Sanyo DVP-P1EX

The Sanyo DVP-P1EX is a dye sublimation printer designed to work independently of a computer and with the Sanyo S750 mobile phone.

With this in mind, there are slots for a wide range of memory cards as well as a USB socket for PictBridge-compatible cameras.

There is a large LCD panel on the front of the printer but this is not a colour display. Selecting photos with a PictBridge camera is easy but printing from memory cards means first printing a sheet of thumbnail images and choosing desired prints using code numbers on the sheet.

The biggest problem with this is that it increases costs; a dye-sub cartridge prints the same number of pictures regardless of their size and this wastes pages.

Unlike most dye-sub printers, the paper is stored within the printer rather than being fed from the back, saving a lot of space. This may have affected cooling as there is a fan in this printer that can be quite loud and the manual warns that the printer will pause if it gets too hot.

The picture quality is very good and is better than an inkjet, but our test prints were rather dark. Unfortunately there is no way to correct this.

The printer is normally £160 but is currently being offered through Orange in combination with the Sanyo S750 3G mobile phone. Anyone who signs up for the S750 phone with any monthly contract can buy the printer for £30.