Mobile Computing: Portable Printing

Feature: Portable Printers From Hewlett-Packard, Brother

Have you seen the recent Hewlett-Packard ad in which a young woman is peering down her glasses at a document emerging from a printer? Ordinarily a printing document is not worth a double take, of course. But in the ad, the woman is printing her document from a notebook in a café, an activity that is bound to incite at least some level of peering.

The ad implies that with a portable printer, you can print your documents just about anywhere. Based on my informal tests of the Hewlett-Packard DeskJet 450 (featured in the ad) and the Brother MPrint, portable printers can certainly be convenient, though they do have some limitations.

HP DeskJet 450 Has a Lot Going for It

The HP DeskJet 450 comes in two variations: the 450ci ($300), without a rechargeable battery, and the 450cbi ($350), which comes with a rechargeable battery. I tested the 450cbi.

This printer is slickly designed. Its paper tray folds down and snaps shut for travel. Upright, it holds up to 45 sheets of plain paper. A slot for 4-inch by 6-inch stock makes it easy to print photos.

A CompactFlash slot allows you to print images from a digital camera directly, without needing a computer. You can also add Bluetooth connectivity via the CompactFlash slot, though you'll need an optional Bluetooth adapter card. It's available for $99 and up at Anycom.

The DeskJet 450 gives you multiple connectivity choices via USB 1.1, parallel, or infrared ports.

Adding ink jet cartridges is a snap, literally, because the cartridges and the slots into which they snap are numbered. The no. 57 slot holds the no. 57 tri-color ink jet cartridge; the no. 56/58 slot is for the no. 56 black cartridge or no. 58 photo printing cartridge. Changing cartridges couldn't be any easier than this.

I printed color images on 4-by-6-inch glossy photo cards both with and without the photo printing cartridge. The cartridge made a noticeable improvement in color quality, especially in skin tones. But even using the standard tri-color cartridge the DeskJet 450 produced great-looking color photos.

As for speed, the DeskJet 450 practically spits pages out: It prints up to 9 pages per minute in black and 8 pages in color, by HP's estimates.

Some Room for Improvement

So what are the downsides?

Could be smaller. I'll start with the reason why I'm writing about the DeskJet 450 in the first place: portability. This model is undoubtedly more compact than the average printer, measuring 13.3 inches wide by 6.5 inches deep by 3.2 inches high. And at 4.2 pounds (without the battery), the 450 is lightweight enough for travel.

But there are smaller color printers on the market. For instance, Canon's new I70 bubble jet printer--which I haven't tested--measures 12.4 inches wide by 6.9 inches deep by 2 inches high and weighs 3.97 pounds without the battery, according to Canon. (For more details on the I70, see Notebooks & Accessories.)

Another Canon bubble jet, the BJC-55, is even more compact, measuring 11.9 inches wide, 4.4 inches deep, and 2 inches high. It weighs just 2.1 pounds with its battery. The BJC-55 doesn't include a sheet feeder, however; the DeskJet 450 and Canon I70 do. For my review of the Canon BJC-55, see "Mobile Computing: Portable Printers and Scanners."

Inconsistent print quality. The text samples I printed on the DeskJet 450 using Kodak's Bright White ink jet paper were inconsistent. Text printed at the best quality setting was actually less crisp than text printed at the normal setting. However, samples printed on HP Premium Paper were much improved, with the best-looking text produced by the best quality setting, as expected.

HP's inks and paper are designed to work together, explains HP technical support specialist Brad Holstein. When printing with non-HP papers you may notice inconsistent results, such as those I experienced.

Printing difficulties. Occasionally, a large Microsoft Word document seemed to choke the printer. The 450 would begin printing the document, then pause indefinitely. I'd try canceling the process in the DeskJet's print spool, and sometimes that worked. Other times, the document was listed in the spool as deleted, yet it remained in the queue. To fix the problem, I had to turn off the printer, restart my computer, and turn the printer back on.

Turning off Word's background print spooler can help documents print more easily from that program, Holstein suggests. But with background printing off, you can't return to work in Word until print spooling is complete, which can slow you down. When I followed Holstein's suggestion, however, Word files printed more smoothly.

Bottom Line: DeskJet 450 Gets Thumbs Up

Despite these caveats, I recommend the DeskJet 450 to mobile professionals who need to print good-looking documents on the road and don't mind the extra weight. It's a to-go printer with a lot going for it.

You can use the PCWorld.com Product Finder to get the latest prices on the HP DeskJet 450ci (without the battery)and the DeskJet 450cbi (with the battery).

A carrying case for the DeskJet 450 costs $70 and up, depending on where you shop. You can use our Product Finder to check prices.

Brother MPrint: A Truly Petite Printer

At first glance, the Brother MPrint ($299) looks more like a large PDA than a tiny printer. Measuring a mere 3.94 inches wide, 6.3 inches deep, and 0.69 inches thick, and weighing only 0.67 pounds, the MPrint is undoubtedly the smallest printer I've seen. (Announced last fall, the MPrint should be available in late April.)

The MPrint is quite different from the HP DeskJet 450: It's a black-and-white thermal printer designed for specific tasks, as opposed to HP's color ink jet meant to handle a variety of print jobs. The MPrint is aimed at mobile professionals who need to print labels, receipts, or other vertical application documents (such as insurance claims forms) from a PDA.

Documents are sent to the printer from a Pocket PC or Palm OS device via an infrared port. The MPrint can also be connected to a notebook with a USB or infrared port. The device uses special paper cassettes that cost about $4 for thermal paper and under $9 for carbon-copy paper that gives you two identical prints.

I printed files from a Pocket PC and a desktop PC using a prerelease MPrint (the software drivers weren't final). The MPrint worked as expected, producing small, thin pieces of thermal paper with fax machine-like print quality. My only complaint is that inserting the paper cassette is a multistep process, requiring you to fold this and tuck that. But once that's done, printing is easy.

For myself, I wouldn't find the MPrint to be practical: I've rarely if ever needed to print from a PDA. Also, Word, Excel, or other documents printed from a notebook via an MPrint are too tiny to be of much use. But if you're a Pocket PC or Palm user with a need for a small, lightweight printer on the go, definitely check it out.