This week I bought a Sprocket Mobile Printer from HP. This printer is about the size of a mobile phone, weighs around 6 ounces (170 grams), and is portable. It is easy to load the Zink Technology paper that comes with the printer (10 sheets 2 x 3-inch (5 x 7.6 cm) Needless to say this printer has an easy to use App for your mobile devices. The sheets that you get in the box are stickers, so as you will see from my examples, I stuck them in a notebook.
I found the set up of this printer incredibly simple, the App is also easy to use, but a bit light on features. Loading the Zink technology paper into the printer is also incredibly simple, the paper that comes in the box has a sticker back, which is a fun feature, it means you can either use the print as a sticker, or leave the backing paper on and just store it as you would any other prints that you have.
The blurb for the printer states that the printer would be good for “Families, single users and others who want the latest printing features for professional documents, web pages, lab-quality photos and more at home”, I would not consider the quality of this printer as professional or lab quality. This, to me, is a fun little printer to have for your mobile devises. If I have time over the next few days, I might scan the images below properly, so that you can more clearly see the print quality.
This printer is in the same category as the Instax Sp-2 printer. I have the Instax SP-2 and I really like it. The main differences that I can see, so far, between the printers is that, the actual print area is a bit larger in the Sprocket than on the Instax Mini prints and the Sprocket prints are half as expensive as Instax Mini, I also see the ability to turn prints into stickers, as a fun feature with the Sprocket. The printer unit itself is cheaper to buy than the SP-2, so that also needs to be kept in mind.
I found the quality of the first ten prints to be inconsistent, but, I shall experiment and see if that is a known unknown.
If you have either printer, please let me know what you think of them.
Thank you.
Gallagher Photography 