There was a time when traveling with a printer was a pain second to none. You needed to haul around a desktop printer the size of a large dog, you could try to bring along a famously temperamental ink jet, or you might decide that you needed a thermal printer, like the printers that grocery stores use to print out receipts.
All of these printers had their drawbacks. For instance, thermal printers needed their own special type of paper and the results were often strange. Ink jets gave you good results, but changes in temperature, humidity or set up could have you spending hours cleaning the heads. Similarly, ink jet printing could get very pricey very quickly. These were all problems that you might have had to deal with.
On the other hand, you might have had a laptop printer that would last you about three months and need a lot of care for those three months. They might not have been great solutions, and from hearing the IT departments grumble, they were a pain to support as well!
The nice thing, though, is that desktop printers have actually shrunk from being upwards of seventy pounds down to compact printers that are around twenty pounds. You can find ink jet printers and laser printers that are this small, and the ink jet printers are much sturdier than they were before.
The real gem in this lineup is the shrinking laser printer, however. They were initially produced for college students who had little space and these small personal printers worked out quite nicely, produce pages in the rage of 12 per minute. They had good durability cycles and they could be packed up tidily at the end of the semester.
Cost per page on consumables for a laser is about 7 cents per black and white page with 10% coverage – typical reports (or papers) won’t strain them. For some of the more robust photo printers, the cost per page is upwards of a dollar, but it is kind of neat to be able to print out hard copies of your photos on your vacation while you’re there.
When we say that these things are small – we mean it. The HP 1006 Personal LaserJet is tiny – it’s a bit bigger than a toaster. It gets thrown into the demo kit when we go to trade shows, so that we can print sales reports and data sheets on the fly for customers. It measures about 14″ wide by 8″ deep by 9″ tall, and it folds up readily into its box.
Though the pass through tray is something that you can use, we leave it off, as it is something of a pain. The ease of getting it set up, the low cost of its ink cartridges and the impressive functionality all make this a great printer and when you are on the road, these factors are all things that you need to look for.
The market for small small mobile printers is still in its infant stage and you will need to be careful before purchasing a portable printer. If you’re in a hurry read our review of the HP h47wbt mobile printer. It has received raving reviews from a lot of people.