Samsung SPP-2040

As if it weren't bad enough that the holiday season is already drawing to a close, who wants to trek to the high-street chemist to have all their photos developed? Thankfully, the compact home-printer market is beginning to flourish, with Samsung's first foray being the SPP-2040 - a dye-sublimation unit capable of printing 6 x 4in format photos.

Inside the dye-sublimation print engine, a cartridge contains a fixed-length roll of alternating red, green and blue heat-reactive dye strips, which are then used to build up images layer by layer. The photo paper is taken from the detachable 20-sheet feeder at the front and passed through the printer four times; once for each colour, followed by a final application of a transparent, waterproof sealant. This process ensures photos emerge completely dry, so even plucking the prints straight from the feeder won't result in fingerprints or smudging. Print quality is superb too, and easily on a par with good silver-halide or inkjet results. Tricky skin tones and sky blues present no problem, with smooth graduations and pleasingly natural hues.

You can print directly from a PC, a PictBridge-compatible camera or by popping a memory card in the 7-in-1 slot at the front of the unit. There's also the option of attaching a Bluetooth dongle (£24 from Author: Dave Stevenson