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Today only: Return of $29 Wasabi pocket printer

Sellout risk: huge. Dell's zero-ink printer is a fun little gizmo that normally sells for $99. If you get there in time, you can score one for a fraction of the price.

Rick Broida Senior Editor
Rick Broida is the author of numerous books and thousands of reviews, features and blog posts. He writes CNET's popular Cheapskate blog and co-hosts Protocol 1: A Travelers Podcast (about the TV show Travelers). He lives in Michigan, where he previously owned two escape rooms (chronicled in the ebook "I Was a Middle-Aged Zombie").
Rick Broida

One of the most popular deals I posted in 2009 was the Dell Wasabi PZ310 pocket printer for $29 shipped. Well, guess what? It's back--and I guarantee it won't last the day.

Indeed, in the interest of getting this deal out to you as quickly as possible, I'm going to repurpose (OK, plagiarize) my original post:

The Wasabi is a Dell-branded version of one of those zero-ink (aka ZINK) printers that made headlines last year. That means it uses, duh, zero ink; instead heating the crystals embedded in special photo paper.

Consequently, the printer is tiny, measuring just 0.9 inch thick by 4.8 inches long by 2.9 inches wide and weighing a mere eight ounces (with its rechargeable battery installed).

So the Wasabi can literally ride around in a pocket and churn out prints ondemand. Prints from where? Any PictBridge-compatible camera or, better yet, most Bluetooth-equipped camera phones. (Sadly, it doesn't work with iPhones--unless they're jailbroken.)

I grabbed one of these the last time around, and it's been a fun little toy. The 2x3-inch prints aren't spectacular, but you gotta love the instant gratification.

By the way, if black's not your color or it's sold out, the $29 deal also extends to the pink model.