10 Best Portable Printers for Travel (October 2026)

The best portable printers for travel solve a problem most travelers discover too late: the hotel business center is closed, the FedEx Office is across town, and the contract you promised to sign before Monday is sitting in your inbox as a PDF. I have carried a printer on more trips than I care to admit, and the models that earn a permanent place in my bag share a short list of traits. They are light, they run off a battery, they pair with a phone in under two minutes, and they never make you hunt for a cartridge in a foreign country.

What most people do not realise is that “portable printer” covers two completely different machines. One group is the inkless thermal document printer, a small monochrome box that prints onto special coated paper and never needs ink again. The other group is the dye-sublimation photo printer, which produces laminated colour 4×6 prints and runs on proprietary cartridges. Mixing those up is the single biggest reason buyers end up disappointed, so this roundup keeps them clearly separated.

We put ten of them side by side across the range: thermal document units weighing from 1.1 to 3.1 pounds, two colour photo printers, and one full inkjet that handles letter-size colour if you can accept the weight. Every printer below was checked against the same questions. How heavy is it with a battery and paper loaded? What does a page actually cost in consumables? Does it pair over Bluetooth, and does it print from a laptop without a driver hunt? And can you load paper at 6am in an airport gate after three time zones? These are the best portable printers for travel in 2026.

Top 3 Portable Printers for Travel in 2026

Three models stand out. The Liene M100 wins on colour quality and the sheer convenience of a 100-sheet bundle in the box. The Gloryang PD-A4 is the best value for anyone who mostly signs documents on the road, and the Phomemo M08F is the sharpest text output of the thermal group. All three are monochrome-free of ink headaches, none of them need a wall outlet, and each one fits in a laptop sleeve.

All 10 Portable Printers Compared in 2026

Use this table as a shortlist filter before you read the individual reviews. Weight is the number that decides whether a printer actually travels with you, pages per minute tells you whether a 20-page contract is realistic, and the print technology column tells you whether colour is even on the table.

1. Liene M100 4×6 Photo Printer – Best Colour Prints That Survive a Trip

The Liene M100 is the one I reach for when a trip involves people rather than paperwork. At 200g it is a fraction of the weight of the other colour machine in this roundup, roughly the weight of a paperback, and the magnetic body has no paper tray sticking out to snap. The built-in Wi-Fi hotspot is the feature that saves time at a guesthouse: it creates its own network, so five people can send photos from their phones without anyone fighting over a router password.

Print quality is where it clearly outruns the alternatives here. The dye-sublimation process lays down colour at 300 x 300 DPI and finishes with a laminate that shrugs off water, fingerprints and sunscreen. That matters in a travel context more than it does at home, because a trip puts prints through handbags, wallets and hotel desks.

The bundle is unusual for this category. You get 100 sheets of glossy photo paper and three colour cartridges in the box, so you can print on day one without a second delivery to a hotel. Setup is genuinely quick: unpack, install the Liene app, and the printer appears over its own hotspot.

The trade-offs are real and worth stating plainly. This is a 4×6-only machine, so it cannot produce a document, a contract or a shipping label, and the cartridges are proprietary to Liene, which keeps the cost per photo higher than a thermal model. Expect roughly a minute of waiting per print, so a batch of 20 photos takes real planning.

When the Liene M100 earns its place in your bag

It suits anyone who wants physical photos from a trip rather than a printer that can also handle documents. Families printing nightly, a travel journal you fill as you go, an event photographer handing out prints on the spot, or a small group where everyone can push photos to the same device over the hotspot.

It is also the easiest colour option to fly with, because at 200g you will forget it is there. The bundle of 100 sheets and three cartridges also means one less errand in an unfamiliar city.

When you should pack something else

Skip it if your travel involves signing documents, printing shipping labels or producing anything other than 4×6 photos. The M100 physically cannot take letter-size paper, so a single contract ends the experiment.

Also weigh the cartridge cost if you plan to print in volume. For a weekend of holiday snaps the bundle covers you, but a long assignment that eats through several hundred prints will be far cheaper on a thermal unit, even if thermal cannot give you colour at all.

2. Gloryang Inkless Thermal PD-A4 – Best Value Document Printer for the Road

The Gloryang PD-A4 answers the simplest version of the question: how do I get a full page of black text out of a bag in a hotel room? It prints on 8.5 x 11 thermal paper at 203 DPI, runs at a brisk 35 pages per minute, and holds up to 360 sheets, so a thick packet of paperwork is not a problem. At 1.75lb and 1.7 inches thick it disappears into a backpack or a briefcase.

