Epson PictureMate Charm

Bottom Line

The Epson PictureMate Charm is decidedly the best snapshot printer on the market today. Its photo quality is exceptional, easily surpassing drugstore prints. The downside to that amazing resolution, however, is the need to frequently replace ink cartridges. Neither will the Charm print photos larger than 4 inches by 6 inches, or on something other than photo paper. But if you want a reasonably priced portable printer for simple snapshots, the PictureMate Charm is your best bet.

Ease Of Use

See it before you print it. You'll need about 10 minutes to set up the Epson PictureMate Charm, depending on how fast your computer can install software and the time it takes you to find a USB cable, which isn't included. Once you get started, on-screen instructions guide you through photo editing on the 2.5-inch-wide LCD screen, where you can crop, reduce red eye, or even add borders and select different layouts, including proof sheets and wallets. More options are available on your computer. Susan Glinert at ComputerShopper.com says, "The PictureMate Charm comes beautifully packed…in the perfect order for setup and the minimal required assembly."

There are slots for multiple brands of media cards, or you can print from most digital cameras using the PictBridge interface. The Charm isn't Wi-Fi enabled, but a Bluetooth adapter (*Est. $40) will allow printing from a smartphone or other device.

The compact PictureMate Charm prints on only 4-by-6 photo paper and stores 20 sheets. In comparison, the HP Photosmart C310A (*Est. $180) stores 125 sheets, and the Canon Pixma iP100 (*Est. $170) stores 50 sheets. "This versatile printer is a productive tool for beginners, adults, kids, event photographers, and even medical and office professionals," says a user at BHPhotoVideo.com.

Design

You can take it anywhere. At 7.9 pounds, the Epson PictureMate Charm is lighter than most of its competitors save the Canon Pixma iP100, which weighs 4.4 pounds. Although the HP Photosmart C310A outperforms it in a few areas, it's considerably bulkier at 16.9 pounds. The Charm is easily portable enough to take to parties, family reunions, soccer tournaments and dance recitals, the office holiday party, or even on vacation. One reviewer likens it to a mini cooler with its convenient carrying handle.

Competitors like the HP A536 (*Est. $300) lag in nearly every category except portability, media and print source, but can cost twice as much. The Polaroid Z340 (*Est. $250) attaches to a camera and can print on demand without ink, but picture quality is awful.

Included with the PictureMate Charm is paper and ink for about 20 photos. While the printer can operate for several hours on a single battery charge, a PictureMate 200-Series battery (*Est. $40) must be purchased separately.

Performance

Unsurpassed print quality. Photo quality is exhaustively tested by PrinterInfo.com, and the Epson PictureMate Charm rates higher than the HP Photosmart A536 and Polaroid Z340. In terms of color gamut -- the range of colors from a digital image that a printer can reproduce -- the Charm produces a whopping 77 percent, rivaling even professional-grade printers. As a frame of reference, most photo printers tested reproduce between 30 and 60 percent of colors on a given digital file.

The Charm also outperforms the HP Photosmart C310A and the Canon Pixma iP100. Epson is a top performer in the imaging business, and this bicycle basket-sized model produces brilliant results.

Reviewers, however, have differing opinions of what constitutes "fast." PrinterInfo.com calls the Charm a "speed demon" at 34 seconds per print and ConsumerReports.org says photo printing is "very quick." TopTenReviews.com, however, lists the Charm's "not-very-speedy print speed" as a drawback. Apparently, users must decide for themselves how fast is fast, and how fast is slow.

A completely dry, high-quality, smudgeproof, water-resistant print takes time, so waiting a few extra seconds might not be that bad. However, all that quality sucks up a lot of ink. Users and reviewers alike make note of how often ink cartridges need to be replaced.