Computing on-the-go couldn’t be easier with the bevvy of smart phones, laptops and netbooks on the market. But printing documents while away from the home or office is a whole ‘nother story — until now. PlanOn’s Printstik PS905ME printer provides completely portable printing power. The lightweight, mobile printer utilizes rechargeable batteries and thermal printing technology so folks can print documents without needing outlets or wasteful ink cartridges.
While other portable printers exist, PlanOn boasts the smallest, lightest printer on the market. The Printstik weighs in at 1.5 pounds and measures 2x2x11 inches, making it tiny enough to fit inside a laptop bag, purse or deep coat pocket. Rather than relying on messy and wasteful ink cartridges, the Printstik incorporates thermal technology to produce monochrome prints. Each device holds one roll of paper (about 20 sheets of regular letter-sized paper), and can hook up to computers and some smartphones.
In terms of green cred, eliminating toner cartridges can save a whole lot of packaging waste, especially given how quickly ink supplies can run out. Plus, the printer derives its power from Lithium-ion polymer rechargeable batteries. Rechargeable batteries are certainly more earth-friendly than disposables, but it’s a safe bet that mobile printers can save more energy than traditional, plug-in printers. This is especially true in office environments, where people tend to leave printers turned on or plugged in all day, even when the devices aren’t in use.
Perhaps rechargeable batteries would be a wise choice for many consumer electronics because it would incentivize conserving power, rather than wasting valuable electricity through vampire power consumption. Still, PlanOn’s printer does run slower than traditional printers and the quality doesn’t compare to that of laser printers, so the Printstik not be appropriate for all environments.
Via Physorg
12 Responses to “World’s Smallest Portable Printer Doesn’t Use Ink”
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_Boy_Printer , not so ‘fresh’ idea, though.
I wish I could win one of these!
I’m not sure this is an environmentally friendly device. As far as I know, you can’t recycle thermal paper. Watch out for the greenwashing!
Plus a lot of thermal paper has Bisphenol A in it.
Plus a lot of thermal paper has Bisphenol A in it.
Forgot to mention solid post! Looking forward to reading your next post!
Oh.. Its really amazing…
Hope it has all the functionality that other normal printer have.
At Between $300. and $400. A little Pricey. Refill cartriges $23 to $60 per cartrige of 20. Just Prints and Nothing else. Non Recycleable Paper. Very Small Great for a person on the go. Better take along lots of Refills and extra batteries or at least the charger.
Price is alot lower than mentioned. Printstik starts at $199. No batteries are reuired as usb chargesunit while you print. Paper cost for 11″ page is $0.19. Pinter only prints what pae size is required. Neat product very portable. Bluetooth option available.
[...] Jurors for the competition included Christopher Charles Beninger, Patrik Schumacher, Sen Kapadia, and Hirante Welandawe. The competition launched in April of 2010 and garnered over 300 entries. The National Winner of the competition received a HP Workstation and a HP Large Format Designjet Printer, while the four zonal winners received a printer. [...]
[...] Inkless printers? Those are so last year. How about a printer that uses no toner but also lets you “erase” pages you’ve printer and reuse the paper?! That’s what the PrePeat by Sanwa does. The $5000+ printer (hey, we didn’t say it was going to be cheap) comes with special paper made from PET plastic that can be rewritten up to 1000 times. [...]
I would like to have a price on this portable printer. I am very interested in purchasing one.
how much does it cost . DOes this printer match with mac