What stands out is the box contents. You get the printer, a charging cable, a carry case and three rolls of letter-size thermal paper, which is the starter supply most competitors sell separately. For someone buying their first portable thermal printer, that removes the annoying second-order problem on day one.

Paper handling is more flexible than the specification suggests. The built-in bin accepts two loading orientations and prints anywhere from 2 to 8.5 inches wide, so a narrow receipt roll and a full letter page come out of the same machine. Bluetooth handles phones and tablets through the Jadens Printer app.

Two limitations deserve emphasis before you commit. It is monochrome only, so there is no colour path of any kind. And it wants its own branded thermal paper; feeding it regular or inkjet stock produces poor results and can gum the head. Laptop users also need a USB cable and a driver install, since Bluetooth on this unit is phone-only.

When the Gloryang PD-A4 earns its place in your bag

It is built for the contractor, the consultant and the freelancer who signs paperwork in parking lots and hotel lobbies. The combination of letter-size output, a 35 pages per minute rate and a 360 sheet capacity means a full contract set prints before your coffee arrives.

It is also a strong choice for students, since 203 DPI thermal text is perfectly readable for notes, reading lists and printed articles, and the carry case keeps it safe in a rucksack. Carry a spare roll of paper in the case rather than relying on finding thermal stock abroad.

When you should pack something else

It is the wrong pick for anyone who needs colour, whether that means a photo, a chart or a highlighted document. Monochrome thermal output is a hard limit of the technology, not a setting you can change.

If your workflow is label-focused, note the 2 inch minimum print width and check the label dimensions you actually use. If you mostly print from a laptop rather than a phone, the mandatory driver install is friction that some competing units avoid.

3. Phomemo M08F Thermal Printer – Top Rated for Crisp Text

The Phomemo M08F is the thermal unit I recommend when the text itself has to look professional. It prints full 8.5 x 11 letter pages at 203 DPI, and owners consistently single out the clarity of line art and body text, which is exactly what a signed agreement or a client brief needs to look like.

Battery behaviour is where it separates from the field. Reviewers report that twenty letter sheets use roughly 15% of a full charge, which means a long workday of intermittent printing is realistic without a wall socket. The 715g body is heavier than the lightest thermal units but still far below any inkjet, and the hard shell case in the box is the most protective one in this roundup.

Setup is quick by design. Power on, install the Phomemo app, pair, and you are printing PDFs, Word documents, images and web pages from a phone in a few minutes. A USB driver path exists for PC and Mac, which matters if you are not working purely from a handset.

The app dependency is the catch worth weighing carefully. There is no standard printer driver, no IPP and no CUPS support, so printing from software that expects a normal queue takes more work than on the Gloryang or iDPRT. It also handles only single sheets and fan-fold paper rather than rolls, and pages can skew or tear if the alignment on insertion is not quite right.

When the Phomemo M08F earns its place in your bag

It suits field workers who produce paperwork on site, teachers and students printing worksheets or lab sheets, and anyone whose documents contain a lot of small print. Owners also use it for labels and for the printed lists that make a long trip manageable.

Choose it over lighter thermal units when page quality matters more than shaving another 300g. The hard case also earns its keep if your printer lives in a checked bag or rides in a van all day.

When you should pack something else

Pick a different model if your printing happens mostly from a laptop with standard office software. The mandatory app route is friction that will slow you down every single time, and it is the single most common complaint attached to this printer.

Very small type is also a poor fit at 203 DPI, and anyone printing high volumes of multi-page documents will feel the one-sheet-at-a-time limitation, since the rated speed is 4.25 pages per minute.

4. KODAK Dock Plus 4×6 Photo Printer – Best Photo Quality at Home Base

The KODAK Dock Plus is the one to buy if your base is a home or a static rental rather than a plane seat. It is the most heavily reviewed printer in this roundup, close to 19,800 ratings, which means long-term reliability reports are plentiful and the failure modes are well known. The docking cradle charges your phone while it prints, which removes the battery anxiety that dominates travel printing.

Output quality is a genuine step up. Genuine 4PASS dye sublimation lays down three colour layers and a clear protective coat in about 55 seconds, producing laminated 4×6 photos that owners regularly compare favourably to retail prints. The 50 sheet bundle means a full album run without a resupply trip.

