HP - Sprocket 2nd Edition Instant Photo Printer - Noir

The HP Sprocket 2nd Edition uses no ink and instead heats ZINK paper to reveal the photo in a single pass. It’s fun. The pictures are cute and you can stick them to anything. I feel like this printer is a Polaroid for the digital age. Everyone has a phone and this printer produces instant prints for far less money than a Polaroid or an inkjet. Multiple devices can hook up to the printer at the same time. At one point I had a Samsung Galaxy Tab S4, an iPhone, and an iPad hooked up. The apps work virtually the same regardless of device and connection was simple. But, I was expecting a bit more from a 2nd Edition. The prints look good, but they aren’t great. It won’t replace a good inkjet for overall printer quality. I noticed banding in skies or solid colors and sometimes flesh tones would get overblown or washed out. The big new feature with the second edition is the AR. You can now print from a video clip or put an animated frame and when you scan the picture with the app, the picture will come to life and even play a video clip. The AR feature worked well on my iPhones and even displayed location information and google street information for the pictures. You can decide if you want information embedded in the print or not. The AR prints were, again, fun. But, some AR features were limited by which device I used to view the photo. For instance, I could create a picture with an embedded video on my phone and view the video with my phone, but if I tried to view that same video on another phone, it wouldn’t work. It would still show location data and any photos related to that location, but I couldn’t watch the picture come to life with the embedded video clip. This makes sense as it is pulling the file from my original device and not a cloud service. But, I wish it was a universal feature... Now, the animated borders and stickers will work on any phone with the app. However, I couldn’t get the AR features to work on my tablets. My Samsung Galaxy crashed whenever I tried to view any AR details and the iPad didn’t fare much better. It just never could reveal anything. Now, I could view the embedded location information printed from my tablets on my iPhone, but the opposite didn’t work. I know all devices had the AR features turned on. Battery life is okay, but if you are using this at a party or group function, I would have it plugged in. After 5 - 6 photos, my battery would be down to the final bar. On that note, the charging cable is too short. I think it is only a foot and a half. It appears that HP is adding more features and functions to the app and the printer at all times. So, I am hopeful that there will be more AR borders and stickers in the future as the current selection is rather slim. Also, I would like it if we could get a PC driver at some point. I don’t see why laptops or surface devices can’t join the party. So, would I recommend the Sprocket? Sure. I am having a lot of fun with it. I don’t know if the new features are enough to warrant an upgrade for original Sprocket owners, but at $5 - $10 for a pack of 20 prints, I think this is a great pick-up. I look forward to getting a travel case and a small photo booklet.

I've been playing with this little printer for a few days, and am pretty impressed with it. It uses no ink, but instead uses thermal paper, which allows for it's super small size. The battery powered and Bluetooth capabilities make it a breeze to take with you! The battery lasts for a reasonable amount of time, but could be better. Just printing about 8 pictures over the course of a few days, it went from fully charged to around 20%. Some of that is most likely idle time, as I did not manually shut it off in-between uses. I have it set to turn itself off after an hour and sleep after Sleep after 5 minutes. Still, not too shabby for it's small size. The HP Sprocket software that you download and use to connect to the printer is really quite well done, and very easy to use. Even if you don't have a Sprocket printer, it would make a nice image editing tool for your phone. It connectes to Instagram, Facebook, Google, and your local images on your phone or tablet. Really makes it easy to make prints of your online photos. The size of the prints limits their use, obviously. Not something you'll be printing any detail with, but for fun-sized photos for sharing with friends, it's great. The paper has peel off backs that allow you to make stickers out of the little photos. This would make a great gift for a kid or scrapbook keeper. The HP Sprocket app lets you crop, adjust color settings, add borders, text, little fun graphics you can add on top of the photo, and overlays. You can use these features to edit your photos, then print out on a larger printer or share to one of your social media sites. My colleague was able to download the Sprocket software and connect to my printer. It's supposed to support up to 3 additional connections, although I only tried myself and one other. You can change the color of the little LED on the front to whatever color you like, which is a nice little personalization feature. The printer takes about 45 seconds from the time you press print to print an image, so the speed isn't great if you are wanting to print several photos to distribute. The software has a Photo booth mode which takes 4 timed pictures and combines them into one image. This is fun for taking pictures with friends. The printer itself is really light, but feels well made. Changing the paper is easy. Just pop off the top and insert into the tray. It comes with a pack of 10 papers, including a calibration sheet. They recommend not putting any more paper than this to avoid jams.

