Best portable photo printers in 2024

While you can store gigabytes of digital photos on the best Android phones or on Google Photos, the charm of a tangible photograph you can hold is timeless.

All you need to transform pixels into keepsakes is a portable photo printer that can connect to your phone and print shots on the go. And fortunately for you, there is no dearth of fantastic photo printers ready to use on the go. We have rounded up some of the best to get you started.

Top portable photo printers

Part of Fujifilm’s Instax instant camera lineup, the Mini Link 2 uses the company’s popular instant film to print photos from your phone or tablet. The photo prints take a few minutes to develop fully after leaving the camera, but the result is quite good with rich colors. You can also pick from Instax Natural and Rich color spaces for your prints. The Natural color space has moderate color saturation, whereas Rich increases the saturation and brings down the highlights in the prints.

The Fujifilm app is decent and offers two modes. The Print mode lets you print your existing photos, capture a new one, or print a frame from an existing video. The Fun mode allows you to play around with your photos to enhance your captures. There are also a lot of gimmicky features in the app and the camera, such as Instax Air, which most people will never use.

The built-in battery is good for about 100 prints and can be charged via your phone charger or the USB Type-A port on your computer.

Unfortunately, there’s no support for printing from your PC or Mac, as the Link 2 is essentially a smartphone printer. But you can use the Mini Link 2 with select Fujifilm X-series cameras to print directly from the camera.

This travel-friendly photo printer from Canon uses inkjet technology to deliver higher-quality prints than the cheaper Zink printers. The prints have plenty of detail and reasonable color accuracy. Moreover, despite its compact design, it can still produce larger prints. Notably, apart from photos, the TR150 can be used for regular document printing and comes with black-and-white and color cartridges.

Like other inkjet printers, it’s slow to print, but its cost-per-print is low. The Pixma TR150 also shines on the connectivity front with wired and wireless options to print your photos and documents. Plus, it’s easy to set up and will work with almost all devices, including smartphones and tablets.

Although the Canon offering is bigger than our other recommendations, it’s still lightweight and small. It can easily slip into a backpack and won’t take up much space on your desk.

Unfortunately, you have to buy an optional battery to make it truly portable. But interestingly, you can run it with a power bank if you don’t have the battery or access to AC power.

The Kodak Step is an excellent value pick for anyone who needs occasional, casual prints from their smartphone. Like many portable printers in its category, it uses Zink — or Zero Ink — technology that interacts with a special paper to develop vibrant and decent-looking photos.

The Step is meant to be a smartphone or tablet companion and relies on the company’s mobile app of the same name. Depending on your phone or tablet, it connects over Bluetooth or NFC, and churns out keepsakes in under a minute per photo. But as it’s a single-size photo printer, you will only get 2 by 3 inches prints.

The Kodak Step app is built well, and besides being a printer app, it also acts as a photo editor and offers various tools to fine-tune your captures. It’s also easy to use.

In other highlights, the camera can hold 20 sheets of special Zink paper and has a built-in battery that lasts about 25 prints per full charge. You will also be happy to know you can pick it up in four exciting colors. But what sets it apart from similar Zink printers is the low starting and running costs despite having a comparable or better output. Overall, it’s a fantastic value for a Zink photo printer.

Polaroid’s Hi-Print is another solid portable photo printer for mobile devices. It’s compact, lightweight, and uses dye-sub dry ink cartridges. It produces some of the best prints among its peers with vibrant colors and fine details. It looks like a thick, fun power bank, but it is still quite portable and will easily fit in your handbag. The built quality is also good, and the printer feels sturdy.

The Hi-Print is easy to set up, and like most of our other recommendations, you can use the company’s mobile app to send prints from your phone or tablet. Besides offering basic edit options, the app also lets you capture photos. So you can have a single app to take and print pictures. It is, however, not the fastest photo printer around, but it isn’t terribly slow, either.

In other features, it uses all-in-one cartridges, which have the color ribbon used for printing and the photo paper. So you buy a cartridge, print the photos, and then replace it with another cartridge once you are out of the paper. Unfortunately, you can’t buy the paper or the color ribbon separately. But this whole setup does keep things simple.

Part of Canon’s Selphy CP-series, the CP1500 is an impressive portable photo printer that uses dye-sub dry ink cartridges. Unlike most of its competitors, which can only print one-size photos, it can print up to four sizes. It also produces a high-quality print and is relatively fast at doing so. The printed photos have a full range of colors without any noticeable graininess. Moreover, the printer adds a layer of smudge- and fingerprint-resistant material that enhances the durability of your prints.

