Is Phomemo's Portable Mini Printer Really Worth All The Hype? We Found Out
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Social media is the land of glitz. It is, therefore, no surprise that a healthy bunch of products that often go viral on platforms like TikTok and Instagram often turn out to be of sub-par quality. Beauty and fashion products sit at the top of this hype-driven chain, but electronics gadgets and gizmos are not too far. People around me have spent an unhealthy amount of money buying flashy new devices, swayed by such videos, only for it to end up in a dump.
At the moment, pocket printers from a brand named Phomemo are making waves on social media. Take for example the M02, a pocket printer, which is not a novel concept in itself. But in this case, it's not just a compelling asking price of around $50 and sheer versatility that stands out, but also the convenience of printing out cute stickers that has propelled this printer's popularity. I imported one from the U.S., and I can report that the Phomemo M02 is one of my least-regrettable tech purchases of all time.
The hardware is surprisingly sturdy
The packaging is pretty bare-bones, but in a meaningful way. It has the printer with a roll of paper fitted inside and a micro-USB cable. In the lord's year of 2024, USB-C should be the standard, but here we are. The printer itself is fairly well-built for its asking price. There are no moving hinges or creaking plastic shells, and the roll slot mechanism is also fairly sturdy.
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I got the black trim, because that's arguably the best color for every gadget out there, but you can pick the M02 in a choice of peppy shades that include light pink, green, purple, and white. Phomemo supplies a white sticky paper roll as part of the retail package, but you can buy non-adhesive rolls, as well, in yellow, pink, and blue colors in the standard 53-millimeter size from the brand's website.
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These are all thermal papers, which means there is no ink involved here. That also means less moving parts and engineering complexity. The printer head only has to apply pressure and heat to generate an image of whatever it is that the companion mobile app sends as the print signal. The printer supports over 50 types of papers — including transparent and color block — but do keep in mind that these need to be "thermal" type. Moreover, some of the bundles cost nearly half the printer's sticker price itself.
Getting started
The entire process of unboxing to getting your first sticker printed out takes less than five minutes. First, you need to slide the cover lock button to open the printer, take out the paper roll, pull the plastic tape, and slide it right back in. The instructions on the paper manual that comes in the retail box are a bit misleading, so I'd suggest watching the tutorial video on Phomemo's official YouTube channel.
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The process of pairing involves downloading the Phomemo app (for Android and iOS), and once you launch it, the connection is established in a few seconds. There's no janky wireless scanning process involved here, and thanks to Bluetooth 5.0, the range is also fairly good. I was able to print a picture of my eternally restless cat from the other room with ease as my first test print.
The software
The Phomemo does a fairly neat job of keeping it clean, both from a functional as well as UI perspective. On the homepage, you get the basic controls at the top, which include a blank note template, an option to print images, and a template section where you can find a healthy selection of pre-made designs for to-do notes, scheduler blocks, business and greeting cards, and fun cartoon-style frames.
You also get dedicated tools for printing documents (in popular formats like PDF and DOCX), an OCR tool so that you can extract text from the camera frame, and a scan tool tied to the camera for quickly turning pictures into print-ready documents. If you are planning to print out creative stickers for decorative endeavors, like spicing up the looks of a diary or just putting some artwork on your bland Samsung fridge, the Graphic section at the bottom offers a ton of choices.
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But the test tool in the app is Print Web. It's an in-app browser that also has quick shortcuts for popular social media platforms like Instagram and X, formerly Twitter. Just visit any URL of your choice and hit the print button in the bottom right corner. No need to screenshot webpages or offline saving hassles.
Print quality doesn't disappoint
As far as print quality is concerned, it's surprisingly sharp, but you also need to keep in mind the limitations of thermal printing in such a small form factor. For sketches, line arts, drawings, emojis, and notes, there is plenty of sharpness. All you need to do is adjust the text and paper print size, both of which are dynamic.
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There are four print options available, including light and heavy, each suitable for the image you want to print out. If it's something that's clean and simple, such as a business card or a line drawing of a forest goddess, the light print strength works out fine.
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But if you're planning to print out pictures taken by your phone's camera, especially photos with plenty of shadows and dark background, expect some grainy texture. There's a hack to get around it, though. Simply downscale the resolution of pictures in a mobile photo editing app, turn it grayscale, and reduce the highlights.
The printed images will retain plenty of fidelity. I asked the barista at my local coffee shop if he'd like a sticker of him making a cup of coffee. He wasn't horrified at the image generated by the Phomemo M02, so I'd say it's a small victory in itself. You see, the point here isn't to compete with a bug-loving and hulking HP printer, but make memories. And if you happen to love them in grayscale, that's even better.
A few other observations
I had some concerns about the paper quality and ink longevity here. I put about a dozen stickers printed by the Phomemo M02 on my fridge, and so far, none of them have fallen or shown signs of the adhesive drying off in the parching summer. Second, my skepticism of the black lines wearing off hasn't yet materialized.
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The stickers are on a door facing around 10 hours of hot sun, pressed between pages of thick diaries, and on my work table, but the print strength is just fine. As far as the battery goes, there's a bit of a trick here. Once you pair your phone with the printer, it stays connected via Bluetooth, whether or not you're printing stickers.
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There's no auto-disconnect function after a period of non-activity by default. If you keep it as such, the printer's battery would start blinking red in about four to five hours. But if you make sure to end the Bluetooth pairing and turn the printer off, it would easily last for a week, or more, on a single charge. Thankfully, the Phomemo M02 doesn't heat, neither while charging nor printing.
Should you splurge on a TikTok viral gizmo?
Whether you should put $50 on the TikTok shop counter for the Phomemo M02 printer, and anywhere between $10 and $25 for extra rolls of thermal paper, depends on what values these tiny black-and-white stickers will add into your life. For adding some jazz to your notes, or saving the hassle of jotting down long notes, these stickers really come in handy.
Plus, a small 1:1 print can pack more words than I could cram in at least 2-3 pages of hand-written notes. So, there's the convenience aspect, and I'm totally sold on it. In the span of a few days, I've transcribed and printed portions of at least four interviews that I've posted proudly on pages of my notebook.
My sister, a fashion designer, tells me she loves it. "I save Pinterest and research content on my phone all the time, only to never open it again. If I print some of them and stick them on my desk, I will at least have them for reference study almost every day," she tells me.
Of course, it certainly helps to flaunt your artistic skills in your circle with some custom sketches, which the Phomemo M02 will happily churn out for you. Overall, it's a neat little gadget that does more serious stuff than what its cute form factor will have you believe.