Product Review: iDPRT M610 Pro Thermal Printer

Well, we haven’t done one of these in a VERY LONG time. Probably the biggest reason is that I (personally) don’t use a lot of “cutting edge” equipment. I either “rescue” discarded, older equipment, or I buy it refurbished from a vendor like Newegg or Ebay. The other reason is that hardware vendors have done a much, much better job of supporting Linux. Before, Linux users were left to their own devices – and their own workarounds – to get hardware to work. Boy, how things have changed!

I started noticing an attitude change among hardware manufacturers when it came to supporting Linux about 12 or so years ago, when I first bought my (now defunct) Samsung laser printer. Steadily, over those dozen or so years, I’ve watched Linux support from hardware manufacturers slowly go from being almost nonexistent to now being more the rule, rather than the exception. I figured (and hoped) that the situation would improve. Hardware manufacturers, in their never ending quest for profits, cannot afford to ignore any part of the computing market. With Linux now making up between 3% and 10% of the computing market (depending on who’s numbers you believe), that would be a LOT of computer users to ignore … and a huge hit to potential profits.

I saw something on Amazon recently that piqued my interest. Now, I have a new Brother laser printer and scanner combo that I purchased to replace my dying Samsung laser printer. Samsung hasn’t made printers in several years. HP bought the Samsung printer division when Samsung decided to get out of the printer market. So, it was time to finally let that old Samsung ML-2525W laser printer go live out the rest of its days in the local landfill.

But this article isn’t about my new Brother laser printer and scanner combo. And, I didn’t buy my new Brother laser printer/scanner combo off of Amazon.

But, what piqued my interest was a thermal printer. Specifically, it is the iDPRT MT610 Pro portable thermal printer. It currently costs right at $80 on Amazon. And, it’s actually a pretty cool little printer, even if it can only print on “special” thermal printer paper.

There are several reasons I like this printer. First, I love how compact and portable it is. To use the printer with your PCLinuxOS PC, a USB-A to USB-C cable is included. The only other things in the box (besides the printer and the USB cable) are a multilingual instruction manual, and a 10-sheet package of the special thermal paper to get you started. My box came with A4 sized paper.

The printer is rechargeable, and sports a 2,000 mAh Li-ON battery. That USB-C cable is used to not only charge your printer, but to also connect it to your computer. The manufacturer claims that the printer can print continuously for four hours on a single charge. I cannot test that claim for two reasons. First, I don’t have enough thermal paper on hand to withstand four continuous hours of printing. Second, since the printer is (currently) plugged into my main laptop, it stays in a charged state.

And this printer is super small, yet capable of printing out a full size U.S. Letter sheet (or A4/A5 sized printouts, if that’s the size you’re most used to). It measures about 10.2 inches wide (25.9 cm), 2.2 inches deep (5.6 cm), and 1.8 inches tall (4.6 cm). It weighs only 1.1 pounds (0.5 kg). So, it checks off the portable checkboxes perfectly.

The printer sports a print resolution of 300 dpi, which is quite fine. For comparison’s sake, keep in mind that a “standard” resolution fax is only 100 dpi resolution. It will also print multiple sizes of paper, including 4 inch wide labels (10.16 cm). And don’t let this little printer’s appearance fool you. It can print out a full A4 sheet in about five seconds.

There’s another feature that might make this little portable printer an attractive purchase: it will also connect with your mobile devices, wirelessly, over a Bluetooth connection. Simply download their app (a QR code is included in the instruction manual), and follow the directions.

While connectivity to my mobile devices may be something I’ll use from time to time (I can also print to my Brother printer from my phone, if I need), I can see myself using this printer mostly while it’s connected to my laptop running PCLinuxOS. In the instruction manual, the manufacturer includes a website address to download drivers. Imagine my surprise when I saw that drivers were available for Linux among the supported platforms.

Installation of the drivers was fairly straight forward. As the root user, type ./install on the command line from within the directory, and allow the script to complete (on my computer, it was complete in about 15 seconds). However, do note that you will have to make the install and uninstall scripts executable before you can run them.

Once the install script finishes, you will need to go to CUPS (http://127.0.0.1:631 or http://localhost:631) and install the PPD file for the printer. In CUPS, simply go to the top item in the second column to finish installing the printer. Just follow the prompts. Once that was done, the new printer was immediately available for use.

The 10-page sample pack of A4 thermal isn’t really a lot to get started with, so you’ll have to be somewhat “judicious” about what you print out, at least until you get another supply of thermal paper. Expect that paper to be more expensive than your run-of-the-mill printer paper you can pick up just about anywhere. I ordered a 200-sheet package of U.S. Letter sized, single-sheet paper from Amazon, and it cost right at $25. There is also an assortment of special thermal fanfold paper available, and this little printer can accept either. While this printer doesn’t require ink or toner, the extra cost of the thermal paper will definitely increase your per-sheet costs of printing. I can print items on my Brother laser printer much more cheaply, and on plain paper. Compare that to a ream (500 sheets) of 20# printer paper, which I can get for around $5 or $6 (U.S.)

