HP’s new instant, Bluetooth/NFC printer will produce 3 x 2” (50 x 76mm) colourful and durable photos or stickers with no ink needed!
The Sprocket uses HP’s thermal ZINK — Zero Ink — technology to avoid mess and its inbuilt micro-USB rechargeable 500mAh battery should be good for at least 30 prints per charge. Zero to 100% charging time is 90 minutes.
Print speed is up to 40 seconds per print depending on complexity, resolution, and paging from its 512MB inbuilt memory. It is a single pass where the thermal head heats the crystals and creates the colour.
The printer supports BMP, GIF, JPEG, PNG and TIFF (iOS only) and prints borderless prints up to 313 x 400 DPI. An app for iOS or Android will control the printer and allows for basic editing and printing from the camera roll, Instagram, Facebook, Flickr etc.
{loadposition ray}Sprocket has been available in the US since late last year. Apart from the fun and novelty aspect, the real attraction seems to be the app that allows for editing, captions, and effects like borders.
ZINK sticky back paper is an advanced composite material with cyan, yellow, and magenta dye crystals embedded inside and a protective polymer overcoat layer outside. Before printing, the embedded dye crystals are clear so ZINK Paper looks like regular white photo paper. Reviews say that the print results are good, no banding, and Zink crystals should have a decent, if not archival life.
Replacement paper comes in a box of 20 sheets – Printer Supermarket price is $18.47 so assume about a dollar a print.