HP - Sprocket Select Photo Printer

Full disclosure: I received this product for free in return for my honest opinion about it. With that out of the way, overall this printer is great for those who like to print out photos they take on their smartphone and want to share it with friends, family, scrapbook, or decorate your walls with them. Let's break it down: Quality: The quality of the actual printer is pretty good. The outer case is made of plastic which is one down side, I do wish it was made of aluminum or some other metal so you don't run the risk of cracking it when you take off the lid to change the paper. The print quality is fantastic for a printer this size. The pictures are about 2.5x3.5 in size, but the clarity and color in which it prints is amazing. I did not expect such high quality prints from a pocket device. Functionality: Set up was a breeze, scan the QR code included, download the app, pair it to the printer and voila, you're done. The app (Sprocket) connects to your camera roll, camera, Facebook, or Instagram allowing you to print pictures from basically any source you want. Printing from camera/camera roll was very easy and you can add filters, edit and tune the image, or add stickers too.. I did run into an issue where when I synced it to my Instagram, the app would complain that every picture was "low quality" and would not print well. Not sure why as all the IG pictures I have were taken in high quality fashion (portrait mode etc.) Another cool feature is you can take pictures of art work and turn them into stickers (the paper has an adhesive side if you want to turn them into stickers). This app also has an AR feature where you can look at your printer through AR and it will show you the battery life and print queue. Cool, yes, useful.... not in my opinion, it's a little gimmicky. One last feature I love is that you can create grids of pictures, so you can do a collage of 4-6 pictures on one picture which makes for fun exciting pictures to print, and it also has a photo-booth setting where you can do photo-booth style pictures with your friends and print them instantly. Maintenance: Charging the printer is easy, all you need is the provided micro USB cord and a USB outlet to charge from. Battery life seems to be a few hours after a full charge. Changing the paper is easy, the printer comes with 10 sheets and instructions telling you to put it face down, making it blatantly obvious with an orange sheet of paper how to do so. The only issue I see is the plastic cover is a little flimsy that covers the paper and I worry about it breaking. The price per print is a little expensive, 50-60 cents per print. But the fact you do not have to buy ink cancels that out as the ink is infused into the paper. I do wish HP gave you 20 sheets instead of 10 when you get the product as 10 is not enough to get started. Final Thoughts: All in all, this printer provides great print quality in a form factor that can fit in your pocket. The app is easy to use and you can seamlessly create fun pictures to share or keep for yourself, or make stickers out of them. The customization of pictures is endless, the fun you can have is endless and since it is app driven, it only adds the possibility of new features in the near future.

I am so very excited for festival season and just random nights with friends over! Sure I can share stuff on social media but having had my Sprocket for a week now I am finding that when friends have been over they really enjoyed taking their photos with them. What is more, the augmented reality feature for some filters makes it so interactive and a little secret between my friends and me! In two weeks a bunch of friends are coming into town for a festival and this is going to be a blast! The part for me that is a bummer is that the AR filters do not always work which is daunting because I am hoping that by then HP has released a bunch of new filters. The body is super cute and I love the marbled look, it is lightweight so it fits easily in my bags without feeling hefty. The printer fits 20 sheets so only my best pictures will get printed but I am happy that in the application it gives you the option to save the photos to your phone. I haven't used the sticker feature yet because I haven't decided where I want all my pictures to go but the fact that I can put them in lockers or on my laptops makes it a blast! My top features of the Sprocket are the pretty design, it's smaller than my cellphone, the pictures print in seconds, and it has definitely sparked conversation in my group. Must have for every family!

Great little printer that the younger members of the family have an absolute blast using to print out their favorite pictures. Best of all, the pictures can be turned into stickers if you get the right paper. The print quality is good with decent color representation for this type of printer. The price is right, pictures are good, and the ease of use is second to none.

I got this device mainly for making fun pictures for my kids that they can use as stickers for their enjoyment. However, because of the many features built into the Sprocket app, I’ll be using it for an upcoming birthday party as a photo booth option for our guests. Until then, we’ve been printing pictures with fun borders and designs so my kids can use them in school projects, as well as to decorate their stuff. They love that each picture can be turned into a sticker too. The picture quality of the printer is good if you’re not expecting high quality prints (such as those from high resolution photo printers). This is the only area that may be an issue for some people, hence my overall score of 4. If you get one of these knowing its limitations in print quality, like I did, then you’ll be satisfied with its capabilities. For example, see the attached pic that shows a printed version of a color grid. The original image is shown on the phone, and the printed version is right next to it. The printer for the most part was able to print most of the colors well. When viewed by itself, and not next to the vibrant phone’s screen, the printed version of the color grid had good color separation. And if you’re thinking of getting this little portable printer for fun projects, crafting, or for parties, the print quality is perfect for these situations. One tip I noticed was that if you want to adjust a picture’s features, such as lighting and color, it may be best to do this in the Sprocket app itself. I was adjusting my pictures on my phone’s native photo app, then printed them on the Sprocket printer, and many of my pictures were over saturated. When I made similar adjustments within the Sprocket app instead, the printed images came out much nicer. My guess is that the Sprocket app is designed and fine-tuned for the printer. It seemed to handle my adjustments to match the capabilities of the printer. Makes sense, since the printer and app are designed for each other. Overall, this is a great little portable printer that can be used in many creative ways. I really like the fact that these prints are stickers. In my opinion, it’s what makes this printer unique.

