Best Portable Photo Printers

While it’s fine to store your pictures on your cell phone, something magical happens when you actually hand someone a photo at a party and laugh about your best friend’s silly hat together. A snapshot can become something like an event.

Printer companies are finding ways to make these moments easier to come by with a new generation of portable photo printers. These devices can be truly tiny—the littlest ones will fit in your pants pocket, while the biggest ones can be easily carried in a medium-sized purse. They’re also relatively inexpensive, ranging in price from around $70 to just over $100.

I evaluated models from four different companies. They print using three distinct technologies (more on that below), but they all allow you to do the same thing: Take the printer to where the fun is and print out a physical keepsake in around a minute. 

Each printer comes with its own smartphone app; you simply load your photo library (or whichever photos you’d like to share) and press Print. Out pops an image that’s completely dry and ready to share within a matter of seconds. A couple of models let you watch the images emerge during the printing process. That isn’t an advantage if you’re in a rush but can be a plus at a party.