SiPix Pocket Printer A6 - Printer - B/W - direct thermal - A6 - 400 dpi x 400...

by SiPix

Product Details

Product Manual [305kb PDF]

• Item Weight: 8.8 ounces
• Shipping Weight: 6 pounds
• ASIN: B00005LDPI
• Average Customer Review: 2.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: January 12, 2006

Product Description

Amazon.com Product Description

Offering you portable printing capabilities, the SiPix A6 Pocket Palm Printer connects easily to either PCs or Palm Pilots. While it may not be as fast as your in-office printer, this little gem weighs in at less than 1 pound and churns out documents at 2 ppm with a decent 400 dpi resolution. Overall dimensions are scarcely larger than some wallets (5.8 by 4.25 inches), and the thickness is less than 1 inch.

The direct thermal printing method means the only consumables are the paper and the batteries; if you use the AC adapter, your only expense will be replacement paper rolls. Run time with the adapter is a full hour, while the batteries supply just three minutes of power.

Included in the box are both the adapter and a starter set of batteries, along with a roll of paper, a power cable, and a convenient travel bag. SiPix offers a one-year warranty that covers parts, labor, and 12 months of free telephone technical support.

Product Description

The Pocket Printer A6 is a compact and lightweight mobile printer perfect for the on-the-go business professional. Easily print from your Palm Powered PDA or notebook computer. Featuring wireless infrared connectivity for use with infrared enabled devices, the Pocket Printer A6 is ideal for mobile computing. Print directly to the printer without using cables. And for non-infrared enabled computers a serial port is also included. The Pocket Printer A6 is ideal for mobile computing. Extremely mobile and cool! Takes both roll and sheet paper, Runs on regular batteries.

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

66 of 68 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Robust Portable Printer, February 12, 2002

By 

M. Gozum (Eastern USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: SiPix Pocket Printer A6 - Printer - B/W - direct thermal - A6 - 400 dpi x 400... (Electronics)

... Portable printers are not meant to compete against laserprinters or ink jets. They are made to provide printouts under non-office conditions, i.e., field use, and except for environs were extreme heat-in-the-shade --- like deserts, are operant, a thermal printer is most reliable, needs little maintenance and consumes few resources.

Thermal printouts are used all the time as TRANSITORY computer output on paper, such as ATMs, gas station receipts etc., to give users a copy of output. I've used 2 thermal printers since 1984, and these printers have outlived their CPUs.

I use the printer as general output on a boat or a plane, often in transit to remote locations, exposed to high humidity and at times printing from within a ziplock bag. The IR signal penetrates the bag nicely, and allows printing in a water resistant container. Thermal paper doesn't run when wet, and when cold laminated, allows one to take printouts diving ... were water temps rarely exceed 90F.

Competing ink jet printers, while capable of A4 size sheets, can have comparably illegible fonts, higher cost and maintenance and print horribly under humid conditions. A4 paper is more inconvenient to carry.

The Sipix is very similar to a thermal printer engine released by Alps in 1998...

A full spec sheet is availableonline...

It has a rated life of 50 million print impressions and paper advance mechanism life of 20km. That's roughly 17,000 prints or 72,000 sheets advanced of A4 paper. Using A6 paper, that's substantially more sheets.

Rolled Paper is Superior to Sheet Paper. Printouts rarely use the full length of a single A6 sheet, thus the unprinted area is wasted. In long printouts, type will span several pages, and sheet paper will be wasted on unprinted margins.

What is wrong with the Sipix is the cost, its not worth [the price]. ....
The Sipix thicker thermal paper maybe less prone to curl, but it still does, and its not suitable for rolls. Roll paper are torn are various lengths. The Sipix paper is too strong and does not tear cleanly. Sipix paper is too expensive, even if heavily discounted... You can buy bulk A6 wide paper of over 76 feet per roll, of thinner grade paper for [$] for 25 rolls, and simply cut 8' rolls for convenience. ...

41 of 42 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Print MS Word Documents From Your Palm -- Anywhere, November 12, 2001

By 

MartyHansen (Los Angeles, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: SiPix Pocket Printer A6 - Printer - B/W - direct thermal - A6 - 400 dpi x 400... (Electronics)

As a heavy user of word processing on my Palm via DataViz's Documents to Go 4.0 (available from Amazon) which allows me to download -- and work on -- MS Word files on my PDA, I was anxious to find a means to print these Word documents directly from my Palm -- without having to synch and output from my PC. Additionally, if the printer were also portable, that would be even better.

The Sipix Pocket Printer A6 -- along with the Docs to Print and IR Print software programs (both available from doctoprint.irprint.com as either a free trial or to purchase) -- fit the bill quite nicely.

The Sipix A6 printer is just a little bit larger than the Palm itself. It runs on AA batteries and receives its info from the Palm via infrared (IR), which makes it totally cordless. The Sipix also uses thermal imaging, which eliminates the need for ribbons or ink jet cartridges, which is convenient; but it does require the use of specially coated A6 size thermal paper, also available from Sipix (and Amazon) in either rolls or sheets. (I use the latter -- and carry a little stapler with me -- since it lays flatter and looks much neater.)

The basic Sipix A6 software (also from IR Print) that comes with the unit, only allows one to print entries from the Palm Calendar, To Do, Memo and Address functions, which in itself, is only mildly useful.

To do more, here's what you'll need to install on your Palm:

Docs To Go (DataViz) + Docs to Print + IR Print*

* The more enhanced version of IR Print available from their website.

Once all three of these are installed, you'll be able to print Word documents, not only to the Sipix A6, but also to all of the IR capable models from HP (such as the DeskJet 990 series) and from Canon (including the BJC line of portable ink jet printers), which is really cool!

Being thermal, the print quality of the Sipix unit is, unfortunately, rather crude; and the speed is rather slow (especially when compared to regular laser and ink jet printers). But the Sipix is still the smallest portable printer available today for my Palm. And I carry it -- along with a slim box of A6 paper -- everywhere with me in my briefcase.

I use the Sipix to print rough drafts of my work (including product reviews such as this one), which is wonderful, since perusing a printed copy -- especially with multiple pages -- is still easier than scrolling up-and-down a miniature screen.

The Sipix printer, as a watch-out, does have a tendency to drain four AA alkalines rather quickly. As a remedy, I've switched to the new AA size Energizer photo-lithium batteries, which cost a little more, but last many times longer.

With my Sipix A6 printer, I can now print Word files directly from my Palm -- whenever and wherever I need it -- which is truly a dream come true!

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Perfect for small jobs!, September 29, 2001

By 

I. LM "LuluGirl896" (NY,United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: SiPix Pocket Printer A6 - Printer - B/W - direct thermal - A6 - 400 dpi x 400... (Electronics)

I bought this printer about a month ago,just because I thought it was so cute...however, once I got it I realised that it was a lot more than that. It is perfect for those moments where you would normally be using a pen and scraps of paper. I use it for work out on the field all the time- I get ideas on the ride, then print them out when I get there. It's really a must-have if you're constantly out of the office and don't want to be banking on the fact that there's a printer where you're going.