Going Somewhere? Then you might want to carry one of these tiny, high-quality printers in your back pocket.
By Michael Gros
Opinions expressed by BIZ Experiences contributors are their own.
There's no reason to give up printing just because you hitthe road. CRN Test Center has tested the Brother MPrintmicroprinter, the Canon i70 Color Bubble Jet Printer and the HPDeskJet 450e-all small enough to travel with you.
The Canon and HP are general-purpose printers capable ofblack-and-white, color and photo printing on any size or type ofpaper. In the interest of portability, the Brother lets you printonly in black and white and only on A7 paper.
All include wireless ports for printing from Pocket PCs orPalm-based PDAs and USB ports for printing from notebooks or PCs.Canon and HP also print directly from printing-enabled devices likedigital cameras without a PC or PDA. The DeskJet even prints viaBluetooth, though setup is tricky.
The Canon i70 combines a small size (12.4 by 6.9 by 2.0 inches)with a light weight (4 pounds). It prints in black and white at 600x 600 dpi and in color at 4,800 x 1,200 dpi. The Canon i70 is alsoaffordable: It costs $250 (all prices street) without therechargeable battery, which sells for $90 and provides power for upto 450 printed pages.
The HP DeskJet 450 cbi is slightly larger (13.3 by 3.2 by 6.5inches), heavier (4.6 pounds) and more expensive ($349) than thei70. Its rechargeable battery prints only 350 pages. Colorresolution is the same as the i70, but the DeskJet printsblack-text documents at 1,200 x 1,200 dpi. We found that the i70printed sharper colors and had better quality for photos.
The i70 also has a speed advantage. Black-and-white textdocuments print at 6 pages per minute (ppm); a digital photo on8.5-by-11 photographic paper took one minute, 27 seconds. TheDeskJet prints black-and-white documents at 3.5 ppm; it took threeminutes and 43 seconds to print a color photo.
The $299 Brother MPrint, on the other hand, enables truein-the-field printing. It's light (less than 10 ounces) andtiny (4.0 by 6.4 by 0.7 inches). The unit prints at 4 ppm and, inaddition to its A7-size ThermaPlus M paper, will printself-adhesive labels and carbon-copy paper. The MPrint prints at300 dpi and is powered by a rechargeable battery capable of up to100 pages. While the i70 and 450 cbi are both available at retail,the MPrint is only available through IT consultants or solutionproviders.
If you need a high-quality, inexpensive printer for use on theroad or even at work, the Canon i70 is your best choice. For atruly tiny printer that still produces quality printouts, considerthe Brother MPrint.
Michael Gros is affiliated with the CRN Test Center, thetechnology testing facility for CRN, a weekly newspaperaimed at IT consultants and solution providers.
