Those tiny printers you print from your phone

[FitatFifty]

Are they any good and can anyone recommend one. DD has asked for one but I want to know they work!

I bought an HP Sprocket a while back from Amazon. The quality of the photos was pretty poor compared to properly printed ones and not great even compared to ones I print on our home printer. Also the paper was very expensive.

I gave it to a charity shop in the end.

oh no! It’s the one thing DD has asked for after her GCSEs. We hoped it might be useful for A level Art too.

Do you mean mini thermal printer or mini proper printer?

We have a mini thermal one (less than £20) and it’s pretty handy for text / formulas / line diagrams for homework bits that sort of thing. its the same tech as thermal till receipts & rolls of sticky back replacement paper are cheap. It’s a bit rubbish at photos, so a year later the birthday pres was an instax photo thing which is great but refill is pricey.

The thermal one loses quality when the battery fades (as it doesn’t heat up enough). What is it she wants it for?

i didn’t know there were different ones. Yes they need to print decent photos, small from her phone.

My dd has a Canon Selphy CP1500. You download an app onto your phone and can then print off your photos. They’re good quality photos and you can do different layouts and edits. She’s very happy with it.

I think I'd tell her you're struggling to find one that's decent quality or has good reviews, could she look into it more, and then hopefully she'll realize they are not great. Alternatively, would she be interested in something like a projector that works from the phone to show movies? Or a proper printer. Or, for photography, secondhand point and snap type cameras seem to be all the rage with the youth.

The thermal ones are not great quality, fun for kids but you end up with a grainy black and white picture, you can buy the rolls as just paper or sticker paper.

the ones about £100 that print a proper Polaroid picture give you a great pic but the refills are stupidly expensive.

Then you can get just mini photo printers that print on photo paper, the printers themselves are more expensive but the printer paper is cheaper. You end up with a good quality picture,

If she just wants something fun then I’d get her one of the thermal ones it will probably end up being a use it for a couple of weeks then forget it deal but if she really wants one and you can afford £20-30 then they have them in home bargains, Asda or B&M

Do you remember the old Polaroid instant print cameras OP? The photos were never brilliant quality, and that’s the quality you get with Fuji Instax cameras, the instax printer, Polaroid instant (which I’d avoid like the plague) and HP sprocket. If you want good quality pics, then I’d second the Cannon Selphy. I take mine on holiday so I can print photos and dd keeps a scrap book. I have had both the Fuji instax camera and mini printer, but films are expensive and not best quality.

We have an instax camera but it’s also to print digital images, not just take them herself

I don’t mind spending £100 or whatever if we get good useable photos.

Mine is brilliant quality prints but the paper is expensive
Canon selphy i got the square one

Photos as good as professional ones. I'd rather print fewer at good quality

I really do think you need to find out exactly what she wants it to do. If she wants good quality "photos" for, say, art etc., then maybe a good option would be just photo paper in a bog standard inkjet printer, which would also double up for printing essays, homework, etc on normal paper.

If it's for things like exercise books, such as taking photos of a science experiment, or photos from a text book, to be printed and stuck in exercise books, then a cheap thermal printer will probably do the job as it's only really for reference.

We do have a normal inkjet (which I am thinking of throwing out the window) but she wants one she can print herself. Photo quality.

ill look at the selphy but I see there is a Kodak one too.