Xiaomi Photo Printer Review | Portable Photo Printer Review Included
Looking for a way to bring your digital photos to life? The portable Xiaomi photo printer offers a convenient and fun solution.
This article dives into the latest price of this compact printer, along with a comprehensive review of its features, print quality, and user experience.
Whether you're a social media enthusiast, a scrapbooker, or someone who simply wants to share physical prints with loved ones, this review will help you decide if the Xiaomi Portable Photo Printer is the right choice for you.
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Xiaomi Mi Portable Photo Printer Review 2024
Looking for a compact photo printer? Consider the Xiaomi Mi Pocket Photo Printer, a feather-light gadget that produces 2x3-inch photos directly from your mobile devices.
Utilizing innovative ZINK (Zero Ink) technology, this printer eliminates the need for ink cartridges, offering a mess-free experience. With Bluetooth functionality, pairing your device is a breeze.
Design & Construction:
Fashioned out of lightweight plastic, this pocket-friendly printer measures a mere 8.5 x 12.8 x 4.1 cm and weighs just 180 grams.
Adorned in a chic white and gray palette, its minimalist aesthetic is sure to please. Front-facing controls include a power switch, Bluetooth indicator, and a slot for paper loading, while the rear houses a micro USB charging port.
Image Output:
Thanks to ZINK technology, this printer uses heat-sensitive paper loaded with micro-encapsulated dye crystals.
Upon heating, these crystals create vibrant, though slightly grainy, images. Overall, the picture quality is satisfactory, if not exceptional.
Key Features:
- Bluetooth Pairing: Quickly connect to your mobile devices via Bluetooth for hassle-free printing.
- Collage Printing: Assemble multiple images into a single printout, offering a creative spin to your photos.
- Custom Stickers: Add flair to your snapshots by turning them into personalized stickers.
Battery Endurance:
A single charge powers the printer for up to 20 photo prints, sufficient for moderate usage but may require frequent recharging for more extensive print sessions.
Cost Factor:
Retailing at approximately $30, the Xiaomi Mi Pocket Photo Printer sits on the higher end of the budget spectrum. Nevertheless, it offers good value, especially when considering the ink-saving ZINK technology.
Pros & Cons:
Pros:
- Ultra-portable design
- User-friendly interface
- Reliable photo output
- Ink-free ZINK technology
- Collage and sticker printing options
Cons:
- Limited battery life
- Slightly premium pricing
- Pictures may appear grainy compared to other models
Should you buy the Xiaomi Mi Portable Photo Printer?
If you're in the market for a mobile, user-friendly photo printer, the Xiaomi Mi Pocket Photo Printer is worth your consideration.
Though not without flaws, it scores high in convenience and efficiency. Given its ink-free operation and the ability to print collages and stickers, it presents good value for its price.
Xiaomi Photo Printer Review
Inside the box
The Xiaomi Photo Printer comes in a white cardboard packaging like most Xiaomi products. The cardboard is quite sturdy and has the image of the photo printer on the surface along with the specs on the sides. Once you unbox it, you'll find:
- A power adapter that is a 2-pin plug
- Instruction manual
- And the photo printer itself with a paper tray.
Design
The design of the Xiaomi photo printer is awesome. It’s small and compact and you can hold it with one hand, unlike many other printers out there. Here are its measurements. It’s about 83mm in height, 19.4mm in width and 124mm in breadth.
- The printer is white in color and basically is the size of a large smartphone. But don't let the compact size fool you. This Photo printer is an absolute beast that delivers super high-quality photos.
- The Mijia photo printer is white in color with smooth edges. There's a main power button situated on the top left corner of the device. Above the cover, you'll find the Mijia logo and three indicators on the left. Three indicators are the Power indicator, the WiFi indicator and the Fault indicator. Behind the device, you'll find an input for the power adapter.
- This Photo printer is very unique. It has an input area in front and an outlet slit behind the device. You also have a paper tray that can be attached to the input slot after removing the outlet covering. On the side, you'll find another slot for the ink cartridge.
Above the photo outlet, you'll find 655 independent cooling holes with different calibres to ensure the thermal performance of the printer. It weighs just 1.2kgs, which is practically nothing when it comes to printers.
Function and Use
It has a 24 volt power adapter that can work seamlessly at 100 to 240 volts at 50 or 60 hz. You can expect the most important features such as Bluetooth and Wifi that lets you connect the printer to the smartphone.
- The printer can take 6-inch high-resolution photo prints at 300 dots per inch. It can display 16 million colours in the prints, which is pretty great.
- The Xiaomi Photo Printer has a mountable paper tray that can be taken off that can store all the papers for printing.
- Although this photo printer is quite compact it does a great job printing really high-quality pictures. This Mijia Printer is capable of producing photos with a resolution of 300 x 300 dpi. This can be primarily attributed to two factors: The photo paper and the CMY 3-color sublimation printing technology. It can easily achieve 256 levels of color scale rendering, which is pretty amazing.
- The sublimation printing technology uses heat to bring ink and the paper together as one. So, it essential fused the design onto the special paper. This is done by turning the ink into gas and it is permanently is printed onto the paper by the color ribbon. One of the best parts about the Xiaomi Photo Printer is that it uses a color ribbon instead of expensive inks and manages to deliver the same quality photos.
