From the old days of a big box black and white television we have moved to slim, large, smart and high resolution televisions. From big telephones to smartphones. But did you ever imagine that one day you can have a printer that prints your photos on the go and fits into your pocket?

Hewlett Packard have come up with a digital printer known as the HP Sprocket Z3Z92A Portable Photo Printer that fits into your pocket which can help you print your photos anytime anywhere. You might have question that what all can a pocket size printer do and the biggest question is how do we manage to fill and store ink into it?

The HP Sprocket used the Zinc Paper technology to print photos and you don’t need to fill ink into the printer to get the prints. To answer all your other questions we have an in-depth review about the portable printer.

What is it?

• The HP Sprocket is Bluetooth portable printing at its best.
• This device will allow you to print 2×3” color photos in seconds from your iOS or Android Device.
• The Sprocket comes in 3 different colors…Black, White and Red.

Features and Dimensions

• HP Sprocket allows you to Easily print social media photos; connect your social media accounts to the HP Sprocket App and instantly turn any of those photos into colorful prints
• About the size of a cell phone, weighing around 6 ounces (170 grams), this portable printer goes anywhere.
• Easily load the included 10-sheet pack and print instant 2 x 3-inch (5 x 7.6 cm) photos or stickers.
• It allows you to customize your photos before you print with the HP Sprocket App to add fun text, borders, emoji’s and more – add a pop of personality for snapshots and stickers that are totally and uniquely you.

Design

• The sprocket is smaller than my External hard disk.
• Controls are minimal, as well.
• There’s just a power button, a battery indicator light and a port for the USB charging cable.

How it works

• Just download the Sprocket App from the App store or Playstore and you’re good to go. But you don’t even need the app for it to work.
• Open your Bluetooth menu, search for devices, and then pair to the Sprocket.
• Anytime you view your photo library on your iOS or Android device, you’ll be able to share your photo directly to the printer and watch it come out.

Sprocket App

• The app is so cool. HP has put in a lot of effort into making it.
• It lets you print your photos directly from your social media accounts like Facebook, Instagram etc.
• From the app you can even edit your shots with effects like graphics, borders, text, and filters before you print.
• Also, HP is providing firmware updates for the printer and that’s a good thing to note.
• As of now, the app is only for Android and iOS. And I checked it on both the platforms and its working pretty well.
• They haven’t provided an app for windows or mac users, but the cool thing is I tried printing from my Mac and it worked
• All you have to do is just connect the printer to your laptop and send the file through Bluetooth, and it will start printing.

Zinc Paper

• The paper which is used is called Zinc paper, it looks somewhat similar to the Polaroid paper.
• It’s a 2×3-inch paper with a sticky back, which lets you print and stick the photos anywhere you want.
• Changing the paper is as simple as lifting the top and placing a new pack of HPs special Zink sticky-backed paper.
• The Zink paper comes for Rs 500 for 20 papers. Which is approx 25 per paper.

Photo Quality

• Here comes the most important point. The print quality of sprocket is not so great when compared to other printers.
•  This is a small size pocket printer and the image quality is good enough for such a small and compact printer.
• And also one more thing should be noted, that the printer works on an inkless technology. Yeah, you heard me right. You don’t have to worry about changing the cartridges. Just load the paper and start Printing.+
• I was worried when I first printed some pictures. It was a little cartoonish and the pictures came out really bad. But all you have to do is adjust the exposure and brightness a little bit before printing. That’s why I deducted 1 star.
• If you don’t know much about it means, Just go ahead and click on Auto Edit option in the Sprocket App. It works.

Overall verdict

• If you want to buy a portable printer and carry it along with you everywhere, show off in front of your friends, make memories and don’t let them lie down in an unopened folder in your hard disk, then The Sprocket is for you. Go ahead Buy it and start printing.
• If you are looking for a printer with a very good picture quality then this is not the item you should be buying.

Where can I buy this?

The HP Sprocket is available on Amazon India in three different colors Black, White and Red.

The Zinc Photo Paper is also available at Amazon for Rs. 499 (Pack of 20 Sheets)