EVEBOT has made two interesting printers before.
One is the PrintPen that lets you print things on different surfaces,
and the other is the coffee printer that can print images onto your coffee.
Now they reached out to me with their latest PrintX,
which is a portable mini printer for
A4 format color printing and more.
Is it going to be game-changing?
Let’s check it out.
First things first, the PrintX is still in its early stages and not finalized yet,
so don’t mind if you see minor scratches here and there or some imperfections in the App,
that’s normal with any prototype.
The package has two parts, a printer and a portable A4 extension.
You can get them separately btw.
The printer looks tiny and cute.
You got a printer button on the top.
A type-c charging port and a power switch on the side.
Open the top cover, you see the chamber for the ink cartridge.
While the bottom cover is magnetic and can be removed when you are printing.
Here there is an optical sensor, two wheels for sliding,
and contacts for connecting the extension.
We’ll talk about that in a second.
To use the printer, turn on the switch first, then you will hear a beep and the blue indicator
will be on and steady.
Open the PrintX app, click “Unconnected” on the top right corner
and choose PrintX to go to the next step.
Turn on your Bluetooth if you haven’t,
then click the “PrintX” to connect.
Once you are connected, you can create multiple printings.
They offered some pictures in their gallery.
You can also add text, upload pictures, and even create your own signatures.
Once you have selected your picture, click “Print”, it will then send the picture to the main unit,
and you just press the print button and slide it on the surface you want to print.
That’s it.
Here are the results, not bad, it’s clear and many details are kept.
This main unit, you can use it separately.
But, what the PrintX takes one step further is the A4 portable extension that comes with the box.
The extension looks simple, it just has a port at the back
for inserting the A4, A5, or A6 paper.
A type-c charging port and a power switch on the side.
Open the cover, is the slot for placing the main unit.
You just align the contacts and then put the main unit in.
Easy peasy.
Turn on the power switch.
Click the “Switch mode” to switch to the A4 mode and re-connect the main unit to your app.
Insert the paper from the back, and it will automatically roll the paper in.
Then you can upload a picture to print.
Currently, it only supports PDF file and picture format in A5 size.
I tested numerous printings and here are the results.
First the text, this one is darn good.
It looks smooth and clear and even better than some office printers out there,
but for sure, it doesn’t replace a good quality traditional printer,
but the result is quite acceptable, clear enough to read.
Then for stick figures or simple colorful animations, it has good results as well.
Looks overall smooth and vivid.
Then I tried some complicated color pictures.
Well, it seems this machine is a bit hard to handle.
The picture overall looks OK but grainy and the color seems less accurate.
The biggest problem for the printings is the stripes over the picture.
I guess it’s a problem of the prototype.
The parts inside are not well combined.
As the official PrintX told me this prototype was 3D printed, there are still some errors existing,
but they guarantee once the official edition out, everything will be much better.
Well, considering they have successful products like that PrintPen and coffee printer, I have
faith they will finally fix the issues.
Don’t believe me?
Actually, I tried their even earlier prototype a few days ago and here is the result, you
can compare the two, the last one has improved much more, right?
Whether the color accuracy or those stripes.
I just appreciate how much work they put into this product in such a short amount of time.
To conclude, I think for a specific niche, the PrintX has done a good job.
The A4 extension is truly innovative and I haven’t seen anything like this lightweight
and ease-of-use on the market.
The connection is stable and printing speed is good, though the noise is a bit annoying
but considering this is a prototype it can still be improved upon.
The great thing is its portability.
You see before if we wanted to print out a normal A4 format document, the only way was
to use a traditional and bulky printer.
But now, you can print on the go.
Have a small meeting outside with your team? No problem!
Want to print something when you are spending time with your children, no problem.
Or for a small video making team like me to print out scripts, no problem.
For me, it upscales a toy portable printer into a practical tool
and you know what, it’s color-printing.
If you are interested in this product, you can find out the link in the description.
Currently it’s on its crowdfunding stage and has the best price ever.
I’m Sami and I will see you in the next one.