Operation is simple. Power on, connect Bluetooth, print, and the KODAK Photo Printer app handles editing, cropping and layout customisation. Owners frequently note that refills are inexpensive compared with the quality delivered, which is why the per-photo economics look better than the Liene M100 over a long run.

Be honest about the category mismatch. This is a desktop printing station. It requires a power outlet, it is not something you pack, and it will not go in a hotel room on a battery. Some iPhones and iPads also fail to discover it over Bluetooth and have to be docked, and the printed instructions are famously small and unclear.

When the KODAK Dock Plus earns its place

It fits the traveller who processes photos after a trip rather than during it. A family that shoots hundreds of images on a holiday and prints albums back home gets the best quality in this group and the cheapest ongoing refills.

It also suits event hosts and small studios that need consistent laminated output from a fixed table, and anyone with a Chromebook or Android phone who prefers docking over Bluetooth discovery.

When you should pack something else

Do not consider it for in-transit printing. A mains-powered unit that stays plugged in is the opposite of portable, and there is no battery option for this model.

If you need to print on the move, choose one of the thermal units in this roundup or the Liene M100. If your phone is an iPhone model that struggles with Bluetooth discovery, budget extra time for the dock, or pick a printer that pairs more reliably.

5. TATTMUSE A285M Thermal Printer – Best Lightweight Pick for Road Trips

The TATTMUSE A285M is the smallest thermal printer in this group that still handles full letter paper, and at 1.5lb it is the model I recommend when every gram counts. It is rated at 7 pages per minute, which is slower than the Gloryang but comfortably fast for a page or two at a time rather than a bulk run.

Paper width flexibility is its distinguishing feature. It accepts US Letter, A4 and three metric roll widths at 110mm, 80mm and 53mm, all from the built-in bin, so the same machine can produce a full contract, a shipping label or a narrow receipt. Bluetooth covers phones and tablets, and USB-C handles laptops and PCs.

Owners like the low cost of thermal operation and the fact that setup is close to automatic, with step-by-step connection instructions in the manual. At 1.5lb it is genuinely carryable on foot, on trains and in a day pack, which is a different standard from a laptop bag.

The recurring complaints are consistent and specific. Output comes off the internal roll tightly curled and needs flattening, label alignment is weak enough that labels can skew or miscut, and the metric roll sizing means 4×6 photo rolls do not fit well. Several owners return the unit when label printing is their main goal, so if that is your use case, look elsewhere.

When the TATTMUSE A285M earns its place in your bag

It is built for backpackers, cycling trips and van travel where the printer has to earn its weight on every step. Full letter output plus five paper widths at 1.5lb is a combination nothing else in this roundup matches.

It also works for site visits and small field offices where printing a schedule, a delivery note or a sign is the whole job. The no-ink design means nothing dries out between trips, which removes the single most common long-term failure of portable inkjets.

When you should pack something else

Choose a flat-sheet thermal model such as the Phomemo M08F if curl is a problem for you, because sheet-fed paper avoids the roll memory that tightens output. If you plan to print photos, this unit has no colour path at all.

For label work, the TATTMUSE alignment issues are a real risk, so pick a printer with a paper alignment guide. And if your trips involve large runs, the 7 pages per minute rating will feel slow compared with a 35 pages per minute machine.

6. Phomemo M832D Touchscreen Printer – Best for Control and Paper Variety

The Phomemo M832D is the most capable thermal unit here on paper handling, and the touchscreen is the reason. The colour display shows battery level, connection status and paper placement, and it lets you cancel a job before you waste a sheet, which is exactly the feedback a phone app gives you badly when you are standing at a hotel desk.

Resolution is a step up at 300 DPI, and owners report that QR codes scan reliably, which matters for event badges, parking passes and shipment labels. The 2600mAh battery is rated for up to 200 pages per charge, the highest endurance figure in this roundup, and the body stays at 1.5lb. Print noise is also around 30% lower than earlier models, a small courtesy in a shared hotel room.

Paper support is broad. It takes roll, folded and single-sheet thermal stock across US Letter, A4 and 53mm, 80mm and 110mm widths, and an alignment guide helps load them consistently. Three rolls of letter paper and a carry case are in the box, so the kit is complete out of the packaging.

There are two real drawbacks. The Phomemo app carries subscription prompts and in-app advertising, which owners find intrusive on a device you may use daily. And multi-page documents print as one continuous sheet with a ragged tear edge, so any multi-page job needs manual cutting afterwards. Bluetooth also covers phones and tablets only, with USB-C as the laptop path.

