There’s not a lot to the Mi Portable printer; Its way smaller than the Canon Selphy printer and the fact that it is inkless means that you never have to worry about buying ink ever but that might also be its biggest weakness (more on that shortly). It comes with a user manual, 5 print paper, a calibration card, a standard micro USB cord and the printer in the box. setting up the device is fairly easy, you need to install the Mi Home app and the add the printer. The printer is wireless and works over Bluetooth so you’re somewhat assured of a stable connection over certain long distances (that’s if you consider over 20 feet as long distance).
I printed a couple images and I was impressed with the image quality (being that its inkless). Did the quality blow me away; definitely not but it did hold up enough that I could recognize the basic colors and more. The printed pictures also double as stickers if you peel off the protective cover behind them so you can stick your images on the wall, books or the back of your phone (if you’re into that kind of stuff). The printer also lets you do fun stuff like save short videos as printed photos so when you scan them, they automatically play and you relive the experience (a gimmick I agree but a cool gimmick at that).
On the NOT-SO-GOOD side, due to the fact that it is inkless, the colors aren’t the most accurate as there a hint of blue hue in every print (now this is most noticeable when you print black and white images). Also the processing system is either buggy or can’t handle certain color depth as it either didn’t print certain images that I shot and had processed with my DSLR. I reached out to Kahli Brown who also owns one of these and he said his printed those kinds of images perfectly so maybe its just me. I fiddle around again and if there’s any development, I’ll leave an update under this post.
Would I recommend the Mi Portable printer; Yes (as long as you’re not a professional and aren’t looking to monetize your prints). Its a fun little device that’s just slightly bigger than a phone and would fit nappily into your pocket and along the ride for those picnic dates with your significant other or for a scrapbook of memories.
The Xiaomi Mi Portable Printer cost just under Fifty Thousand Naira on Jumia Nigeria (that’s roughly $65) and a pack of the printer paper cost just under Seven Thousand Naira.
Click below to watch a review video on the Mi Portable Printer;
