Photo Printer Review

Comparing photo printers and costs

The best reviews for portable inkjet and thermal-dye (also called dye-sublimation) photo printers directly compare and show reproductions of actual size and enlarged prints from multiple printers. PC Magazine no longer does that, but new review site PrinterInfo.com comes close in that regard and provides far more comprehensive photo-printer reviews; unfortunately, PrinterInfo.com covers few currently available portable snapshot printers. CNet.com reviews more compact photo printers than anyone else and provides detailed, comparative reviews but, as with PC Magazine, does not provide sample prints or other visual aids. PC World and Consumer Reports both evaluate a lot of photo printers, but primarily limit reports to charted data and opinion.

Dedicated personal photo printers print 4-by-6-inch snapshots directly from your digital camera without needing a computer. We've seen them reviewed as portable photo printers, compact photo printers, mini and snapshot printers. If you want a photo printer that can print snapshots as well as 8-by-10-inch photos and text pages, you need a regular inkjet printer. See our separate report on inkjet printers. Photo-print quality between the small-format portable photo printers discussed here and the full-sized models in our other report is comparable, according to some reviews, but others say the full-size printers produce better photo quality. However, the printer manufacturers aren't expecting you to choose between the two types of printers. The mini models are marketed as specialty printers for portable use.

For the most part, experts say you can expect good photo quality from snapshot printers. We found mixed reviews for many photo printers, but dye-sublimation printer Panasonic KX-PX20 (*Est. $185) has the dubious honor of not being liked by any reviewer that we found. The most comprehensive review of the Panasonic photo printer comes from PrinterInfo.com, where Tom Warhol pans the machine's print quality as lacking in virtually every regard. Speed tests show that the model is comparable to other dye-sublimation printers but significantly slower than inkjets; the loss of print speed may be worth it for users who are willing to wait for great photos, but the Panasonic KX-PX20 fails to deliver a higher quality worth waiting for, according to Warhol. Moreover, the KX-PX20 is more expensive to purchase and operate than the competition.