Liene Photo Printers

The Liene 4×6” Instant, Full-Color Wi-Fi Photo Printer works flawlessly and prints on each attempt. The wifi connection is solid and while not the fastest printer, with just a little patience the photo is ready. For most of my printing, I chose connecting to my iPhone via the device’s WiFi and printing directly from the photos app on my phone. The color accuracy of the photos is not 100%, but it is good enough to produce a nice photo and definitely good enough for anything other the professional photography.

Is the Liene Photo Printer a good choice for you? For many people, the answer is going to be yes. To begin with, it’s portable enough to take with you on your vacations. It’s also durable, with a nifty hopper design that’s easy to collapse. The smartphone app works well, and is easy to set up via the WiFi connection. Even PC performance is pretty good, although you do have to install your own drivers. Print quality is excellent, better than you’ll see from a laser jet. And the easy-to-use cartridges make operation a breeze. All in all, we were very pleased.

Measuring 3.4 by 8.1 by 4.9 inches and weighing 4.2 pounds, the Liene Amber Photo Printer is somewhat larger and heavier than most of its competitors, which, among many others, includes the aforementioned HP Sprocket Studio and Canon Selphy CP1300, as well as the HP Sprocket Select, the Kodak Photo Printer Dock, and the Lifeprint 3x4.5. Among these devices, the Selphy, the Sprocket Studio, and the Photo Printer Dock are the most similar. All three are dye-sub printers and store photo paper in detachable trays that extend out from the chassis, rather than within the machine.

As someone who usually sends things out for printing, I found myself printing things over and over and sending my favorite shots of trips to friends and relatives through the mail instead of social media. And that is convenient. I also took photos from my work camera and, after making simple edits in Photoshop, printed them on the Liene. The final images rivaled professionally printed photographs I've sent away or taken to my local camera shop for professional printing. They're so good, I haven't been to the print shop in months.

Liene may not be a name that immediately comes to mind when you think of photo printers, but its first U.S. offering, the Liene Photo Printer makes the case that it should be. It's a strong entry into the niche market of 4x6" photo printers.

What I did notice is that the printed image on the Liene seemed very sharp, with neutral colors at default settings. To my eyes, it was even sharper than a print of the same image from my much more expensive Canon PIXMA Pro-10, a 10-ink, pigment based professional printer that cost roughly four times as much in its heyday. Colors were different across each printer, but I wouldn’t say any of them looked more or less accurate than the other.

What are your options when you need to print a photo from your smartphone? In most cases, a trip to your local CVS or Walgreens is at the top of the list. Sure, it’s an extra errand to run, but sometimes that’s the only option we have.

This is where a photo printer comes in handy. Instead of having to leave the comfort of your home, you can print any picture you want in just a couple of minutes without having to strap on your boots and make the trek to the drugstore.