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Choosing the best portable printer in 2024 is essential for anyone who needs to print photos, documents, and receipts on the go. These printers stand out due to their compact, lightweight design and the convenience of battery power, making them exceptionally versatile for a range of uses. Whether you're a student, a professional, or someone who loves printing photos directly from your phone, a portable printer offers the flexibility and mobility you need.

Despite their smaller size compared to traditional printers, portable printers do not compromise on print quality. Many models are specifically designed for photograph printing, delivering impressive results, especially when used with the right photo paper. Their ability to connect to various devices like laptops, tablets, and smartphones through Wi-Fi or Bluetooth adds to their practicality, making them the best wireless printer options for those constantly on the move.

In our guide, we've meticulously compared a range of portable printers, evaluating aspects such as design, portability, weight, connectivity, print speed, build quality, and printing costs. This comprehensive approach ensures that we recommend only the best printer for students, the best printer for Mac users, and overall the best printer options available in the market.

We've also taken the time to review the best offerings from renowned brands, including the best Brother printers, ensuring you have a broad range of quality options to choose from. With our detailed assessments and comparisons, you'll be well-equipped to select the best portable printer that meets your specific needs and preferences in 2024.

The best portable printer in 2024

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The best portable printer overall

1. Brother PocketJet PJ-773 portable printer

Thermal tech gives this portable printer a crisp and competitive edge

Specifications

Category: Thermal mono printer

Print speed: 8ppm

Paper sizes: up to A4

Paper capacity: 1 sheet

Weight: 1.1lb / 0.5kg

Reasons to buy

Reasons to avoid

By using inkless thermal print technology, which relies on fewer moving parts, Brother has reduced this portable printer to the size of a small baguette. What’s more, the only consumable you need is the special thermal paper itself, making this pocket-sized device perfect for taking on the road or carrying onto a plane. 

It comes with a power adapter and battery pack so that you can use it anywhere, and while Wi-Fi is built in, you don’t need to rely on finding a network to connect with your device because it also offers Wi-Fi Direct and a mini USB port. It prints quickly enough, with the black and white pages emerging as sharp and detailed as any laser printer. 

This printer will serve you well if you're primarily printing text. But if you want complex graphics and vivid color-accurate photos, you'll want to explore other options. 

The best portable Epson printer

Portable printer with inkjet precision

Specifications

Category: colour portable inkjet printer

Print speed: 7ppm

Paper sizes: A4

Paper capacity: 1 sheet

Weight: 3.5lb / 1.6kg

Reasons to buy

Reasons to avoid

Epson has managed to distill all of the elements of a color inkjet printer into something small enough to fit in a briefcase and possibly even a handbag. It uses four smaller-than-usual ink cartridges to produce up to A4-size prints at a very crisp and colorful 5,760 x 1,440 dpi resolution. The plastic casing is textured for grip, and when unfolded, it becomes the paper input tray which can hold up to twenty sheets of plain paper. 

The printer has a top speed of 7ppm, and using pigment ink instead of dye ink helps to deliver more smudge-resistant pages. 

The lithium-ion battery can be fast charged with the bundled charger or by connecting the supplied USB cable to any powered USB port. It doesn’t print quickly; unsurprisingly, there is no auto-duplex mode, but this is excellent quality for mobile printing.

Read the full review: Epson WorkForce WF-110

The best portable Canon printer

3. Canon PIXMA TR150 portable printer

Portable inkjet clarity on the road

Specifications

Category: Portable colour inkjet printer

Print speed: 9ppm

Paper sizes: up to A4

Paper capacity: 50 sheets

Weight: 4.6lb / 2.1kg

Reasons to buy

Reasons to avoid

Canon has done well to shrink this full-color inkjet printer to a size that will fit easily into a briefcase without compromising print quality. It comes with key features such as Wi-Fi and Wi-Fi Direct connectivity, an OLED screen, and the ability to store custom templates. These could be useful for repeat printing, whatever forms your business uses regularly. 

You can power it from any live USB port, like the one in your car, and an optional rechargeable battery is available. It’s compatible with AirPrint and Google Cloud Print, making it easy to print from your mobile device. 

The TR150 is quite simple to set up. You start lifting the lid and installing the print head, after which you can download the software online or insert the installation disc into your computer. Online setup is swift, you can use your phone to capture the included QR code and launch the installation process.

The best portable HP printer

4. HP OfficeJet 200 Mobile Printer

Miniature inkjet for portable colour printing

Specifications

Category: portable colour inkjet printer

Print speed: 10ppm

Paper sizes: up to A4

Paper capacity: 50 sheets

Weight: 4.6lb / 2.1kg

Reasons to buy

Reasons to avoid

HP has managed to shrink the inkjet printer to the size of a cigar box while adding a battery compartment. The result is a highly portable device that can turn out crisp color documents at a rate of 10 per minute in mono or 7 in color. 

The portable printer has a 50-sheet paper capacity to hold up to letter-width sheets, and it can print up to 300 pages a month. Unsurprisingly, there’s no duplex mode, but it can handle envelopes and photo paper and any size up to A4. 

