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Yes I did say a printer that can fit in your pocket, it is 10x16x1.2cm and weights in – with paper inserted – at around 300grams.

The paper is of course thermal and small at 10.5x7.5 which I believe is called A7, each sheet is about the size of a decent till receipt and that is exactly the sort of use as it works with both Pocket PC and Palm handhelds via Bluetooth but it can also work with a PC’s via Bluetooth or USB.

The printer has no warm up time and you switch it on, send from your applet and it prints. It is stated to be able to produce four pages a minute but I suspect that this claim will be unlikely to be tested as I see the single page as the most likely use. A receipt, a quote or a copy order. However I have tested it with graphical items and the grey scale was quite acceptable so I see no reason why the sales person should not be able to give the company logo a bashing when producing required output on the spot.

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The stated resolution is 300x300dpi with a printable area on each sheet of 10x7cm.

The battery is Lithium Ion and it’s recharger is included. It has an auto power off after five minutes of inactivity. The battery is stated to be able to print in excess of 100 sheets between charges.

It works with both Pocket PC and Palm offerings – I only tested it with Palm – but I  also used the USB lead and printed with it from a notebook PC (Tablet PC also supported) but if the notebook supports Bluetooth the USB lead need not be used. Every little helps when travelling, especially when using public transport. It is possible for the supplied Windows driver to reduce a normal A4 page to A7 to suit the MPrint, maybe that’s ideal for the small print!

Initial setup could be easier and although there is a printed manual – praise be – it needs to be studied. The most annoying feature was trying to send using Bluetooth only to be told to enter the passkey. This turns out to be the last four numbers of the serial number on the unit. Once entered it is remembered and you can then send without problem.

I realise that the printer is open to abuse and security should be there but a little more hand holding with the manual would have make things easier. I recently attended an exhibition and people were sending Bluetooth images from mobile phones to a printer to be printed, without security how long before a passer by sends something pornographic? With security this problem is less of a problem.

The Brother MPrint is small and neat, it is very useful for anyone needing to produce printouts away from the office. It works well with either Bluetooth or USB. As this is a product for a professional the cost per page is less important but thermal paper is not cheap. The big minus is the printer price at not much less than £279 it is certainly not an impulse purchase. Brother do have a version (around £50 cheaper) that does infra red and USB and that may be worth thinking about as most PDA’s still support infra red and you are unlikely to want to print a novel using the MPrint.

 http://www.brother.co.uk/cms.cfm/s_page/55570/s_level/16860/s_product/MW140BTU1