Users that are looking for a portable photo printer to take along as a buddy for a digital photo camera currently have two good options, Canon's Selphy line or PictureMate (the Epson photo printers line). Both companies offer great, small sized, high quality photo printers. Still, Epson seems to have gained some more customers lately. Epson must have studied the market really well when deciding to release their PictureMate line of printers, simply because they keep getting very good reviews from both the media and their customers.



One of their best models is the Charm (PM 225) that managed to be one of the best compact photo printers on the market. It also won various awards and was picked editor's choice time and time again. Knowing the hype that follows this printer but not knowing what it offers, one can but wonder what all the fuss is about.

First of all let's mention what's probably the only inconvenient to the Charm. It limits you to printing only in the 4 by 6 inch photo format. Once a user has established that he/she isn't bothered by this aspect, then the Charm starts looking like the best choice out on the market.

The design of the Epson Charm is somewhat odd. When closed you might easily mistake it for a candy or ice box. It's not until you flip the top side that you discover it is actually a photo printer, equipped with a color tilt-able LCD screen that, although small, will come in handy plenty of times. As for speed, a 4 by 6 inch print requires about 54 seconds. This means it's one of the best portable photo printers out there when it comes to speed, with Canon's Selphy's producing the same photograph in a bit over a minute. This difference in speed is most likely due to the technology used. Selphys are dye-sublimation printers whereas the Charm is an inkjet.

Like most other portable printers, The Charm offers a wide variety of printing options sans PC. It can print straight from a PictBridge compatible camera, memory card (it supports mini SD, Memory Stick Duo, MMC and Compact Flash), from a mobile phone or other Bluetooth powered device (if you chose to buy the optional Bluetooth adapter). The quality of the prints is really pleasing. Photos are clear, realistic and well balanced. It has actually been described as a perfect 10 in terms of quality. So it comes as somewhat of a surprise that maintenance cost is reasonable.

As a conclusion this is one of the Epson photo printers that is highly portable and a great buy. It's very easy to use and produces some prints with excellent quality. It would have been nice if, like the Canon Selphy line, Epson would have included the battery and Bluetooth adapter so that the user didn't have to purchase them separately. Still, it's lovely to have them even as options. The battery will cost around $50 whereas the Bluetooth adapter is a bit cheaper at $40.