your PC, laptop, or smartphone. For smartphones or tablets, you can use the Phomemo app, which is available in the Play Store and the App Store, it makes the usage of the printer a whole lot more practical.

In order to use the Phomemo M08F portable printer you have first to pair it with an Android or IOS device by following these simple steps via the official Phomemo app after installing it AND accept the user agreement and privacy policy after reading it, and grant the app the necessary permissions such as camera access, GPS location, and media access to allow it to store media on your device. Once inside you are presented with your home screen which is very clear and simple to navigate through.

Now you have to turn the printer on by long pressing for 3s and maintaining the power button until the LED light, then go to your app and tap on to printer button, then choose the printer by searching or scanning the QR code on the printer. you will find a device under the name M08F and add it, once you have done that, you may now start ripping the benefits of having a wireless printer. The whole setup process took me less than 2 minutes.

The pairing process on windows is a little different, to say the least, first head to the official Phomemo website and download the drivers or use the attached U disk, install it, and you will need to connect Phomemo M08F with the included USB-C cable, and use it just like any other printer.

The Phomemo App

The app has five main sections, including the home, graphics, the mall, and finally the profile. At home, it includes a printer button in the corner, through which the pairing is done, either by searching or scanning the QR code on the printer. After pairing, it will enable you to manage the device and show the printer data, including the model name, setting the automatic shutdown time, and the battery percentage, in addition to other information.

We go back to the home, which is the main interface, and it includes document print, web print, image print, and finally the scan, of course by the camera.

As for the graphic section, it is possible to download or print many pre-packaged stickers. And from the mall, you can find all Phomemo offers and discounts on printers and more. As for the profile, it includes the app settings, the product manual, and support, as well as the Phomemo pages on social media.

How to use the Phomemo M08F

Using the Phomemo M08F is pretty straightforward and simple, just make sure that the device is charged and has the thermal paper, and turn it on by clicking and maintaining the power button for several seconds after that put the paper flat into the paper inlet, it will automatically suck the paper, the side with the prompt should face up, and put the paper in steadily with both hands.

Phomemo M08F Review

then go to the Phomemo app on your IOS or Android device to do the pairing, once that is done you can simply choose a document or a photo ( You can open the Word/ PDF/ text in an email or another APP and then share them Phomemo APP ) and click to print, then choose the number of copies and line thickness, wait for few moments and the print must ready to take out from the other side.

The Prints Quality on Phomemo M08F

When seeing a portable printer like this, it’s tempting to think that the quality of the prints is inferior to regular printers, but I’m happy to say that that is not the case here, the Phomemo M08F and with all these game-changing features.

A more important limitation is that the Phomemo M08F requires feeding paper manually, one page at a time. Printing on both sides is as easy as printing one side, turning the page over, and feeding it to print on the other side. However, you can’t feed the next page in a multi-page print job until you remove the previous page to clear the output slot, which means you can’t use fanfold paper to avoid manual feeding. This won’t be a problem for printing short files, but it could quickly become annoying if you want to print many files longer than three or four pages. It is not ideal for printing long documents and the printer is not designed for that task.

Also, The printing speed can’t be compared with inkjet printers. The printing speed of this thermal printer is significantly slower, it takes about 5-6 seconds to print one page.

On the other hand, It can print letter papers in black and white color only, and I am quite surprised with the printing quality especially when you use it to print simple content with text only; The text still looks a little jagged when seeing up close but the sharpness and clarity are amazing. keeps the quality of the documents the same if not even better than regular-sized wired printers, the sharpness of the images and the high level of details I got on my prints were honestly astonishing, the reason for that is that first, it has a high-resolution printer which allows printing high-quality documents and not skips any details and second, it uses high-quality thermal paper, which is the main factor in the quality of the prints, that’s why we recommend using original thermal paper provided by the company to get the best results. Undoubtedly, this is one of the best printing quality in all portable printers I’ve used before.

Charging & Battery Life

The Phomemo M08F is equipped with a large battery that gives an autonomy of 120 of A4 thermal paper continuously once fully charged, but in reality, this printer will last up to several days depending on your usage, the reason for that is because it saves battery pretty well by going from normal mode to turning off when not in use for a long time ( This feature is activated from the printer settings in the application ), I personally charged only once and used for a week because I didn’t use it that much, but I would expect it to last a couple of days for someone who prints more frequently for office work or house usage, with this kind of autonomy, you’ll have much more freedom and portability without the need to worry about the printer dying out during work sessions.

Phomemo M08F Review

It comes with a USB C cable for charging that could be plugged either into a charging brick or simply one of your computer’s USB ports and it will take around 3 hours to fully charge from 0 to 100.

Final verdict

In the end, as a tech enthusiast, I feel like the Phomemo M08F solves a lot of issues we face with printing documents, especially since it has got most important features you would get from a regular printer. I personally really like all the features and the flexibility this device brings, starting from a very lightweight and compact size that encouraged me and made it very easy to integrate it into my life, going over to the high-quality prints, the portability with no cable, no ink, printing only requires thermal paper that provides sharp images, as well as Bluetooth, the huge battery and is lower cost than the traditional printer. It is also compatible with various systems, which not only connect smartphones via Bluetooth but also connect computers via USB to use more freely. In addition, it also has wider applications. You can print documents, photos, web pages, etc.

Phomemo M08F Review

I can definitely see myself using this device to print my documents and I also most certainly recommend it to people who need portability, and flexibility or even business travelers who don’t want to use public printers with security risks. Overall, I think this is a good portable printer. So, The Phomemo M08F Mobile printer is available for purchase on the official Phomemo website and Amazon, check it out, and don’t miss out on this great deal.