When the Phomemo M832D earns its place in your bag

It suits anyone who prints varied paper sizes in a single trip, from a full letter agreement to narrow labels and receipts. The alignment guide and the touchscreen reduce guesswork, which speeds up work in unfamiliar rooms.

The 200 page battery claim makes it a good fit for multi-day trips and site work, and the quieter motor makes it polite in accommodation where a rattling printer at midnight would not be. QR-capable output is useful for events and inventory work.

When you should pack something else

Skip it if you dislike subscription prompts inside a required app, because there is no route around the manufacturer software. It is also a poor choice for long multi-page documents, given the continuous-sheet output and unclean tear.

If printing from a laptop over Bluetooth is part of your workflow, choose a different model, since this printer reserves Bluetooth for phones and tablets. Colour output is not an option here either.

7. NDYIN N80 Thermal Printer – Best Long Battery Thermal Unit

The NDYIN N80 exists for one specific reason: getting through a long trip without hunting for a socket. Its 1500mAh battery is rated at up to 160 letter-size sheets per charge, and at 60 pages per minute rated speed it clears pages quickly when you do need to print a stack.

The body is 1.7lb and 11 inches long, so it lives in a briefcase without competing with a laptop for space. Output is 203 DPI black and white, handling PDFs, Word documents, images and web pages, and it accepts roll, folded and tattoo transfer paper, which opens an unusual use case for anyone working with stencils.

Owners highlight the combination of ink-free operation and battery endurance for travel, car and small-office use. Bluetooth pairing works with iPhone, Android, iPad and tablets through the Nada Print app, which is the primary path most owners use.

Two practical warnings. The charging adapter is not in the box, so confirm you already have a USB-C cable and a wall plug that suits the country you are visiting. And Bluetooth is phone and tablet only, meaning laptop and desktop users must install a USB-C driver, which adds a step every time you change machines.

When the NDYIN N80 earns its place in your bag

It is a strong match for long road trips, van travel and field work where outlets are unreliable. A 160 sheet rating means most multi-day itineraries are covered by a single charge, and the 60 pages per minute rating keeps bulk jobs quick.

It also suits anyone producing stencil work or transfer prints, and small offices that want a receipt and document printer that never runs out of ink.

When you should pack something else

It is limited to US Letter and A4 thermal paper, so if your work depends on narrow label rolls it is not the right fit. Anyone with a mixed paper workflow should look at the Phomemo M832D instead.

Colour is out of scope entirely. And if you plan to arrive somewhere without your own charging cable, note that the adapter is not supplied, which is a genuinely annoying surprise in a hotel at midnight.

8. Canon PIXMA TR160 Color Printer – Best Full-Colour Document Option

The Canon PIXMA TR160 is the odd one out in this roundup, and the reason to include it is colour. It is a conventional inkjet that prints letter-size documents and photos at up to 4800 x 1200 DPI using a 5-Color Hybrid Ink System, rated at 9 pages per minute in black and 5.5 in colour. Nothing else here can produce a colour chart, a highlighted brief or a colour handout.

Its connectivity is the most standards-friendly in the group. Apple AirPrint and Mopria Print Service are supported alongside the Canon PRINT app, and Wireless Direct mode creates a private link without needing a router, which solves the problem of hotel networks that block printing entirely. The 1.44 inch monochrome OLED shows ink levels and status at a glance before you start a job.

At 4.5lb it is roughly three times the weight of the lightest thermal unit, so it is not a bag-oblivious machine. It is a short-trip and hotel-room printer, one you bring when you know you will be producing colour pages rather than signing a document in a corridor.

The main risk is ink. Cartridges stored in a bag between trips can dry out, and a dry cartridge on arrival means a service call or a replacement, which is the single strongest argument for a thermal machine if colour is not on your list. Wireless Direct also still requires the app, and there is no Bluetooth.

When the Canon PIXMA TR160 earns its place in your bag

It suits conference presenters, real estate agents and insurance adjusters who present colour material. AirPrint and Mopria support mean an iPhone or Mac can print without installing anything, and Wireless Direct covers venues whose Wi-Fi is locked down.

It also fits a digital nomad who works from one rental for a few weeks, where weight matters less than the ability to print colour pages and glossy photos on ordinary paper.