I really enjoyed the concept of this printer. It is compact, so easy to carry around. Connecting to your phone, reloading the printer, using the app, all very easy and straightforward. The one downfall is the actual picture. After a few days the edges curve, peeled or not. Kinda ruins the photo and you end up printing it anyway.

This pocket printer is a great item for gatherings and events. If you are looking for studio-quality prints, you need to contact a professional photographer! The sprocket select enables you to print small photos wherever you are. Very lightweight, not much bigger than my cell phone. I was excited to open the printer and get started. My first surprise was how easy it was to set up. Basically charge the battery and load the special zink paper. The paper comes in sealed packets of ten and you just want to make sure you load it the correct way (orange card down). You will need to install the hp Sprocket software on your mobile devices. I was a bit skeptical about such a small printer doing anything, but was surprised at the quality of the print! I have used this at career fairs, my high school reunion (!), and the office. So easy to snap a pic and print multiple copies! You can add frames and words to your photo using the special sprocket software. The blue tooth connection allows more than one device to use the printer at one time. The printer is not super fast, but it is super fun. I had some friends who thought it was not very useful until they actually saw it in action. How many times have you snapped a ton of pics at an event and promised to send them to everyone? (And never did, or forgot?) With the sprocket select, you can print them on the spot! I highly recommend this photo printer for use at parties, events, and gatherings. I can also see myself using it in my livestock business when I want to get a printed pic quick for a potential buyer to take with them. It's a physical reminder!

Wow this is a cool little well designed product from HP. HP Sprocket is lightweight and easy to use without a doubt but also is very convenient when you need it. The design is ultra modern as it overall holds, you can place this HP Sprocket anywhere like a nightstand and it would look great. It’s small enough to throw into a bag and go. HP Sprocket allows for you to print photos directly from your phone that uses Zink paper. Zink paper is fairly cheap and the most common. Seeing how you can get about 100 sheets for about $30 doesn’t break the bank too much. Not much comes in the box, an AR code to help you get started, 10 sheets of Zink, and a USB for charging. The app will guide you though how to put the paper in. Once printed, you can peel off the back of these photos if desired and stick them in photo/lookbooks. journaling, photo walls, or just sticking them on a wall. The images come out clean and clear, perfect saturation and glossy. I honestly can’t believe something this small and can print this quality of images. But have to keep in mind that it’s still a mini photo printer but it does the job of printing fantastic 2x3 paper. The real magic here is the HP Sprocket app where all the features are contained, things like exclusive stickers that’s seems to be co-designed by artist. There are also photo frames giving you a significant amount of frames to choose from. You can also select the LED color on the front which my significant other loved and enjoyed. This little device have my favorite feature... Photo collages. You break images up into 4 parts and 9 parts so you can setup multiple images as one. This will allow you to connect those into one big image to make a poster at will. Another feature is a “Photo ID” feature that allow you to print out headshots better. Party mode is nice if you are going to meet with friends, take photos and they can connect to your printer to print things out. (Up to 3 people can connect.) “Tag” feature just prints out everything in the social media that you tag your photo with. I guess some of my downsides to this version maybe two things I encountered. First: The app needs a few improvements as it was a little slow to respond to touch; ended up printing out one image twice. Another thing is they really only start you off with only 10 Zink paper sheets, once you getting use to the mini printer it’s almost out of sheets before you get started. HP should have at lease put in 20 sheets to get the consumer to really enjoy their purchase. So I recommend buying Zink sheets along with this device. My partner loves it, and I happen to enjoy it as well. It print out dare I say “cute photos” the stickers are nice as well as provide a good stickers to choose from. I’m sure will be updated over time. This could also serve as a great gift to a partner, child, family member, or friend who just want a easy no frills way to print with a smartphone. The app enhances the features of the device without a doubt and I would recommend this to many families if I could. HP I would have to say designed this with humans who want accessibility in mind.

Got this as a birthday gift for my wife. I chose this one because the prints are larger than the other printers. She loves it and the pictures come out great. The photos print relatively fast. It easily allows multiple phones to connect (via the app) so that others can use the printer as well. The photo paper is a lot more affordable than other instant print paper. The paper can be used as a sticker, but if you just leave the peel attached to the back it's pretty thick like regular photo paper. I did not give this five stars for two reasons: sometimes a photo won't print and you have to resend this orange card that comes with photo paper through the printer again, no biggie; once printed, the photo may curl a bit from the heat which can be remedied by just putting the photo inside a book to keep the photo flat as it "cures" from the printing process. I will definitely be buying another as a gift for someone else in the future.