HPRT Portable 4×6” Photo Printer

On the good side, the photos this printer produces are remarkably good. There are no lines or pixelation, and the colors pop! The set includes twenty 4×6-inch thermal glossy photo sheets and a starter ribbon. These are proprietary, and at the time of review, a replacement set of 54 sheets and accompanying ribbon will set you back just under $26. Hopefully, this becomes less with time, but it’s not completely unreasonable at around fifty cents per high-quality photo. No inkjet printer I’ve seen can reproduce this quality. Take a look at the zoomed-in photo attached.

The build quality is pretty good, and the parts all connect together fairly intuitively. A photo takes four passes back and forth through the printer and takes about a minute to complete. Ensure there’s enough room behind the printer to accommodate this process, as the photo extends out the back during each pass.

Regarding the not-so-good points, the connection is wireless only via the free downloadable “HeyPhoto” app. If the item description mentions USB or desktop/laptop connectivity, it’s not there! It uses Bluetooth to establish a peer-to-peer WiFi link or via your access point. Peer-to-peer reliably connected, and while my first access point connection was easy, reconnecting this way proved impossible. It only connects to a 2.4GHz connection, even though the app shows 5GHz links. I use multiple APs for my single LAN, and this topology possibly confused the app. Moreover, once the WiFi was established, I could not switch my phone to 5GHz (even though it’s the same LAN) and expect to operate the printer. The networking is a mess and is enough reason to lose a star. Otherwise, the app does the job, but the interface is long-winded.

Overall, if you can tolerate the app, connection debacles, and lack of USB, the printouts are excellent. I’d shop around to see if more seamless solutions exist.

This is a wonderful working photo printer of good quality. The directions are pretty straightforward and it was relatively easy to link to my phone. The printed photos that come out of it are better than I expected, which is definitely a plus. Thumbs up on this photo printer.

okay, first off, this does great quality pictures. they come out way better than using photo paper in my inkjet printer. the cost however, that’s not great considering you have to buy a pack with the paper and print cartridge for like $25 bucks. it’s not a horrible price but it is about 25 cents a picture, for 4×6 prints.
i live a half mile from Walgreens and they do one hour prints for less per print and with less hassle.
the biggest headache with this is that it only connects to a 2.4ghz frequency. now, most people have a dual band 2.4/5ghz routers. most stuff runs on 5ghz because it’s way faster. my router doesnt let you change the wifi name between 2.4 and 5ghz. so its a huge headache to connect as my phone always connects to the wrong, faster 5g one and cant see this as its on 2.4.

its really a shame that this isn’t capable of 5ghz as all the connection issues would be solved. the prints are nice, it’s a cool little printer with a very portable size. the connection issues are the deal breaker here.

 It did great at first and when I loaded the second round of paper and no i did not load more than 18 sheets and it jammed now it’s all jammed and no way to get it un-jammed so it’s getting returned tomorrow.