3. For The Beach: Canon Selphy CP770

The first thing you’ll notice about this printer is its design, which may surprise, amuse or annoy you, but at least it’ll never get boring. The Selphy CP770 has everything a portable printer should: plenty of settings, decent printing capabilities and the ease of the bucket carrying case.

If this device looks relatively cumbersome, you should know that the printer itself is actually much more compact than it seems, since it consists of only the “lid.” Nevertheless, the whole contraption proves rather heavy (weighing in at a little more than two pounds). The Selphy CP770 supports five printing formats, though it’s really the 4x6 (100x148 mm to be precise) that we want to talk about. On a compatibility level, it offers a USB port (PictBridge compatible) and reads CF, xD, SD, Memory Stick and miniSD memory cards.

Simple to use but slow

The Canon Selphy CP770 functions using ink transfers by thermal sublimation. At the time of our different tests, its printing speed proved relatively slow. Expect to wait around one minute and 20 seconds for each photo in 4x6 format (as compared to the 52 seconds promised by the manufacturer), though the first photo doesn’t take any longer to come out than the rest. Fortunately, the Selphy CP770 is very simple to set up.

The on-screen menus are intuitive. The navigation system, with its directional arrows and "OK" button, feels very natural. To start up the printing process, all you have to do is to press the Print button. As for options, we know we need at least a way to correct red eyes and handle colors (neutral, bright, black and white or sepia), plus there’s the automatic image optimization. For printing, you have the ability to print up to eight images on one sheet in the 4x6 format.

Precise photos that lack contrast

This printer is sold with a pack of 36 photos (36 sheets and a cartridge). Above all, be sure not to leave anything sitting around behind your Selphy CP770 because the sheets stick out behind as well as in front of the device during each step of the printing process: yellow, cyan and then magenta.

As far as the quality of the photos go, we’ve noticed large, tinted areas where the color lacks contrast. On the other hand, this printer scores points when it comes to all things related to precision and details (eyebrows, shadows on the walls, etc.).

Our verdict: Disguising itself as a mere gadget, the Canon Selphy CP770 is actually a competitive printer that offers quality prints despite its handling of colors, which can be too intense and flashy. This accessible product offers one of the most appealing ratios of quality to price in our comparison.