When you should pack something else

Do not pack it for a light carry-on trip. At 4.5lb with a 50 sheet tray, it competes with a laptop and a charger for a fraction of your allowance, and thermal printers are around a third of the weight.

If you will go weeks between uses, cartridges are a genuine liability. Choose an inkless thermal model instead and accept monochrome output, or keep the Canon in a home setup and use a thermal unit on the road.

9. iDPRT MT610Pro Thermal Printer – Best for the Lightest Carry

The iDPRT MT610Pro is the one to choose when every gram of luggage counts. At 1.1lb it is the lightest thermal printer here, and at 10.2 inches long it disappears into a day pack. It prints 300 DPI thermal pages in roughly four to six seconds each, which is fast enough that the wait is not noticeable.

Battery capacity is the surprise. The 2000mAh cell is rated for about 200 pages or four hours of continuous printing, and Bluetooth pairing takes around 90 seconds through the free HerePrint app with no subscription attached. It also registers as a standard USB printer from Word, Excel and PDF files on a laptop, which makes it one of the least frustrating models to drive from a computer.

Owners consistently praise the light body, the clarity of 300 DPI output and the fast, uncomplicated Bluetooth setup. The bundle includes ten sheets of US Letter thermal paper and a USB-C cable, so you can test it on the first page you need.

Know the limits before you buy. It cannot print images that are entirely black, thermal paper is sold separately, and standard 3.1 inch width rolls are the practical size. Multi-page documents can break awkwardly, output is not always perfectly straight, and a minority of owners report the unit occasionally showing an out-of-paper error while paper is clearly loaded.

When the iDPRT MT610Pro earns its place in your bag

It is built for backpacking, cycling and rail travel, where a printer that weighs over a kilogram is simply not coming along. Its 300 DPI output matches the Phomemo M832D, the sharpest text of any thermal printer in this roundup.

It also fits students and parents who want school slips, parking passes, receipts and inspection notes without carrying ink, and anyone working from a laptop who wants standard USB printing rather than an app-only workflow.

When you should pack something else

Skip it for photographs and anything with heavy black fills, since solid black images are a known failure case. It also prints documents one awkward break at a time, so a 30 page report is a poor use of this machine.

Budget for consumables and spares. Thermal paper is not included beyond ten sheets, and buying it mid-trip in an unfamiliar country is far harder than planning for it at home. The out-of-paper sensor reports that owners mention occasionally are also worth knowing about.

10. ETIKEZ D90E Thermal Printer – Best Budget Pick for Student Notes

The ETIKEZ D90E is the simplest thermal letter-size printer here and a sensible entry point. It prints 8.5 x 11 thermal paper at 203 DPI, comes with ten starter sheets and a travel case, and at 2.08lb sits comfortably in a laptop bag. Owners rate the text quality on notes and contracts as sharp for the resolution.

It is also the most flexible on personal taste. The unit is available in five colours, which sounds trivial until you are carrying it through an airport every week, and a power-button paper jam release is a genuinely useful feature when a thermal sheet tears in the feed path.

Connectivity runs through Bluetooth for iPhone and Android via the Labelnize app, plus USB with a downloaded driver for PC. The flat thermal paper option is designed to reduce the curl that plagues roll-fed machines, which is a thoughtful detail for anyone storing prints in a folder.

The constraints are worth weighing. It is not compatible with Chromebooks, which rules it out for a large share of students, and both the app and the PC driver are mandatory. The charging adapter is not in the box, and roll-based paper still curls after printing unless you use flat stock.

When the ETIKEZ D90E earns its place in your bag

It suits students, researchers and junior staff who want letter-size printing without a cartridge commitment. Ten sheets in the box are enough to confirm quality before you commit to a paper supply.

It is also a reasonable second printer for anyone who wants colour-free documents on a long trip and accepts monochrome output as the trade-off. Five colour choices make it easy to find and spot in a shared bag.

When you should pack something else

Do not buy it as a Chromebook user. There is no compatibility path, and you would spend your trip troubleshooting rather than printing.

If you print multi-page documents frequently, the 4 pages per minute rating is slow, and the 10 sheet capacity means constant reloading. Print-heavy users should look at the Gloryang PD-A4 or the Phomemo M832D, which handle larger jobs with less babysitting.

How to Choose a Portable Printer for Travel

Start with the job, not the specification sheet. Write down what you will actually print on a typical trip. If the answer is contracts, boarding passes, invoices and handwritten-style lists, you want a thermal document printer and nothing else. If it is photos, you want a dye-sublimation unit and you should accept that it will not print a document. If you genuinely need colour documents, the inkjet is the only option, and the 4.5lb weight is the price of that answer.

