Canon rates the Selphy Square at 43 seconds per photo, depending on room
temperature. I tested it from a Samsung Galaxy Note 10 and from an Apple
iPhone 8, and the QX10 averaged right around 43.5 seconds, so Canon’s speed
estimate is right on. For comparison, the HP Sprocket Select generated its
2.3-by-3.4-inch format in 1 minute and 16 seconds (1:16), which is on the slow
side for a pocket photo printer. The Kodak Mini 2 HD dye-sub was barely
slower (1:20 for each 2-by-3.4-inch print). The Lifeprint 3x4.5 averaged 1:30
per 3-by-4.5-inch print, which is a minute longer than the Lifeprint 2x3 took for
its smaller prints. And the Canon IVY took about 44 seconds per print.
TRUSTED DYE-SUB OUTPUT
Years ago, in the early days of desktop publishing (before we had inkjet printers
with ultra-wide color ranges), dye-sublimation printers were often the machines
of choice for printing high-resolution photos, posters, banners, and other
documents where bright and accurate colors and intricate details were required.
Those machines used four colors (cyan, magenta, yellow, and black), making for
an even wider color gamut and greater detail than the three colors used in these
small photo printers.
Even so, the three-ink process works well for tiny photos like these. I don’t want
to say that the prints are better per se than their Zink counterparts, but they are
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images I printed looked good, at least up to drugstore quality, on a par with the
best Zink output.