Huawei PixLab X1: The Home Office Printer You Won’t Want to Smash
Huawei PixLab X1 Wireless Laser Printer
Wave goodbye to your annoying printer, and say hello to Huawei’s excellent PixLab X1 wireless laser printer. Perfect for the home office, the device offers incredibly simple setup, great performance and, on release, will also support remote printing, so you don’t even need to be at home if a family member wants to print something off.
Huawei’s PixLab X1 laser printer is an excellent device for the home office. Why? Because it actually offers fuss-free printing; a concept seemingly lost on literally every other printer manufacturer on the planet. If you’re getting the sense that this review will be part gushing about how good this printer is, and part moaning about how awful other printers are, then your Spidey senses are correct.
Anyway, the PixLab X1 printer isn’t available yet, but its MWC 2022 launch told us that it will have an RRP of €349 (about $375), so if you’re thinking about replacing your stupid HP Deskjet or whatever other device is currently the bane of your printing life, then the PixLab X1 is the perfect candidate. Wanna know why?
Because this is a pre-release device, it does not currently have all of the features available in the UK, which is where the reviewer is based. As such, he could not review the remote printing element of the PixLab X1, as remote connectivity with the AI Life app is not available yet.
What’s in the Box?
The Huawei PixLab X1 comes in a pretty big box. Here’s what you’ll find in it:
And that, home/office printing enthusiast, is your lot. You don’t need anything else, and you’re one step closer to being able to throw your old printer at the wall in an act of spiteful defiance.
Pretty, as Printers Go
While I’m not one to get all amorous about a printer, the PixLab X1 does have a pleasing aesthetic quality for what is essentially a plastic box full of circuit boards and printing mechanisms. The X1 comes in white, and its dimensions are 14.5 x 12.6 x 11.4 inches. It weighs just under 21 pounds, so it isn’t a particularly heavy device either.
The top of the PixLab X1 carries the scanner/copier. This is the usual flatbed variety with a hinged lid to hold your document in position. On the lid is a sticker featuring a QR code to download the AI Life app. This whole section looks like it is floating above the rest of the Pixlab, which makes for a nice design feature, and lends the printer a more elegant appearance.
The front top also features the capacitive control panel, which is really nice and also very simple. On the left of the panel is the Huawei Share sensor (more about that later). Further right, you have the warning lights for Paper Out, Toner Low, and Paper Jam. In the center is the Network symbol, which illuminates when you’ve successfully connected the printer to your Wi-Fi network.
To the right of the Network symbol are capacitive options for card copy (when you want to copy a driving license, for example) and Duplex Copy (to photocopy two sides of a document). The rightmost point of the control panel features the Cancel and Start controls.
Below this upper section is the paper output tray, with the usual extender to stop your 188-page document from falling in a disorganized heap all over your office. There is also a button here that you press to access the print feed in the event of a jam.
The front of the device features a hinged panel that opens downwards, revealing the toner drum, and below here you have the paper feed tray.
Around the back, and to the left is the power input socket and the power button. There is also a USB-A port and an Ethernet port. There is also another hatch to clear potential paper jams that could occur round the rear of the PixLab X1.
Aside from the anti-slip rubber feet underneath, that completes our tour around the printer.
Setting the Huawei PixLab X1 Printer Up
The Huawei PixLab X1 is incredibly easy to set up, a feature present across the largerSuper Deviceecosystem that Huawei is continuously adding to.
You can also find the printer straight away from a Huawei laptop and connect it to the network using that method. Just bring your Huawei laptop within range of the printer—one meter—and you’ll get a pairing pop-up.
If you’re using a Huawei device (I tested with both Huawei and non-Huawei smartphones) then you simply need to bring your EMUI 12 or later phone within 30cm of the printer and you get a pop-up window, inviting you to connect to the PixLab X1. Easy, right? It is called HarmonyOS for a reason, you know. This is how I set the printer up and connected it to my home network.
