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Epson PictureMate 500 |
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Despite the switch to digital most people still want prints of their snaps. Which printer should you choose? Ursula Seymour, who writes for PC Advisor, Mac World, Computer Buyer and The Sunday Times among others, picks the very best Click to view Top 5 Photo Printers.
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Best portable (Epson PictureMate 500) |
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 Epson's PictureMate 500 allows
you to print 6x4in standard
prints from anywhere directly
from a memory card
or digital camera, but
this portability doesn't mean
you have to sacrifice quality. |
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The PictureMate 500 is a compact unit measuring 256x154x167mm and weighs only 2.8kg, as they are designed to be carried around to allow you to print anywhere.
To this end the PictureMate 500 includes a rechargeable battery and a carry handle, so you could even take it round to a mate's house and print out pictures from their digital camera. It has memory card slots on the front that read all the major types of card used by modern digital cameras, and a 2.4in colour screen, so you can preview images before printing.
Thanks to its small size the PictureMate can only output 6x4in prints, the standard size you would get from a photo processing lab. This is because it really is meant as a DIY replacement for that trip to Snappy Snaps or the like to get your photos. It will cost you a bit more as shots cost around 20p a pop, but that's not too much to pay for the convenience of being able to print out your choice of pictures from any location you choose.
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 Because the PictureMate is made for one task, and one task only, it's really simple to use, and you get great results with a minimum of fuss. Prints take around one and half minutes to output.
But what really sets this printer apart is the quality of the prints you get from it. It uses six inks to create images PC World magazine describes as "excellent … photos appeared bright and sharp, with plenty of shadow and highlight detail".
It's thanks to this top-notch quality that the PictureMate 500 collected a whole host of gongs on its release in 2005, including Editor's Choice from Digital Camera Buyer, Digital Photography Made Easy, Windows XP Made Easy, What Digital Camera and a Macworld UK award as Editor's Choice: Consumer Photo. Now it can add our recommendation as the Best portable printer to that list.
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Pros -
High-quality printing
Genuinely portable
Reads a wide range of memory cards
Cons -
Limited to 6x4in prints
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