A phone photo printer rescues the thousands of pictures trapped on your phone and turns them into real prints you can stick on the fridge, tuck in a wallet or pop in a frame. These pocketable little machines connect over Bluetooth or Wi-Fi and push out a finished photo in under a minute, straight from an app. An extensive test of phone photo printers sorted the best, and these are the top picks, checked against current UK prices.
What to Look For
Print technology. This is the big decision. ZINK (zero-ink) printers use special heat-sensitive paper and are cheap and simple, but the results can look a little flat. Dye-sublimation (also called thermal sublimation) printers, as used by the winners here, lay down colour in passes and seal each print, giving richer, more accurate photos that resist water and smudging. For quality, dye-sub wins.
Print size and format. Match the output to what you want. Pocket printers turn out small photos of about 7.6 by 5 cm; square printers produce trendy Polaroid-style prints of 6.2 by 6.2 cm (6.2 by 4.6 cm without the frame), often with an adhesive back; and postcard printers deliver larger 15 by 10 cm photos for framing. Bigger prints need a bigger, less pocketable machine.
Print quality and running costs. Look beyond the printer price to the cost per photo, which varies enormously. Dye-sublimation refills are often cheaper per print than you would expect, and the best model on test also had the lowest running costs, so a slightly pricier printer can work out cheaper over a few hundred photos. Check how many sheets a pack contains — anything from 15 sheets to 50 sheets — and the price of refills before you buy.
Portability and battery. Decide where it will live. A true pocket printer with a built-in battery — some pack around a 620 mAh cell — goes anywhere, while a mains-powered postcard printer is happier on a desk. Weight and size climb quickly with print size, so be honest about whether you need something for the trouser pocket, the jacket pocket or the shelf.
Connectivity and app. All of these print wirelessly from a phone, but the app makes the experience. A good one adds filters, frames, collage layouts and simple editing, and prints reliably over Bluetooth or Wi-Fi in around 15 seconds to a minute per photo. Check the app supports both iPhone and Android before you commit.
The Winner: Kodak Mini 2 Retro
The Kodak Mini 2 Retro P210R (around £74.99) is the best phone photo printer for most people. It delivers genuinely very good image quality yet prints relatively large photos and still slips easily into a trouser pocket — a rare combination. It uses a dye-sublimation process (the maker calls it 4PASS) for durable, good-looking prints, and it took the top spot by beating the previous ZINK-based champion on both photo quality and running costs. As an affordable, pocketable all-rounder, it leads the field. Check the price on Amazon
