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Electronics Giant Huawei Launches First Laser Printer

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Up until now, Pantum has been the only Chinese brand of laser printer, but that’s now changed with the PixLab X1. On September 13th, Huawei launched its first printer, the futuristic-looking PixLab X1, which is now available in the Chinese market. Priced at 1,899 yuan (U.S. $300), the printer runs on Huawei’s HarmonyOS operating system.

The A4 desktop multifunctional laser printer can use two toner cartridges, a standard cartridge priced at 99 yuan ($U.S. $15) and another at 299 yuan (U.S. $46). It features a very modern design, with a document scanner mounted above the document-output tray. Instead of buttons, there’s a black touch panel that remains hidden until the user taps on the screen and wakes up the printer.

The PixLab X1 features mobile printing from smartphones and tablets, as well as Near Field Communication (NFC) compatibility, enabling tap-and-print with NFC-enabled devices. Huawei says the printer can connect to mobile devices in as fast as 20 seconds, and that it only takes 1 minute from connection to the beginning of the first page of a document being printed – and that overall, connection efficiency is 30-times faster than with other printers.

Print speed is rated at up to 28 ppm, and there’s automatic duplex printing, copy and scan, with color scanning at up to 1,200 dpi resolution.

About Huawei

Huawei Technologies Company is a multinational company headquartered in Guangdong, China, that develops telecommunications networks, as well as PCs and tablets, and wearable computing devices that use the company HarmonyOS operating system. In 2020, it became the world’s leading seller of smartphones, surpassing Apple and Samsung, and for 2018, it recorded $108.5 billion in revenue.

Huawei however has been at the center of much controversy, and there have been various allegations that it’s been involved in espionage, including concerns that its products could be used for spying on governments and companies by the Chinese government. In 2012, the U.S. banned companies from using Huawei networking equipment, and in 2019 banned Hauwei from U.S. communications networks. Other countries have also banned Huawei from their 5G networks. That probably means it will be unlikely that Huawei will market the PixLab X1 in many countries outside of China any time soon.