With the steady increase in the number of computing devices used by an average person in the recent years, portable printers prove very useful when you want to print something while being away from office or home. These are small printers that can be carried by the itinerant salesman or entrepreneur, and used as part of a mobile office which would also usually include a laptop and a wireless internet connection. Portable printers weigh between 5-15 lbs, which may not prove very light, but is still portable enough to be carried by one person in their luggage.
When do you need a Portable Printer
Portable printers weigh less, which makes them an ideal traveler’s
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companion. Even if you are not a regular traveler, portable printers can help you when you do not want to spend too much on a larger printer. For example, you can get the Brother P-touch PT-2730 portable label maker for less than $99 without discount. A printer that can print 4 by 6 inch pictures can be had at $199. At such prices, a portable printer can prove a great investment if you want another printer for your son or daughter, or for other uses around the home and office.
Business Travelers and the Portable Printer
Portable printers help make the mobile office a reality for many business travelers who have to travel with their laptops and mobiles phones to meet their clients, consumers and business partners. If you are attending a convention or a seminar, a printer will allow you to print flyers on the spot to attract attention and interest, which would almost invariably result in a spurt in business interest. Whether you are a salesman on the go, or an executive attending a conference in Las Vegas, a portable printer will ensure that you can reach your potential clients and consumers at the right time, and that too in a professional manner.
Features of a Portable Printer
Generally speaking, a printer is called portable if it weighs less than 15 lbs. However, according to some, a truly portable printer is one that can run on its own battery without being plugged into the wall socket. Apart from the variation in their weight, which is hardly standardized across the industry, features in portable printers vary from manufacturer to manufacturer and from model to model. The different manufacturers who make portable printers include the leaders in the printing world, including HP, Canon, Dell, Brother, Epson and Polaroid.
Of the two popular printing technologies in consumer printers, laser and inkjet, laser printers are bulkier and consume more power, with the result that there are fewer laser portable printer models than there are portable inkjet printer models.
Portable printers based on thermal printing technology are also available in the market. Thermal printers are usually used with commercial printing such as printing labels, receipts and stickers. They can only print in white and black; and that too at a resolution that is lower than inkjet models, which limits their application.
Many portable printers can print documents directly from an USB stick, which can be very helpful if you are not carrying a laptop. Other portable printers can connect with a laptop or computer over Bluetooth or other wireless technologies, which makes them all the more easier to use. Some portable printers can be used with your mobile phone or camera to print documents and/or pictures stored in these devices. This allows you to use your mobile phone or camera and print your favorite pictures while you are on a vacation or on the move.
Another feature in portable printers is the number of photos they can print on a full battery charge. This feature is dependent on the battery life as well as on the amount of toner used by the printer. Good quality toner office products will make sure that you can print more than 100 photos using a single charge. However, the number of prints made by a printer on a charge is mostly dependent on the model of the portable printer, even as toner office ink can improve a printers output per battery charge.
The three top-selling Portable Printer Models
The following are three of the top-selling portable printers in the market currently. They range from the low-priced $99 model to the more feature-rich but pricier models.
- Brother P-touch PT-2730 This label maker can work as a standalone label maker, or connect to a computer and print labels that you have designed on it. When acting as a standalone label maker, it stores a number of labels in its own memory, which can be modified using the keyboard that is attached to it. It can print on both paper and plastic, which makes it all the more suitable as a label maker around the house.
- Canon Pixma ip100 This portable printer has one of the highest printing resolutions in the market. With a color printing resolution of 4,800×1,200 dpi, the ip100 does not leave much room for improvement. Available at prices around $160 on online stores, it can print up to 250 prints per battery charge.
- Epson PictureMate Charm According to Epson, once you buy the battery for this portable printer, you can a print 100 photos without a charge. The battery comes for $49, where the printer itself is available for about $149. This printer can print up to 100 matte photos using a printers ink pack worth $32, which means it costs about 32 cents to print a photo using it.
You can get some great deals on portable printers on the different manufacturer’s websites as well as on online shopping stores. Almost all these printers have a 1 year warranty at the minimum, which means that you will almost always recover their low price. It is advisable to do your research before you buy your portable printer – with different models coming with different features, including wireless connectivity, battery life etc, it becomes important that you make sure that you buy only what you require. Reading online reviews of portable printer models can be very helpful in making that decision. Whether you are a businessman on the go, a parent, or a homemaker who wants to make some labels around the house, a portable printer can be the perfect solution for you.