Review: Epson PictureMate Charm

Along with your lunch, you might want to consider bringing Epson's lunch pail-style photo printer, the PictureMate Charm, the next time you decide to work off campus. This portable print machine churns out surprisingly good photos that will likely win you more raves from classmates than dorm-hall meatloaf.

Weighing just over 8 pounds with the optional rechargeable battery ($50) installed, the PictureMate Charm is heavier than we expected but that's probably because it's no lightweight when it comes to print quality. The Charm uses a single four-color dye ink cartridge that'll give you excellent 4x6-inch prints with sharp detail and bold if slightly oversaturated color.

We stuffed the PictureMate Charm into a custom made carrying case ($34) from Epson along with a packet of Epson paper and headed out to the New York Botanical Garden to photograph plants, flowers, trees and assorted wildlife of the Bronx variety. Though the bag made carrying the printer easier, after an hour or so of trudging around in the hot sun, we were ready to settle down and make some prints.

We parked ourselves next to a small waterfall in a shaded forest-like section of the Botanical Garden, popped the SD card out of our digital camera and inserted it into the Charm's built-in card reader. Images popped up right away on the printer's small flip-up 2.5-inch LCD. Photos on the low-resolution screen looked coarse and slightly pixilated. We'd recommend using your digital camera's LCD to judge sharpness and image quality before you print.

Printing can be done with one touch or, if you feel like it, you can make some basic edits such as removing red-eye in portraits or converting your beautiful nature shots to Ansel Adams-like black-and-whites or oldy-timey sepia tones.

Once you hit print, the Charm is a verifiable speed demon. Our 4x6s at the maximum (5760 x 1440 dpi) resolution spat out of the printer in 45 seconds and were dry to the touch. As stated already, image quality was unexpectedly good; rivaling dedicated photo printers we've tested with six or more inks. Inspect your photos closely and they'll fall short of what you'd get from a lab with some noticeable loss in detail, but that's to be expected. On the plus side, the prints are water and scratch-resistant.

Designed like a white box with (HWD) dimensions of 5.7 x 9.1 x 6.7 inches and a handle, the Charm is stylish looking but doesn't feel particularly durable. We'd love to see a more rugged, rubberized version to bring on some serious field trips but this portable PictureMate is certainly not without its charms.