ZDNET’s recommendations are based on hours of testing, research, and comparison shopping. We gather data from the best sources available, including vendor and retailer listings, as well as other relevant and independent review sites. We carefully study customer reviews to find out what matters most to real users who already own and use the products and services we review.
When you click through to a merchant on our site and buy a product or service, we may earn an affiliate commission. This helps support our work, but doesn’t influence what or how we cover it, or the price you pay. Neither ZDNET nor the author receive compensation for these independent reviews. In fact, we follow strict guidelines to ensure that our editorial content is not influenced by advertisers.
ZDNET’s editorial team writes articles on behalf of you, our readers. Our goal is to provide the most accurate information and expert advice to help you make more informed decisions when buying tech gear, as well as various products and services. Our editors carefully review and fact-check each article to ensure our content meets the highest standards. If we make an error or publish misleading information, we will correct or clarify the article. If you believe our content is inaccurate, please report an error using this form.
I fell in love with the Selpic P1 handheld printer the moment I opened the box. The harmonica-sized, 92-gram (0.21 pound) handheld printer connects to your smartphone and prints in a variety of fonts on a variety of surfaces.
This is a wireless inkjet printer that lets you draw on a surface like a pen and then print out the image you want. Selpic can print on a variety of surfaces, including paper, textiles, leather, and wood. It can even print on curved or uneven surfaces. You can also print on vertical surfaces and change the print direction from left to right or right to left – a very useful feature for left-handed people like me who find the default right-handed settings annoying.
The printer’s print resolution is 600×600 dpi, and its inkjet head has 300 nozzles, each of which can fire 18 million ink drops per second.
The printer comes with a 7V lithium polymer battery that lasts for 3 hours of use. It charges via a USB Type-C connection. Selpic claims that it can print up to 90 pages of A4 paper on a single charge, using only 5% of the cartridge capacity.
It’s easy to use. To turn it on, press and hold the power button for three seconds. To pair with the app, press the print button and connect it to 2.4G Wi-Fi. The app will then let you change settings such as fonts. After the initial setup, you don’t need to connect to a Wi-Fi router.
I had problems connecting to the printer. I tried several different phones (I will check them all in a few weeks) but I had problems connecting. However, my old Samsung S7 connects to the P1 just fine.
Connecting to a printer from a device is similar to connecting to an access point. In the app, you can add text to the screen, convert speech to text, and customize fonts.
You can also change the orientation of the print by rotating, enlarging or reducing the image. You can print, edit images or take photos using the app in camera mode. The gallery has several images for preview and customization. There are also icons for editing and printing QR codes and custom barcodes.
Printing is easy. If you move the printer from right to left instead of left to right, the text will print backwards.
Hold the printer with the print button down and the image will print upside down. It prints on most flat surfaces (sorry, Selpic, I erased the graffiti from the box after taking the photo).
I thought it would be fun to stamp my name on the egg, but the wheels didn’t have enough traction on the smooth surface of the egg to leave a good stamp.
Selpic P1 printers and cartridges are made from aluminum alloy and recycled plastic to minimize environmental impact.
At first I thought this cover would come off the printer easily, but it is magnetic and has one orientation so it won’t damage the print head.
The printer lid didn’t fall out of my bag, which was a relief because ink gets on my hands every time I touch the print head.
The package includes a black cartridge, but you can purchase eight color cartridges for $31 each. The P1 is available on Indiegogo with an early bird discount of $99.
Selpic also offers the Selpic S1+, a slightly larger portable printer for $149 ($199 with quick-dry cartridges). The printer sold out within 12 hours of its release.
This is an interesting printer that has a lot of different potential uses for anyone who needs mobile printing services. Give printers access to files stored on your phone and you have a fantastic business tool that can print anything you want, as long as you have a surface to print on.
Post time: Jan-03-2025