- This technology is quite unique in that this photo paper has to go back and forth through both slits as the color ribbons layer the colors one by one in order to create the final product. This process takes quite a bit of time. However, the Mi Home App will let your track this buy showing you the real-time printing process/representation of how the colors are being printed onto the screen.
Even after installation, it’s not bulky at all. The only downside is, you need to buy the papers and the cartridge separately. You can get separate units of paper and the cartridge which can print up to 40 photos pretty well. This is rather cheap to buy.
Using it
The process for using the printer is pretty straight forward.
- First, You need to take the cartridge and insert it to the side of the printer. You will hear a click when it’s fit in place perfectly. The next thing is to take the paper tray and fill it with 20 sheets of paper. Make sure to place the glossy side upwards, that way the prints will happen on the glossy side.
- Now that your paper tray is filled with paper, you need to close the lid and attach the tray to the printer. Similar to normal printers, the paper feeder goes right above the final print tray. If you’ve attached it correctly, you will hear a click.
The next step is to use the Mi App. In the Mi App, you need to add a new device which is the Photo Printer and it will immediately install and connect to your photo printer.
- You can use the app to select the photos you want to print, that can be accessed from your photo library. Once you give the print command, the printer will take the paper from the paper tray automatically and will go back and forth through the output slit and the input tray slot.
- It prints the photos in layers, which means the paper goes back and forth about four times before the photo is finally printed. It prints the yellows, and then the cyans and the other colours. After the colours are printed, the printer adds one more layer in the end which acts protects against UV lights, watermarks and also fingerprints.
- The best part is, there is no drying time required after you print the photo. It’s ready to use almost immediately. This is a true testament to Xiaomi's engineering. After all, Xiaomi makes some of the most amazing gadgets in the market.
So how long does it take to print a photo? The actual printing process lasts for about a minute. So if you can 10 photos done, you can get them done in about a minute’s time, which is pretty quick.
Coming back to the app, you can change some detailing of the photos such as cropping, adding various filters and you can also choose the orientation such as a square photo or a rectangular photo.
There are pre-built templates that you could choose from such as passport photos, document photos. You could also choose presets which help with figuring out the size of the passport photo depending on the countries such as the US, Japan and the EU etc.
You don’t need to necessarily use only the Mi App, you can also use any laptop, desktop or tablet to take these photos. It's definitely one of the top Xiaomi home appliances.
The Use Case
This printer isn’t so cheap that it’s an easy buy. So what is the use case for these? You take immediate print outs of pictures with friends and families and give them a copy. You could print passport-sized photos. If you love framing photos and don’t want to go to the printer store to get prints every time, this is a great alternative.
Performance
When it comes to the performance, all I can say is that this Xiaomi Photo Printer is one of the best in both real time and long term performance. Compared to most potable printers this device is actually kind of slow in terms of the actual printing process. However, the reason is stands out when it comes to real time performance is the amazing quality of the prints and due to other features like the special coating.
To be very honest you can use this to print passport photos and other small size photos that you can pin on a board or in an album. The photos are amazing in quality and detail. The long wait is definitely worth it as the end result is downright awesome. At a 300dpi, these photos can be used in an official capacity.
You can, of course, sync it to your phone and watch the process in real-time. Or you can keep a track of it while you're doing other tasks. This feature also lets you know if you need to re-fill the ink or the sheets. Additionally, it even lets you know if there's an error with the image or printing process.
Now, when it comes long term performance, this Xiaomi Photo Printer is a beast. I've used it for almost 2 years without any issues whatsoever. It has at the most become a bit discolored which is to be expected. Check out the Xiaomi Photo Printer Latest Price and Review for all the details.
Xiaomi Photo Printer Latest Price and Review - Final Thoughts
The photo printer, in a nutshell, is pretty awesome. It’s easy to use and setup. It's also super fast. So, you don't have to go to a print shop and wait for weeks.
- The quality of the prints are astounding and are as good as any you will find in a shop.
- The additional coating, in the end, protects the photo. The end output is pretty awesome and it can be easily used to frame photos in.
Using the Mi Home app is the best as you can check the preview of the photos and see how the final output is going to look. Check out the Xiaomi Photo Printer Latest Price and Review for all the details.
Pros
- Easy to install and use
- Great quality prints
- Easy to use Mi Home App
- Durable because of the additional coating that protects against water and smudges
Cons
- Every photo after printing has white edges that need to be torn off
- Paper and cartridge is not included when you purchase the printer which is a big letdown
Is the Xiaomi Photo Printer Worth it?
Yes, the Xiaomi Photo Printer is well worth the price. In fact i'd go so far as to say that no other printer in the same price range can provide the same high quality prints and the same fantastic features.
- The photos are not only high in quality in terms of resolution but also in a general sense. This is because Xiaomi's Photo Printer applies a special coating for each of its photographs. This special coating protects the photo from smudges, fingerprints, UV light and even makes the photo essentially waterproof.
- This coating material with the combination of the proprietary Xiaomi Print paper results in high-quality photographs that are resistant to harmful environmental factors. Check out the Xiaomi Photo Printer Latest Price and Review for all the details.
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