Here's a tip from using this printer for a little bit. Go ahead and get the “folded” (fanfold) thermal paper. That way, you can print multi-page documents more easily. Otherwise, you will have to print each single page of a multi-page document separately. With the single-sheet packs of paper, which is great for single sheet documents, the printer will give an error when it goes to print the second (and subsequent) sheets, due to a not detecting a sheet of paper present for the next sheet. With the fanfold paper, it will just keep on printing until either the entire document is printed out, or until you run out of fanfold paper. Curiously, the printer specs state that it can be used for U.S. Letter and Legal sized papers, but good luck finding U.S. Legal sized thermal paper. My search on Amazon came up empty. U.S. Letter sized paper, though, is plentiful, usually in 100 or 200 sheet packages. The “error” experienced by the printer not detecting the next sheet of paper put the printer into a “pause” mode. I had to go into CUPS and select “Resume Printer” to get the printer to print again.

The image above was taken by my cell phone. I printed out my Firefox TOU article from elsewhere in this April 2025 issue using the thermal printer (as it appeared in Google Docs), and then took a closeup picture of the printout. As you can see, it does a reasonably good job. The printing is nice and crisp, and for a monotone printer, it doesn’t do too badly with graphic images. Sure, you can see some banding and some dithering of the image, but holding at arm's length (which is proper to assess image printouts), that banding and dithering is barely noticeable. In fact, the image is definitely clear enough that it looks rather clear. The only “adjustment” I made to the original image from my cell phone (other than resizing) was to adjust the image to have proper white balance.

Now, this thermal paper is … uhm … different. First of all, it feels noticeably thinner than regular 20# printer paper (the most common weight of paper used here in the U.S.). The printer’s instruction manual tells you that the “glossy” side goes up when inserting a sheet of paper into the printer's infeed slot, but good luck figuring out which side is which. They look remarkably similar. But, if you pay VERY CLOSE attention, you will notice that the treated side of the paper has a slightly slicker feel than the non-printable back side of the paper. It took me a couple of (failed) attempts (printing inadvertently to the back side of the paper) before I finally got it correct. For what it's worth, some manufacturers of the thermal printer paper include special marks (usually small black bars) on the backside of the paper, to assist you in figuring out which side is the printable side of the paper.

I also think I'd be careful about leaving documents printed out on this thermal paper locked up in the car on a hot day, or near any other heat sources. While I'm uncertain what the temperature threshold is for this paper before what’s printed on them starts fading, I'm not certain I'd want to risk storing documents I wanted or needed anywhere near those warmer spaces.

I am also not aware of how “archival” these printouts are on this thermal paper. Some of the product descriptions for the various thermal papers mention (vaguely) something about expecting the printout to last anywhere from three to five years. As such, this printer will do exceptionally well for things like job resumes, term papers, school essays, and other printing tasks that don’t necessarily require long term archival printing. However, I don’t think I’d want to use this printer for printing tasks that require a longer “presence,” such as mortgage papers, contracts, and other such items. For a more archival “presence,” you would do better to use a laser printer on regular paper (or even archival paper, if you’re so inclined). A laser printer or even an inkjet printer will offer you printouts that last a LOT longer. Some of the “longevity” of the printouts on the thermal paper is highly dependent on storage conditions. If I were “forced” to use this thermal printer for documents that I know need a long-term storage solution, I’d be sure to copy them to a different printout medium (like using a copy machine to copy the thermal paper documents to a “regular” paper), as well as scanning the documents to a PDF file (which you should back up to multiple locations).

There’s one other thing to consider about the thermal paper used with thermal printers. Because it’s only coated on one side, you cannot print on both sides of the paper. Now, my new Brother laser printer is capable of doing two-sided printing. So, besides the much more economical printing afforded by the laser printer, I can extend those savings by selecting two-sided printing, reducing the number of sheets of paper necessary to print out a document by half.

Conclusion

This really is a nice little printer. I can see this printer being especially attractive to users who don’t have to print many things, but only the occasional document. You will never have to worry about running out of ink or toner, or if your (obscenely) expensive ink cartridge dried up. Yes, you will have to ensure that you have thermal paper on hand, so there is that particular cost for operating this printer.

I also like how drivers for Linux were available for it. Like I mentioned earlier, things sure have changed when it comes to support for Linux from hardware manufacturers.

The print is clear and legible, at least on the samples that I printed out. With the exception of the different “feel” of the thermal paper, I think it would otherwise be difficult to tell the difference between this printer and my Brother laser printer. Visually, they are pretty close, with the Brother holding an ever so slight of an edge in clarity.

You could do a LOT worse for a printer. If you’re a “high-volume” printer, this may not be the perfect printer for you, with the expense of the thermal paper being so high (roughly, 12 to 15 cents per sheet). At least not as your primary printer. A traditional laser printer will get the job done for far less expense. But, there are some scenarios where this printer makes sense. This would be perfect for students, who only have to periodically print something out. This printer also would be perfect for someone who travels a lot. They can carry this printer with them, either in their backpack or briefcase, and have access to a printer anytime, and anywhere they want or need. Or, maybe you’re what I call an “occasional printer,” and only seldom need to print something out. Then, this printer may just fulfill your needs, provided you keep a cache of the thermal paper on hand. Then, you won’t have to fuss with any of those messy inks or toners.

Yes, you could do a LOT worse for a printer.