The CP1500 is pretty versatile when it comes to connectivity options and can pick photos for print from USB-C flash drives, Wi-Fi, Apple AirPrint, SD cards, and microSD cards. You can also use select mobile apps to send a print. And while there is sadly no companion app for Windows and Mac, you can still use it with both as a regular printer.

One downside is that the CP1500 is larger than most of our other picks here. You can carry it around, but it’s certainly not pocket-sized, so you probably won’t want to take it with you on a night out or a holiday.

Like the Pixma model above, the battery is an optional but expensive add-on. A single battery charge will give a respectable 50 prints. But if you want to save money and always have access to a power socket, you can keep running it on AC power.

Like Kodak Step, the HP Sprocket 3×4 is a Zink photo printer that takes the hassle out of printing your digital memories. But its ability to print large 3.5-inch by 4.25-inch photos separates it from the Kodak offering. You use the company’s mobile app to connect to the printer via Bluetooth and relay your print commands. The app can also help you make collages, add text, make basic tweaks, and more. Moreover, it lets you print photos directly from your Facebook, Google, or Instagram account.

The prints are of decent quality, and you don’t have to deal with printer cartridges or ink tanks. But like all Zink printers, the HP offering is best suited for casual use, and if you want to preserve your prints for a long time, you will be better served by a dye-sub printer, such as the Canon Selphy CP1500, or get them professionally printed.

It’s well-built and can fit in a large pocket or a bag. The built-in battery is suitable for about 30 prints and can be charged using the supplied Micro-USB cable. The company, however, doesn’t pack a power brick, but you can use your phone charger if it has a USB Type-A port or your computer’s USB-A port to juice it up.

Canon’s Selphy Square QX10 is an ultra-portable photo printer that looks a lot like a Zink printer but instead uses dye-sub dry ink cartridges for better quality. The prints are vivid with plenty of detail and have a square size, as the printer’s name suggests, making them perfect little mementos for cherishing or sharing. Moreover, each print has a light adhesive backing if you want to stick it to a surface.

Similar to other photo printers in its category, it connects to the company’s Selphy Photo Layout mobile app on your phone or tablet for the print commands. You can’t use it with a computer. The app is easy to use and has essential editing functions. The printing time is decent, and you will get a print in less than 45 seconds.

You also get a built-in battery suitable for about 20 prints. But you don’t get a power brick. You will instead have to rely on your computer’s USB Type-A port or a smartphone power brick to juice the camera up.

Coming to the design, it’s compact and lightweight, allowing it to easily slide into a bag or backpack. The QX10 also comes in four existing colors, so you can pick one that matches your aesthetic.

If you want a portable photo printer that can do more than just print keepsakes, the HP OfficeJet 250 Mobile is a good option. It’s not pocketable like some of our other recommendations, but it is still compact enough to be carried around in a backpack. Notably, it includes scanning functionality, making it more versatile than regular photo printers. However, the built-in scanner is not a flatbed, so it’s only suitable for document scanning.

Being an inkjet printer, it delivers high-quality photo prints with lots of detail. Colors are well saturated but not as accurate as some of the more expensive and non-portable printers. Speaking of portability, the built-in removable battery can go on for over 200 prints. So whether or not you have access to a power socket, the printer won’t leave you in a lurch.

Coming to the connectivity options, it can print from Android phones and iOS and has USB and Wi-Fi support. It’s also AirPrint and Mopria Alliance compatible.

Finally, the running costs of the OfficeJet 250 are typical of an inkjet printer, but if you print a lot, the cost of replacing cartridges will add up quickly.

Instantly print your memories on the go

Portable photo printers offer a quick and easy way to convert your digital memories into physical mementos. And there’s an exciting selection on the market, with different printing technologies, features, and print quality.

The Fujifilm Instax Mini Link 2 is our top choice as it’s pocket-friendly, has an easy-to-use app, and the fact that it prints to instant film gives shots a retro, nostalgic charm. You want to create mementos, and what better way than with Polaroid-esque prints?

However, if you want the best possible photo quality from a portable printer, the TR150 from Canon’s Pixma series is the one to go for. It’s not the most compact — this is for backpacks rather than pockets — but it’s a proper inkjet printer. So you can print more than just photos with it.

But if you want something that’s both compact and affordable, you’ll be happy with the Kodak Step. It’s tiny, pocketable, and fantastic value for money. Its Zink prints double as stickers, but bear in mind that print quality and clarity is a little limited, making this more fun than functional.