With Wi-Fi Direct and a USB port, you can print from anywhere with this ingenious device. However, the OfficeJet 200 doesn't come with a USB cable, and you'll need to have one if you plan to print via USB connectivity. 

The best portable photo printer

5. Fujifilm Instax Link WIDE

Portable printer for full-size instant smartphone photos

Specifications

Category: Portable instant printer

Print speed: 2ppm

Paper sizes: 86 x 108mm

Paper capacity: 10 sheets

Weight: 0.75lb / 0.34kg

Reasons to buy

Reasons to avoid

This pocket-sized printer will turn your smartphone into an instant camera and one with far superior print quality. Using an evolution of Kodak’s instant film technology, imprints are seared onto special photo paper without using ink cartridges. This eliminates your ink cost and simplifies the printer enough to make it highly portable and battery-powered. 

You will need to buy packs of Instax film rather than paper, and these are not cheap, but Fujifilm’s new wide format finally yields photos of a decent size and great full-color quality.

The printer uses Bluetooth 4.2 to connect with other devices. There is a micro USB port, but it is only for charging. Although you can link the printer to a computer, you need the Instax Link Wide app on iOS or Android to run the printer.

The best portable party printer

Compact party printer with inkjet quality

Specifications

Category: colour 3-in-1 inkjet printer

Print speed: 2ppm

Paper sizes: 10x15cm

Paper capacity: 1 sheet

Weight: 1.8lb / 0.8kg

Reasons to buy

Reasons to avoid

The latest HP portable photo printer line ditches ZINK for an inkjet-based system and prints on the slightly larger 10x15cm format. That means the Sprocket Studio won’t fit in your pocket, but it's also the one with the best image quality. 

The proprietary ink/paper packages are rather pricey, but the system yields vivid results and is lots of fun. 

This printer uses "dye-sublimation" to transfer layers of color onto a medium. Although it’s a slower process than the technology used in standard inkjet printers, the results are better than what you'll get from regular printers.

Up to three users can connect to it over Bluetooth and use the excellent companion app to print from. The app offers many templates and stock images to spice up your photos. 

Read the full review: HP Sprocket Studio

The best portable all-in-one printer

7. HP OfficeJet 250 portable printer

A portable small-in-one printer

Specifications

Category: Portable color All-in-one inkjet printer

Print speed: 18ppm

Paper sizes: Up to A4

Paper capacity: 50 sheets

Weight: 6.5lb / 2.96kg

Reasons to buy

Reasons to avoid

This miniaturization marvel combines a scanner and full-color inkjet printer in a device that will fit in a travel bag. It also has a small display, an automatic document feed (ADF), Wi-Fi, and a rechargeable battery. 

Its especially small inkjet cartridges produce a surprisingly high yield, and the print quality and speed equal the average office inkjet. In short, this is a decent all-around desktop all-in-one that happens to have been shrunk to the size of a washbag. 

The OfficeJet 250 has a rear input tray that can hold up to 50 letter-width papers. Similar to the OfficeJet 200, it can print up to 300 pages monthly and supports manual duplexing. This printer can perform one-sided scanning and save scans to PDF, JPEG, PNG, TIFF, and other formats.

The best portable printer for Mac

8. Brother PocketJet 763MFi portable printer

An Apple-friendly portable printer

Specifications

Category: portable thermal mono printer

Print speed: 16ppm

Paper sizes: up to A4

Paper capacity: 100 sheets

Weight: 14.6lb / 6.6kg

Reasons to buy

Reasons to avoid

This portable printer could almost slide into a jacket pocket, yet it can print onto A4-sized paper. By using thermal imprinting, instead of impact printing which requires ink and many more moving parts, this battery-powered device requires no consumables other than the special thermal paper. 

What differentiates this model from most portable printers is the addition of MFi (Made For iPhone), making it easier to sync with Mac and iOS devices over Bluetooth. With a battery that lasts for 100 prints and no ink limitations, you really can print from anywhere with this rugged and highly portable device.

You can connect the printer to computers and smartphones through USB or Bluetooth, but since there's no Wi-Fi connectivity, you can't use Apple AirPrint, Google Cloud Print, Mopria, and other connection that rely on Wi-Fi. 

How to choose the best portable printers for you?

When selecting a portable printer, you'll want to start by evaluating the machine's size, weight, and printing capacity. Smaller printers are not designed to meet heavy printing needs, so you'll want to check how many pages the printer can deliver a month. 

You'll want to assess the connectivity options. If you want a hassle-free printing experience, use a portable printer that offers wireless connectivity and support for protocols like Apple AirPrint. 

Consider whether you'll print more text-oriented material or image and graphic-oriented files. Check the cost of the ink to get a clear idea of how much you could be spending each month. Some portable printers use thermal paper instead of regular ink, but they'll offer greater portability despite the added cost. 

Lastly, check the printer's speed, multi-function capabilities, and control panel, among other things.

The best portable printers: How we test

We assess all our printers on our printing test bench and compare the results against the other printers we've tested. We print a standard ten-page document across all the printers to get a clear idea of their performance. The test pages have fonts of different sizes and colors, with some pages containing both images and text. 

We also calculate the running costs of the portable printers and evaluate their design, portability, build quality, connectivity features, and multi-function capabilities. 

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