Despite its name, the Canon Pixma mini320 ($179.99 direct) isn't particularly small for a dedicated photo printer. In fact, it's notably larger than the Pixma mini260 it replaces, which itself was much bigger than a typical thermal-dye dedicated photo printer. There's good reason for the bigger size, however, since the mini320, unlike the mini260, can print photos of up to 5 by 7 inches, giving it a significant increase in capability without an increase in price.

When I reviewed the mini260, I described it as looking like an oversize CD player. The mini320, at 3.2 by 10.2 by 8.9 inches (HWD), looks like an oversize mini260. It's also relatively heavy for a portable printer, at 5.4 pounds, but includes a built-in handle to make it easy to carry. Add the half-pound battery option ($79.99 direct) and you can bring it with you to print photos anywhere. According to Canon, a fully charged battery can print about 110 photos.

Setup is quick and easy. You just open the top and front covers—which turn into input and output trays—then open the inside cover, snap in the print head and four-color cartridge, and close the printer. Load paper and you're all set to print from memory cards and PictBridge cameras. (Unfortunately, you can't print from USB keys.) To print from a computer, just run the automated setup program from the supplied disc and connect by USB cable. You can also add an optional Bluetooth adapter ($49.99 direct) or connect through the built-in infrared port.

The front panel is similar to most current Canon models, with both buttons and a wheel you can rotate to move through menu settings along with a tiltable 2.5-inch color LCD that lets you preview photos from a memory card.

I ran into a couple of minor problems with the menus and control panel. Every time you pick a photo to print, you have to set the number of copies—a step I kept forgetting, so that I then had to back up to set the number to "one." Another issue is that the only actual editing feature on the Edit menu is for cropping. Other choices—including brightness, contrast, and red-eye reduction—are on an Advanced menu, where you might not think to look for them.

I was also surprised to find that Canon no longer offers a feature it had on the mini260, which let you print a page of nine thumbnail-size samples with different settings chosen by the printer, and then pick which sample to print at full size. For most photos, this was a much easier way to improve photo quality than trying to change individual settings yourself.

Canon offers both a variety of paper types for the mini320 and a variety of paper sizes, including 4 by 6, 5 by 7, and 4 by 8 inches. For this review, I used Canon Photo Paper Plus Glossy, which Canon suggested as the best choice overall, meaning the best compromise between speed, quality, durability, and cost per print.

The mini320 printed the 4-by-6-inch photos in our standard test suite at a consistent—not to mention fast—47 seconds each, not far behind the 42-second speed for the Epson PictureMate Dash, the fastest dedicated photo printer I've tested. More generally, times for other photos printed with the mini320 from a computer, from a CompactFlash card, and from a Canon PowerShot S60 camera ranged from 41 seconds to 1 minute 1 second for 4-by-6s. Times for 5-by-7s ranged from 56 seconds to 1:21.

Output qualified as true photo quality for the vast majority of photos. The only issues worth mention were a slight tint in a monochrome photo, which won't be a problem if you don't print in black and white, and a tendency for what should be straight lines, like the spokes in a bicycle wheel, to have wiggly rope-like edges at some angles. Most photos, however, were easily a match for what you would expect from your local photo shop or drugstore, and the few that weren't true photo quality were just short of it.

Canon promises a reasonably long lifetime for the photos, with a claimed fade resistance of 100 years for dark storage (as in an album); 30 years for photos framed under glass, and 10 years for photos exposed to the air. The photos are also reasonably water resistant.

Unfortunately, the mini320 doesn't score as well on scratch resistance as the Epson Dash, for example, or the Editors' Choice HP Photosmart A626 Compact Photo Printer, which also prints at sizes up to 5 by 7 inches. Before handing someone a stack of photos to look though, I'd warn them not to slide photos over each other. After repeated shuffling of the photos in my tests, I saw a number of surface scratches.

Cost per photo varies tremendously depending on which paper you use. Canon claims that a single ink cartridge, at $16.99 (direct), can print 108 photos, or 15.7 cents per page. The most economical way to buy the Photo Plus Glossy paper I used in testing is in packs of 120, for $18.99 (direct) or 15.8 cents per sheet, yielding a relatively high total cost per photo of 31.5 cents. Other 4-by-6 papers, using the most economical packages offered for each type, yield a total cost per photo of 28 to 55.7 cents. Which paper you prefer is obviously a matter of taste, but don't assume you'll be satisfied with the least-expensive paper—which is noticeably thinner than the other choices—without checking it out first.

The Canon Pixma mini320's combination of features—particularly the speed, quality, and choice of paper sizes—make it a more-than-reasonable choice, but I'd like it a lot better if the photos were more scratch-resistant and the price per photo for the better-quality papers were lower. If you're considering the mini320, be sure to also look at the HP A626, whose photos are much more scratch-resistant, but lean toward punchy colors, compared with the more realistic colors in the mini320's.

Check out the Canon Pixma mini320's test scores.

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