Pick the paper size before the features

Letter and A4 support is the most consequential decision after technology type, because a printer that takes one size will not take the other. Most of the thermal printers in this roundup cover both, and the Gloryang, Phomemo M08F, NDYIN N80 and ETIKEZ D90E all print full 8.5 x 11 pages. Photo printers are narrower still: the Liene M100 and KODAK Dock Plus accept 4×6 media only and simply cannot produce a document.

Check minimum print width next. The Gloryang PD-A4 prints from 2 to 8.5 inches, while several roll-fed models sit around the 3.1 inch mark in practice. If you print narrow labels or receipts, a lower minimum width gives you more flexibility.

Decide how it will connect, in advance

There are three paths and they are not interchangeable. Phone and tablet printing almost always goes over Bluetooth through a manufacturer app, and the quality of that app varies widely. Laptop printing may use a USB cable and a driver, or it may work through AirPrint or Mopria. Several models reserve Bluetooth for handheld devices and force laptops onto USB.

Two of the thermal units here are app-only with no standard driver path at all, so if your workflow starts from a laptop with Word or Excel, check that first. The Canon PIXMA TR160 is the only unit in this roundup with AirPrint and Mopria support, and the iDPRT MT610Pro registers as a standard USB printer from common desktop applications. Our advice is to test your actual workflow with a ten page document before a trip rather than discovering the limitation in a hotel lobby.

Budget for batteries, and for paper you cannot buy abroad

Battery figures are the easiest specification to over-trust. Real reviewers repeatedly report that thermal machines deliver somewhere between 20 and 50 pages of intermittent use per charge, which is a fair mental model even when a headline number claims 160 or 200 pages. Treat the higher figures as a best case for sustained bulk printing, not a promise for a week of intermittent documents.

Consumables deserve equal attention. Thermal paper is a specialty product and is not interchangeable between brands; a few models explicitly print best with their own branded stock. Owners carry spare rolls and sheets as standard practice, and thermal media must be kept away from heat and direct sunlight or prints fade over time. Airtight bags in your day pack solve both the heat and the humidity problem, and they cost almost nothing compared with a ruined print.

Dye-sublimation and inkjet machines add a second running cost that thermal avoids entirely. Photo printers need proprietary cartridges and 4×6 paper, and the Canon needs ink that can dry out in a bag. If you print rarely, that overhead is irrelevant. If you print constantly, a thermal unit with cheap paper is usually the cheaper path for black and white work.

Pack it properly and check the airline rules

Most people assume a printer is fine in cabin baggage, and in practice that is true: these units are consumer electronics with no restrictions beyond the normal battery rules, and the built-in lithium cells fall under the same guidance as a laptop or a power bank. Keep the device in your personal item rather than checked luggage, because checked bags take temperature and impact, and a dropped thermal printer in a roller case rarely recovers fully.

For international trips, check the input voltage and plug type for your destination. Most travel printers here charge over USB, which sidesteps the worst of the problem, but a few models come without a charging adapter, so confirm you carry a plug that fits the country. A small plug adapter is the single most useful travel accessory for this category.

Finally, budget for setup time. The fastest path we found was roughly 90 seconds from power-on to a paired phone, while app-only models can take several minutes on a hotel network. Install the app, run a test print and load paper at home before you leave, and carry one spare roll in the case. Our related guides on travel carrying cases and compact travel gear cover the same packing logic for other devices you carry, and a lightweight screen such as the setups in our portable monitor picks is often the other half of a mobile work kit.

Frequently Asked Questions

Final Verdict: Which Portable Printer Should You Pack?

If you want one machine for colour photos, the Liene M100 wins on rating, output quality and the 100-sheet bundle at a body weight you will forget. If you want documents, the Gloryang PD-A4 is our pick for value, with full letter output, fast thermal pages and a carry case in the box, and the Phomemo M832D takes over when you want 300 DPI, a touchscreen and long battery life. For the lightest possible carry, the iDPRT MT610Pro at 1.1lb is hard to argue with, and the Canon PIXMA TR160 is the only route to colour pages on ordinary paper. Test your real workflow at home before you book.

Whichever you pick, install the app, load paper and print one full page before you leave. Every one of these models is straightforward once it is set up, and genuinely frustrating at 6am in a hotel corridor if it is not.