Zebra ZXP Series 1 Card Printer

Over the last couple of years, the folks at Zebra have been beavering away refining their line up of ID card printers.

A new addition that is just arriving on the market is the low cost, ZXP Series 1.

The new model is clearly based on the P100i printer (in fact other than the change of colour of the button on the front, the models look just about identical), but there are some useful modifications in the new design.

As you’d expect, the ZXP Series 1 is faster than the old model (still the slowest of the Zebra card printers and you’ll be wanting to look at the ZXP3 or 7 if you need to print serious quantities of cards) and the card hopper has greater capacity (up to 100 cards). It uses Zebra’s latest Load-N-Go ribbons with the little RFID tags – no third party ribbons allowed! Note that ZXP1 is a single sided printer. If you want to print both sides of your cards, you’ll need to get a ZXP3 or run the cards through the ZXP1 twice.

Magnetic Stripe encoding is an optional feature (the only type of encoding – if you want anything else, look at the better equipped ZXP3 printer). Note that MagStripe encoding is a factory fitted option – if you think you might need it, remember to order your printer with this option installed from the plant.

Connectivity is via USB as standard with Ethernet optional. To be honest, since Ethernet is standard on every $99 printer from BestBuy, it should be included on printers like this as well – not a $300 option.

One interesting feature is the addition of NFC (Near Field Communication) as part of Zebra’s Print Touch package. This allows printer info to be discovered using an NFC equipped device such as phone or tablet – sorry Apple users, you miss out on this, but there is a QR Code for us  iPhone using Luddites that does the same thing – same as in the barcode printers.

As is the case with all Zebra products, the ZXP1 is unfortunately not made in the United States.

Although the ZXP1 is clearly the entry level model in the ZXP range, it is certainly a capable machine, capable of handling a lot of card printing applications. You can download the brochure from Zebra’s site here.

Need to print ID cards in your business or organization? Here at Winco ID, we are a Zebra business partner and can help you determine which Zebra (or other brand) card printer is perfect for you. You can contact us via our Contact Page or call me at 603-598-1553 x237.