£210, www.scanningpens.co.uk

WHAT IS IT?At just 11in in width the market’s smallest wireless A4 printer is only a little wider than the paper itself. The choice of mains or battery power, a weight of 1lb 8oz, and the included rigid carry-case mean it is truly portable. It’s a “direct thermal” printer - the technology used in fax machines - so it uses the same crinkly, lightweight paper, and your black-and-white print-outs emerge dry to the touch, albeit a little curly. The internal paper roll is long enough for 20 A4 pages, and the rechargeable battery is good for 30. Replacement rolls cost £9.99 for three. Connected over USB to a laptop, a sheet of text took just 20 seconds to print, with the kind of quality you’d expect from a fax machine. Images took an age to emerge, however - at the top resolution of 200x400dpi, an A4 photograph required 10 minutes to output. Wireless Bluetooth connections proved less easy to set up, and this wasn’t helped by the absence of a manual on the accompanying disk. One phone refused to pair with the printer, but a Bluetooth-equipped laptop linked without fuss.

SHOULD I BUY ONE?The Printstik feels solid and sturdy, and is small enough to stash in a road warrior’s laptop bag. But setting it up to print those first-quarter sales figures from a Bluetooth phone or PDA could end up being a lot more hassle than it’s worth.

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