Review: Sagem Photoeasy 110

The Sagem Photoeasy 110 uses a dye sublimation printing method instead of conventional inkjet technology. In contrast to inkjet’s use of ink cartridges, dye-sub printing uses ribbons to lay colour onto paper.

An advantage of the dye-sub is that photos are instantly dry upon completion of printing. Print speeds are also quite fast, taking 60 seconds in total.

Colour is laid down in three cycles, each of which involve the photo paper being drawn through the printer.

This greatly adds to the desk space that the printer takes up as the full length of the 4x6in paper shoots out the back of machine as each cycle completes. A fourth cycle coats the image in a laminate to prevent fading.

This entire process is extremely noisy and the printing disturbed anyone within earshot throughout our testing – every print sounded like its last, such was its shriek.

Although labelled 'Photoeasy' setting up this printer up is not particularly easy at all. Initially, to get it functioning we had to change its firmware (downgrade it, in fact). The printer didn’t ship with the appropriate USB cable needed to accomplish this and the manual was of little help.

A prominent feature of this printer is its Wifi capability, yet it doesn’t ship with a Wifi dongle (unless you pay an additional £25) and only supports Wep encryption.

Given how important it is to secure your wireless network with a stronger form of encryption such as WPA, this is a major drawback.

Sagem seems to be determined to make it as hard as possible to send images to the Photoeasy 110. Aside from the lack of USB cable for PC connectivity and woeful Wifi support, a memory card reader is another startling omission for this printer.

You’re forced to plug your camera directly into it, necessitating another USB cable.

If the printer has one redeeming quality it’s that the built-in photo sharpening and red-eye removal capability add to the superior quality of dye-sub prints when compared to those produced by cheaper inkjet printers.

Each dye ribbon can produce 75 prints and represents a great decrease in the price per photo of dye-sub printing. Including the paper it averages around 33p a print.

The printer is small and light enough to carry around, but it’s important to reset the ribbon in the printer whenever you move it as we noticed some colour aberrations were caused just by moving it between rooms.

Although this printer appears cheap and cheerful, in this case you get what you pay for.

Related reviews:
Canon Selphy CP600
The best compact photo printer we've looked at in terms of quality and price

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