SiPix Pocket Printer A6 Review

The SiPix Pocket Printer A6 is a thermal portable printer that runs on two double AA Alkaline batteries or a power adapter. One of the benefits of the SiPix Pocket Printer A6 is that it works with thermal technology so no ink is required; rather you use a special thermal paper that the heat creates an image or text on too.

Who Could Use One?

This machine is best suited to traveling salesmen and delivery agents. It is ideal for doorstep deliveries. If your job requires using your printer outside in sometimes inclement or wet weather, you will have no problems printing with the SiPix Pocket Printer A6. Because it is thermal, there is no ink that will run if the paper gets wet.

You can put the printer in a plastic zip lock back and print from the infrared port while the printer stays dry in the bag. You would not be able to do this with a standard ink jet or laser portable printer. The interface is IrDa 1.0 serial RS-232 and compatible with Mac, as well as Windows.

There is one major advantage here in simply that it does not require ink. This is a benefit of thermal printing but what benefits you gain, you lose on paper costs. So naturally, if you’re a high print volume user then you’re likely to find this a major disadvantage.

Another advantage is that it runs on AA Alkaline batteries. You may want to consider purchasing rechargeable long life batteries as the printer runs through them quite frequently. It would be advisable to use the more expensive longer life AA Alkaline batteries or even rechargeable ones. Paper and batteries will be your only expense though.

It will only allow for three minutes of printing and that may not be enough if you have a larger project you need to print out.

The rechargeable batteries will save you money and you can have them on hand as a back up just in case you need them. The AC adapter is standard for the United Kingdom, so unless you have a converter, you will need to purchase an AC adapter that has multiple settings for many types of equipment so that you can use it with this printer.

How to Find?

They are inexpensive to buy and with very little searching, you should get a good price. Balance this against the price of the paper and batteries and you decide whether it is an advantage to you in your situation. On Amazon, they can be found for under $45.

Size wise its perfect for carrying with you as it’s a mere 14oz and has dimensions of 5.85″ x 4.25″ x .992″ and print resolution of 400 dpi. Print speed is slow at a mere 2ppm but nobody said this was for high volume fast turn-out use. Some people who have immediate low volume printing requirements would most likely go for this printer for what it can offer. It also comes in a drawstring bag and small enough to fit into most small bags.

The paper can be purchased by the roll or by the sheet. If you hang on to the paper for too long, it has a tendency to turn gray. For this reason it is best to not overstock on paper. You can find this type of paper online or at a dealer that supplies the SiPix Pocket Printer A6 and has it in stock. The rolls are internally loaded which helps in keeping it dry and clean.

If you purchase it by the roll, and you need it to be a certain size, you will need to cut it to fit your requirements. The sheets come in the size of 4-1/8″ x 5-3/4″ and the size is 4-1/8″ x 8′ 2″ for the roll which comes in 8ft long strips which you can simply tear off to size.

On Amazon, the sheets can be found at around $11 and the roll a little more at around $12. There are options to buy your SiPix Printer A6 roll and 100 sheets as a joint purchase for the amazing price of $31.39 at the time of writing this article so it’s well advised to keep monitoring Amazon as the prices fluctuate constantly.

Another problem with the SiPix Pocket Printer A6 is that it is slow and can only print two pages per minute. This can be costly if you are using standard AA Alkaline batteries and need to print more than the six pages you will get from the standard three minutes that the batteries offer for printing. As you can imagine that’s not going to get you far so rechargeable batteries really is a wise move.

The quality of print is not the best and there is some graphic loss. If you are only printing standard text, you will not be worried about quality and this printer will work well for those types of jobs. For the purpose it was made, this is a fine little portable printer.