Pentax @ CTIA - The PocketJet 3 portable printer

It's the last day of the CTIA wireless trade show, and we're scrambling to get together all the odds and ends that we didn't get to during the big news days of Monday, including Pentax's new-ish PocketJet 3 ultraportable printer (it was actually announced a couple of months ago). Probably not gonna want to print out the senior thesis on this one (you'll be lucky to get three pages per minute, tops), but the PocketJet 3 is small enough and light enough to toss in your laptop bag (or attach to your body so you can become some sort of human/peripheral hybrid). Works with Macs, PCs, and Linux, as well as Palm, Windows Mobile, and Symbian-powered smartphones and PDAs and use direct thermal printing instead of ink, so you don't have to worry about scoring a refill while you're on the road. Click for another action shot.

[Youngil Shin @ Dec 19th 2005 12:12AM]

Wow! Never know that printer can be so compact and be able to print out A4!
How much will this thing be priced?

[Joey Geraci @ Dec 19th 2005 12:12AM]

wow, I saw something exactly like this like maybe 6 years ago at my mom's office. big whup.

[Martey @ Dec 19th 2005 12:12AM]

Youngil, http://www.pentaxtech.com/Purchase/PocketJet/PocketJet_how_to_buy.html

[Mellissa @ Dec 19th 2005 12:12AM]

I carry a thermal printer a lot like this one ... http://www.hansondata.com/images/Freeliner.jpg ... for work, it has a shoulder strap I attach to it to wear it like a messenger bag.

Mine is about 7X5X3 and prints out 5X2 inch adhesive labels. (I'm a courier for a freight company, and I use the printer to print the routing barcodes.)

[Scott @ Dec 19th 2005 12:12AM]

Agree with #2, these printers have been around for years, the only innovation is the addition of Bluetooth...

[jfb3 @ Dec 19th 2005 12:12AM]

The answer for price is:
from 319 USD to 449 USD (from the Pentax website store) depending on DPI and interface.

[D @ Dec 19th 2005 12:12AM]

"No need to score a refill when on the road"

No, it just prints on Thermal coated paper, I bet. So you're left with two options - hidiously overpriced paper or cruddy fax-paper that curls and fades with time/direct sunlight/heat (don't stand that hot coffee mug on a printout folks) and is impossible to write on with a wide variety of water-based pens, just incase you wanted to annotate the printout or, heaven forbid, a tutor to comment your work!

This is FAR from new technology - I had one of these, albeit without bluetooth, for my Rubber-key Spectrum when it first came out.

Thermal coated paper technology sucked then, and guess what, sucks now. Fancy that. Of course, I'll take it back if this thing isn't a glorified fax print-head....

Why not just save yourself some money - you'll save yourself a fortune (from 319 USD to 449 USD *cough*) in both overpriced paper and hardware this way - every time you want to print just fax it to your nearest fax machine (via your bluetooth enabled cellphone) and let the hotel (or wheve-ever) absorb the cost of the (cruddy) paper - hell, if you're really lucky they'll have a plain-paper fax and you'll just be left with poor bubblejet quality as apposed to REALLY poor "till reciept" quality - and it'd probably quicker too ;) I bet in decent hotels they'd even send a bellhop up with your documents ;)

[Youngil Shin @ Dec 19th 2005 12:12AM]

I see, I'm so outdated :(
Still cool to me though!!

[skm @ Dec 19th 2005 12:12AM]

is it jet or pin printer?

[rl @ Dec 19th 2005 12:12AM]

If you do a simple google search you will find this, among other remarks related to this technology: "Most people's image of thermal paper is based on the old roll fax paper. Things have changed, however. Our thermal paper is a 20 lb., cut sheet paper stock that has been specially formulated to work with our printer to produce optimized print quality. Unlike fax paper, you can write on our paper and even highlight on it with water-based highlighters." Don't listen to opinions from hacks... do the research and find credible comments from people that actually know the product.