Starting with the positives: This little printer is incredibly easy to set up and fun to use. Within fifteen minutes of opening the box, I had printed through the 10-pack of Zink paper included with the printer, testing out everything from printing selfies to greenery and even some graphic art, which brings me to one of the most enjoyable things about the HP Zinc paper: It’s self-adhesive. Printing out little 2x3 stickers with your pictures or little sayings is a lot of fun! While quite small for a photo print at 2” by 3”, the pictures do print completely edge-to-edge so there’s no wasted space. 2x3 is small for a print, but seems oddly appropriate for a sticker. The built-in battery lasts through about one pack of ten prints before needing a recharge and the prints come out quickly with a satisfying little hum. It reminds me of taking Polaroid pictures back in the “old” days. On the down side, the colors in the prints can be (but aren’t always) somewhat washed out - particularly skin tones, though at least the resolution is fine enough that the prints don’t end up looking grainy. I think the Zink paper still has a little trouble with vibrant reds, which is why I dropped my review down to 4 stars. So, if you’re looking for a fun little battery powered portable printer that can print out 2x3 stickers for you and your friends (or kids), this is it. Because the “ink” is in the paper, the refill packs of paper can be somewhat pricey but Best Buy was running a sale on refills so I stocked up on a few packs while the price was more attractive.

I’ve been wanting to print some of our travel pictures so I could pin it on a map, frame it and hang it on a wall... And this palm size printer made it so easy and quick for me! It’s pretty easy to set up. When I opened the box did not see any instructions, but once you download and open the app, it will guide you through it. The app is super user friendly and really straight forward to use. And you connect the printer with your phone via Bluetooth. With the app you can edit and customize your pictures with frames, stickers, or other decorations, then hit "print" and in seconds out comes your photo! The ink is in the paper so there is no need for ink cartridges. The cool feature is that you can print pictures from your Instagram, Facebook and Google! All you have to do is login into your account and select the picture you want to print! Simple and easy! I like to do some editing on my pictures and with this app you CAN print photos that have been previously edited using your phone or other picture editing apps! And the colors look true to me. You can take pictures using the app too, even selfies and it will print it right away. But since I like to do some editing this feature didn’t really interested me. So overall, if you are looking for a small printer, and you just want some fun little 2x3s pictures for your projects, look no more. This IS the one to get!

I received this for my birthday - I’ve been journaling a lot !!! I wanted this sprocket soon could print out my pictures and add to my journal ! Guys : this is a game changer ! The saying a picture is worth a thousand words totally applies to this scenario! I just lost my precious dad so pictures really mean a lot !!!! The quality of my sprocket is totally awesome / I’m so so so grateful for the gift ! Plus got it on sale -it was $87! Don’t wait ! Thanks Best Buy for drive up service too- it feels like a birthday hug !

This is a nice little printer that helps make your social media posts physical. The app is fairly intuitive and has some decent customization options. If you don't see an enhancement in the list, the app allows you to make your own and save it, cool feature! I took it to a recent party and the guests were wowed at how quickly I customized and printed stickable keepsakes for them! The printer is very portable and the pictures show good detail and color reproduction for such a small print and no ink cartridges. The only issue I had was with the embedded experiences and getting it to work. Once configured in the app, the printer makes photos with an invisible watermark that, when scanned with the reveal camera, should show an AR experience on your phone. I followed the instructions and even used a still frame from a video I took of a new car event (see photo) but the app said "no reveal content found". That being said, it's a gee wiz feature that does nothing to the usefulness and functionality of this party printer!

If you’re on the go and looking for a fun way to print photos, then this is it. After charging the unit for about an hour it was ready to use. It can connect to your smart device via Bluetooth. Download the app and you’re able to print pocket-sized photos. Printing a photo is a quick and easy process. Open the app, select the photo you want to print and press the printer button. In a matter of 15 seconds, it’s printed. The quality isn’t as nice as a larger printer, but it’s not shabby for something that fits in the palm of my hand. The app also allows you to make edits and add fun little things to the photo. It was pretty cool to print a photo I had just posted to my social media. I brought it to a friend’s house and it was a hit. Everyone loved trying it out and wanted to use it. People loved the idea of being able to snap a photo and quickly print it for a keepsake. My wife is excited about using this because she thinks it’ll be a great resource for adding photos to the “baby book” for our child. I admit, it’ll be pretty cool. Takeaway: Because of the size, I wonder how many photos will print before I have to purchase ink. Also, having to purchase the photo paper is a drag, but not a deal breaker. I like the idea of being able to print things quickly from my phone. Try not to mind the qality of the photo, it was tough trying to focus on both the phone and printed image.

This is exactly what I was looking for. You have so many different printing options using the accompanying app. I print pictures to add to my planner and journal. It is very simple to use.