Hands-on: HP Sprocket Photo Printer

We shared earlier about this great memory printing machine called the Sprocket and now after a few days playing with it, here’s our hands-on review.

The HP Sprocket Photo Printer is a great device to have while travelling or celebrating special moments in your life. The concept is very simple and straightforward – Shoot, Print and Paste.

When we first held the HP Sprocket Photo Printer, it feels like a toy. It is made of plastic and I don’t want to know what will happen if I drop it. The size of the Sprocket is no bigger than the Xiaomi’s Mi Power Bank Pro but it is a little bulkier. It may not fit well in small pouches where you need to put other stuff in but it’s very light so you won’t feel any additional weight when bringing it around. You may want to see which suits you the best.

Setting up of the Sprocket is very easy. First, you need the Sprocket application, which you can simply download from the Google Play Store or the Apple App Store.

Then, turn on your Sprocket and connect it to your smartphone via Bluetooth. In the application, just choose the platform where the photo you want to print is located, and just click print.

Your photo will take approximately 30 seconds to print so in the meantime you can scroll through Tech Coffee House for other articles.

I wouldn’t say that the quality of the printed photo is fantastic. I would be lying. I printed a few and I found that there were inconsistencies in the print quality and colour quality. The photo also looks sharpened, which I don’t really fancy because it’s unnecessary.

I have yet to find out why but this is something you may need to take note of. You will not get the similar print quality as the ones you print at the brick and mortar photography shops.

Conclusion

If you are the kind of person who likes printing photos to keep and to flip through the photo album every once in a while rather than keeping your photos on your smartphone, the HP Sprocket Photo Printer is great for you. You can even peel off the back of the photo and paste the photo wherever you want since it has an adhesive back. But if you are looking for extremely good quality print and love showing it off to people, then this may fall short of your expectation. You are better off having your photos on your smartphone or a tablet.

The HP Sprocket Photo Printer is selling at SGD199 with a complimentary 10 pieces of the photo paper. For refills, it costs SGD15.90 for a box and it comes with 20 pieces. What about ink? Well, the HP Sprocket Photo Printer has the Zink Technology embedded, which means that it can print without ink. It’s awesome but I’m not sure if the image quality has something to do with this technology.

If you are thinking of buying it, I would recommend that you buy directly from the HP Store. My experience purchasing this item from them was fantastic. They missed me when delivering it the first time as I was not at home and after calling them and telling them that I am travelling soon. They delivered it to me the very next day.

So kudos to the HP team! I will be going back soon to make my next purchase.