Sagem Photo Easy 110 review

Dave Stevenson Read more October 7, 2009

£60

Price when reviewed

Sagem isn’t a name you’d necessarily expect to see across the front of a photo printer – if you’ve heard of the company before, it’s more likely to be in relation to phones. But photo printing isn’t just a casual fling for Sagem – the dye sublimation-based Photo Easy 110 is capable of some excellent results.

At first, the low price combined with the cheap plastic finish made us suspicious. Clearly, a number of compromises have been made here, not least the lack of a screen or memory card reader. It isn’t too much of a problem, though – if you want to be more spontaneous, the USB port on the side will take an optional Wi-Fi module, and is also a PictBridge port, so you can print directly from a compatible camera if you wish.

In use, the Photo Easy 110 is exceptionally loud – certainly enough to draw complaints from those unconcerned with its operation nearby. Each sheet is fed four times (CYM and a final coating pass), and each pass is accompanied by a whirring motor and clicking gears. But the continuous-tone printing engine is a huge advantage here – there isn’t any grain in the final images that wasn’t there in the original shot. Our images printed with accurate colours and good contrast, and were indistinguishable from high-street prints in terms of quality. Printing a photo takes exactly one minute.

You’ll be able to distinguish your prints from high-street images in terms of price, though. www.shopuk.co.uk sells Sagem’s DSR420D pack, which includes a pair of printer ribbon kits (75 prints each) and 150 sheets of photo paper, for £30, which is a few pence under 20p per print (inc VAT). This is quite thrifty, particularly compared to printing via an A4 inkjet or multifunction device, but not compared to bulk-ordering 6 x 4s from the likes of Boots or www.photobox.co.uk, which could cost you a quarter as much.

But the point of a printer like this is convenience, and the Sagem delivers in spades. It might not be heavy on features, but it delivers excellent quality for less than most inkjet printers. Printing only 6 x 4in prints will naturally prove too restrictive for some, but the Sagem is very good at what it does.