Pentax PocketJet 3

Reviewed by

Dan Littman

on 07/14/2005

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Page 2

This thermal Pentax printer requires no pricey inks, and you won't have to worry about spilling ink in your briefcase. But as with mobile inkjets, the PocketJet 3 requires a lot of bits and pieces to run, and the case won't hold them all. For example, to use the paper rolls, you'll need to carry along a clunky steel caddy, which costs $50 for a desk version or $99 for a car. You may also need scissors to slice completed print jobs off the roll. To avoid this hassle, splurge on precut paper. Because this machine, like other mobile printers, lacks a built-in paper tray, you'll have to carry paper with you in a separate folder or box.

Pentax estimates that the PocketJet 3 prints three pages per minute, and we clocked it printing pages of text in 23 seconds at the default setting. The printing speed varied depending on the density setting we chose; the default was too pale for some fonts, but when we cranked up the density in the driver, the job slowed down to 26 or 27 seconds per page. Text looked more jagged than that of a crisp laser printer but was within the inkjet quality range. The shading and detail on Excel tables and charts was decent--good enough to hand out to a client. The PocketJet 3 can print photographic images, but their quality was crummy and lacked detail.

The Pentax PocketJet 3 comes with a a year of warranty coverage and a year of toll-free phone tech support, available from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays MT. This is generous, though the lack of weekend support neglects professionals with nontraditional work hours. For warranty service, Pentax splits the shipping cost with you. The Pentax Web site provides e-mail access to technicians and a self-support area with downloadable manuals and drivers. The printed manual clearly explains how to set up and use the printer, and shows how to use a utility that prepares the PocketJet 3 to print jobs from Palm, Symbian, WinCE, and other handheld devices.