Other than that, though, and aside from powering the device up in the first place, there’s little else you need to do. It is very easy to configure and get running. Once it is connected to your network, any device can print from it. It is just a case of selectingPrinton the document and device in question, and then your source device will find the PixLab X1 and off you go, printing documents gleefully. Plus, if you have a Huawei smartphone, then you could print from literally anywhere, via a number of methods.
A Dream to Use
By now, you’ve probably got an ink-ling (get it?) that home printing is one of those things thatreallyannoys me. I can’t count the number of hours lost as I try in vain to print a postage label off for my partner, while the printers I have previously owned have all resolutely refused for 45 minutes. I’m glad to say the Pixlab X1 is the complete opposite of this.
Printing with the X1 is a doddle, no matter how you print. I print a lot of my documents from my smartphone (currently a non-Huawei model) and it works perfectly. I simply locate the document I want to print, selectPrintwithin the document options, select the Huawei PixLab X1 from the extensive list of one printers and, hey presto, my document prints.
You’re probably sat there thinking “Wow, a printer that prints. How novel.” Well, yes, it is novel for a lot of people who also don’t own a PixLab X1, and who also know the struggle of home printing all too well. I refer you to my earlier Vinted label example.
No longer am I left resetting the printer ad nauseam while I attempt to diagnose some mysterious non-issue. Instead, I send my document to print and then go and retrieve it from the printer.
The point I’m making is that the X1 does its job really well, thanks—in the most part—to its simplicity and ease of connectivity. In the month I have been testing the device, I have not encountered a single error. Not one. Which is impressive given my previous record with the things.
Not once did I experience a paper jam, or a document failing to print. I saw no loss of network connection, and all the documents I printed turned out perfect. Note, this was from my laptop or my smartphone—both yielded perfect results every time.
So what if you have a Huawei smartphone to pair up with the printer? Well, I tested it as part of the Super Device ecosystem, and therefore also with a Huawei P50 Pro smartphone, and everything was even easier!
How was it easier? Because of the Huawei Share option. If I’m next to the printer, I can simply open the file I want to print, tap the P50 against the Huawei Share icon on the printer control panel, and I get a prompt on the P50 to print.
Printing via a Huawei laptop is no more difficult than with any other printer, and follows the same process as other Windows devices.
One feature I was unable to access, presumably as this is a pre-release device—remote printing. This works via the AI Life app, but I was unable to open the printer controls either via the app or via the printer icon in my Huawei P50’s system tray. This is due to the device not yet being commercially available, and Huawei assures me it will be present once the device starts shipping.
So, the PixLab X1 laser printer is a top dog when it comes to ease of use.
Pristine Printing Performance
In terms of the actual printouts, the quality is excellent. This is a laser printer, so you can expect the print quality to be better than that of your bog standard inkjet (or even a bells and whistles inkjet). Note, though, that the Huawei PixLab X1 only performs monochrome printing, so you won’t get color images out of the device. This is something I’d love to see Huawei have a go at next, considering the PixLab X1 is an excellent monochrome printer.
With that in mind, don’t expect to be printing all of your holiday snaps out on the PixLab X1, unless you want them all in various shades of gray. This is a home office printer, and as such is best suited to printing off work documentation, or anything else in text form with minimal imagery (or with images/charts/tables etc that don’t require color, necessarily).
Huawei advertises print speeds at 28 ppm (pages per minute) and I can confirm this to be true. The X1 matches this speed when it is copying a document. Huawei states you’ll get 15,000 printouts from one drum cartridge, which is great for reducing waste. Note that the X1 uses a proprietary cartridge form factor, so you won’t be able to replace them with an alternative brand.
Scanning is excellent, and the device produces faithful scans in crystal clarity, with the ability to scan in color, unlike with printing. Copying is also great, although, again, it’s possible to only print copies in monochrome.
Does the job, then.
Shove Your Old Printer off the Desk
If someone came to me and said “please can you recommend me a fuss-free printer for my home office?”, then my response would be “Yes. The Huawei Pixlab X1”, providing they only need to print in monochrome. The device performs all of its tasks without a hitch, producing great-quality printouts, copies, and scans. An excellent home office printer that makes your printing life a breeze.
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