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The Epson PictureMate is a dedicated photo printer, it is dubbed a ‘Personal Photo Lab’. Just plug it in to a mains socket and you can print images from a variety of card types as well as USB sticks and perhaps best of all by Bluetooth so place your phone or PDA nearby providing it has Bluetooth and around 3minutes later a 15x10cm is produced.

Yes you could connect this unit to a PC via USB lead and install drivers etc just like any other inkjet printer but bear in mind it only prints 15x10 so why would you.

Firstly the card types it supports, Compact Flash and Micro Drive, Secure Digital and Memory Stick, Smart Media and XD. Those are all under a lowered door on the front right of the unit. At the rear left are power input, USB input and standard USB port that can be used for USB ‘stick’ or ‘pen’ drives as well as a Bluetooth adapter.

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There are a total of five buttons on the top of the unit to control it as well as a 5x3cm display that shows what is going on, this display does not display the images from whatever the storage medium but offers the chance to print thumbnails of the images. It can print 20 thumbnails on a single 15x10cm sheet, note the number of the image you want to print and select from the menu. This works with whatever the storage type apart from something like a phone or PDA where the selection is made on the unit and sent via Bluetooth to the PictureMate.

One such device is a Sony Ericsson phone (more of that in another review shortly) and I have sent images taken on the phone via Bluetooth they all are reproduced excellently the internal mechanism in the PictureMate does all the calculations with the image and produces an excellent 15x10cm image. I have also sent images from a Bluetooth enabled PDA in the same way, again excellent output.

The Bluetooth adapter for the PictureMate is an extra, should your PDA or less likely your phone have card support then images can be stored on the card inserted in the PictureMate an index sheet then produced and the number of the image you want to print selected and the unit told to produce ‘x’ copies.

The PictureMate is 26x15x15cm in closed condition, it has a carrying handle. Total weight is 2.7kilos. Ink comes in a single cassette 20x10x2cm that fits in the bottom of the PictureMate. It’s rather strange to think this is ink but it works fine. On first use or after a long period of inactivity it takes a couple of minutes to complete a charging /cleaning cycle but after that images from whatever source print in around 3 minutes they are close to dry on exit face up from the front base of the unit. Stored unprinted sheets are placed vertically face forward in a space at the top back of the unit.

I printed some of my images on a conventional printer using 15x10cm paper and they were not as good as those produced by the PictureMate even though the image was the same but then the other printer was not a ‘Personal Photo Lab’. www.dabs.com have the basic PictureMate for £129.25.

Link http://www.epson.co.uk/products/inkjet_printers/PictureMate.htm