Epson's PictureMate Snap, which once sat firmly in the middle of the Epson PictureMate line, may now be one of the best values in personal photo labs.

The Snap's lunchbox-style design makes it easy to carry around. The color LCD, which flips up when you fold down the handle, displays the menu system, which is straightforward and easy to navigate. The Snap provides the most often used editing features, including cropping, brightness and contrast adjustment and redeye removal, as well as color correction.

You can connect the Snap to your computer's USB port or to a digital camera's PictBridge port, or print images directly from many memory cards, using the built-in card reader.

We usually deduct points when an inkjet printer uses a single four-color cartridge, because of the potential for waste, but in this case, the use of a single cartridge helps reduce printer size and weight. Each cartridge is bundled with 100 sheets of matte paper or 150 sheets of glossy paper, and Epson guarantees that the ink won't run out before the paper does.

Output quality is outstanding, with vivid, consistent color, and no image artifacts. We were also impressed by output speeds, which averaged 60 seconds for a 4x6 print, not a bad result for a portable printer.

Like the PictureMate Zoom, the Snap supports an optional battery pack for additional portability, as well as allowing you to perform most of the image editing tasks you're apt to want to perform in the field. The only real advantage the Zoom has over the Snap is a built-in CD writer, but for a price difference of almost $100, we'd prefer to invest in an extra memory card.

With a great selection of features, fast print speeds and above average output quality, the Epson PictureMate Snap offers the best value in the PictureMate line.

Pro: high quality output, menu system is easy to navigate, good selection of image editing tools.
Con: limited to 4x6 prints, optional battery pack adds significant weight

Warranty
1 year, limited