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No, these portable printers are designed to work with smart devices such as your phone –and, in the case of the Instax Mini LiPlay, to print directly from its integrated camera as well. Do I need a physical cable to connect to the printer? There’s no charging the Kiipix Portable Mini Printer, nor any need to plug it in. Simply load it with Instax Mini film, place your phone face down on the scanner (with the brightness cranked all the way up – trust us), use the reflective mirror to ensure it’s properly aligned, and then you can manually crank out the prints yourself. Without a doubt, the Canon SELPHY Square QX10 has the best print quality of all the portable photo printers on this list. Cost Per Print Ranking
Bluetooth also makes this printer incredibly easy to setup. The process is arguably easier than plugging in a cable. Once you run through the setup wizard, you’ll have prints streaming out in under one minute. Assuming you want to edit your prints, it might take a couple moments longer than that.The Kiipix Portable Mini Printer folds up easily, making it lovely and portable. And if you're the sort of person who often forgets to charge your devices, this is one iPhone printer that won't give you that worry. How do iPhone printers work? The Mint’s battery is recharged with a standard USB charging cable and USB port, and the Mint is built around a sizeable 900mAh lithium-polymer battery. It’s supposed to be able to print all about 40 sheets from a single charge, which is very nearly the entire film capacity of the device. Few people should find 40-prints to be limiting, especially given the slightly prohibitive cost of the photo paper. As such, the bulk of our testing is based on real-world use. What kind of batteries are used? Are they easily rechargeable or replaceable once depleted? Does it use instant film or printer paper, and what are the cost-quality implications? How good is the connection to your phone or other smart device? Is the printer simply portable, or is it actually practical to use while on the go? How to choose the best portable printers We have to say, if you are looking for a small portable printer to carry anywhere, the practical choice is the Polaroid Zip, as it performed well in every category. But if you want the best print quality possible, sacrificing slightly in size and cost per photo, then the clear winner is the Canon SELPHY Square QX10. It uses Zink paper, which means you don't have to add ink, but on the downside this means the picture quality isn't the best," says Tom May in our review. "Still, if you just want to hand out mementos at a social event, it's still a good choice, and it would make a fun gift for kids too."
Think about why you want to print pictures on the move. Do you want the absolute best image quality? Choose a dye-sublimation printer. Do you want the cheapest prints, regardless of quality? Go for a Zink printer. Do you want the coolest prints? You'll probably want an Instax-based printer. They print in one of three different ways. One is using Zink (short for zero ink) photo paper. This is the cheapest type of iPhone printer, although the quality isn't usually the best. An alternative approach is called dye-sublimation, aka 'dye-sub'. This process uses heat to transfer dye to the printing material, and your photos will look better than if they were printed on a Zink printer. Finally there are Zink printers that use zero-ink paper, embedded with color crystals, that offers the cheapest printing option –with often middling quality that's neither as good as a dye sub print, nor as intentionally lo-fi as an Instax print. Do portable printers need ink? Overall, this is a quirky yet intriguing little device, and we're not sure how many people would find its unique combination of features useful. But if you're one of them, then it does what it promises, very well.Finally, there are instant film cameras, which use the same film that you find inside instant cameras. This can be pretty costly though. For more details, see our article. what type of instant film do I need? Some of these printers allow you to edit and add filters before printing. Some can even attach to your phone and print automatically. Consider if you want any extra features with your printer when choosing one. How We Selected
Instant cameras have seen a resurgence over the past couple of years (in the same vein as record players), with photographers and casual snappers alike remembering the fun of physical photos. However, although we love instant cameras, it can be a drag to bring them everywhere and remember to use them (instead of your phone). Here’s where the portable photo printers come in.It records sound too. And of course, you can connect it to your iPhone and print photos from there as well. You can also control the camera via your iPhone if you need to do some remote shooting. So you really do have the best of all worlds. This depends on the printer. The Instax Link series uses actual instant film (the same as you put in Instax film cameras) to produce an authentic instant print. This is a definite stylistic choice, giving you a low-detail, low-fidelity, analog quality that can't be achieved on traditional printers, but comes at a cost –as instant film is pretty pricey. If you want something easy to use, the Kodak Mini 2 is a good choice. Its accompanying iOS app makes it super simple to print out pictures from your iPhone, plus it's compatible with all iPhones running iOS 8.0 and above. These printers all come with special kinds of paper, so you’ll want to consider what kind of pictures you want to print out. The standard size picture is 2x3, but some can print bigger. Since the technology is basically the same across all of these devices, you'd think the results would be similar, but we found a surprising amount of variation when we tested different cameras and printers. Below are our top recommendations for Zink-based cameras and printers.
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