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HP, which has created much of the fortune of the huge empire of printing on the printed paper business, tries again with the new Sproket, looking for a trend halfway between social sharing and classic printing
Because in fact, already from the presentation to the press a few weeks ago we understood that much of what lies behind the HP Sprocket project is not the technology itself, even though interesting and innovative in many ways, but the meaning of this product, perhaps the first real (concrete) example of sharing photos from a social point of view, but precisely on (adhesive) paper.
In fact a judging the HP Sprocket is of little use: the App is done quite well, with a very classic look but with the essential functions in the right place, it allows you to print from iPhone and Android any photo inside the roll, or even from the various Instagram, Facebook or Flickr.
The interesting part is the immediate iatezza: certainly the format is a bit small and obviously printing costs more than sharing on a social network (about 50 cents per copy), but the desire to try a new path, which could also be successful is clear and, honestly, like it , because seeing brands that finally deviate from the two paths (web / paper) is a pleasure, regardless of whether the process may or may not have the success it promises.
HP Sprocket, poket printing.
Slightly shorter than an iPhone, slightly wider and twice as thick, covered in glossy plastic black or white, with a Micro USB connector for charging on one side and a power / pairing button on the other that peek out at the HP brand clearly visible at the top: essentially HP Sprocket is a fairly minimal box, which does its figure in plain sight on the table of a pub among friends as on the towel on the beach (or even in the office, where, however, perhaps there are better printers iori).
Once the small printer is turned on, it looks for the previous device with which it made the pairing, and if it does not find it, it automatically pauses: we captured it from an iPhone 6s via Bluetooth, discovering that you need a special App for printing, downloadable for free.
Once the App is started, we can take a picture and immediately send it to print, as well as draw from those of the roll, or from those of the most famous social networks (Facebook, Instagram and Flickr, we hope Twitter will also arrive in the future), as well as apply some color adjustments and add graphic elements such as texts, frames and stickers.
Once the customization is finished, we print: the process lasts a few seconds, in which HP Sprocket emits a slight hum; once the adhesive paper is finished it is ready to use, you do not need to let it cool down because the whole process does not use ink but a sublimation of the paper (who does not remember the iconic and useless practice of blowing on old Polaroids?).
The print, obligatorily in 5 x 7.6 cm format, is quite unusual but for this reason intriguing, also because given the adhesive nature such a small format can be attached to practically everything, from the notebook to the bottle, from the the back of the smartphone in the mirror in the bathroom.
The paper is supplied in packs of twenty copies, which go inside the HP Sprocket in packs of ten and which can be ordered either online at the official website or from within the App as well as from affiliated retailers (such as Amazon.it).
The quality of the print is quite good, during our tests we noticed a slight oversaturation and a softness in the details that suggest co commercial and photographic suitable, in fact, for a shot made with a mobile phone.
Even if you want, nothing prevents you from creating an ad hoc Jpeg file with Illustrator or Photoshop, sending it to the phone and then printing it (because from Mac there is unfortunately no way) it is obvious that the system is calibrated for shots taken with an average smartphone camera.
Conclusions
The review of this product passes through the technical and qualitative considerations of the writer, of course, but also from the opinions of colleagues, friends and acquaintances who were able to try the HP Sprocket themselves both by sending shots and simply by receiving a print.
This is because, precisely, the social activity is among the implicit qualities of the project and it would have been limiting to submit here to the readers the only opinion of the writer: in this perspective the final judgment is the result of very contrasting opinions.
Like many new objects, ad some she liked it very much, others not at all: some (like the writer) consider it an excellent gift, a delicious thing to take to the beach, to school or to the pub one evening while for others it is a waste of paper “(…) because there is Facebook “.
If from a technical point of view the printer is objectively made very well and the fairly balanced price considering the long battery life as well as the low cost of the prints, the absolute value of the solution can only be subjective.
Unlike what we usually do, therefore, we leave it to the readers the definitive sentence, even if it would be better to try it before judging it absolutely: there would be something to add, such as the possibility of working as a Battery Pack and also the possibility of printing from Mac, as well as from iPhone or Android, but they are details which, after all, are not fundamental when faced with a solution that will perhaps open a cycle for a set lately stingy with novelty.
HP Sprocket is available through the official HP website at a price of 149.00 Euros, but readers can order it , as a Prime product, also on Amazon.it, together with paper packages.
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Price : 149.99 Euros for the printer, 9.99 Euros for paper packs of 20 copies.
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