The natural successor to the P315, Lexmark's first dedicated photo printer, the P350 improves on the printing speeds of its predecessor and introduces some new Lexmark technology.

While it's very portable, you can't use it everywhere as it still needs mains power; it's a shame Lexmark didn't think about putting a battery pack in it. And it will only print 6 x 4-inch (15 x 10cm) prints.

Clothed in a white and silver finish, the P350 measures 127 x 235 x 147mm - about the size of a small toaster - and weighs just 1.9kg including the power adapter. It's a nice, simple design with all the control buttons on the top of the unit along with a 2.4-inch colour screen and a fairly sturdy handle.

A door in the front opens to allow easy access to the single three-colour (cyan, magenta and yellow) print cartridge. The input tray is neatly housed in the back of the printer and can hold up to 25 sheets.

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The P350 incorporates two new items of Lexmark technology; Evercolor II ink technology (the first Lexmark printer to do so) and PerfectFinish Photo Paper. Both technologies go hand in hand as Evercolor II is a pigment-based ink system with quicker drying and higher water-resistance, allowing Lexmark to join the small band of competitors that have water-resistant inks. This works perfectly with the micro-porous PerfectFinish paper, an improvement on the previous P315 whose inks stayed tacky for quite some time and then would still smudge if they got wet.

Lexmark quotes a print life with these new technologies as 100 years in a frame and up to 200 years in an album. It also quotes a maximum duty cycle of 125 pages a month. It's not the fastest printer in the world, though, taking nearly three minutes to print a photo, but the resulting prints were sharp with a good balance of colour.

As you would expect from a photo printer, the full range of flash cards is supported; CompactFlash I & II, Memory Stick, Memory Stick Pro, Memory Stick Duo and Duo Pro (with adapters), SD, MMC, xD and, also with adapters, Mini SD, SanDisk TransFlash Memory Module and RS-MMC.

The reader itself is neatly built into the top left-hand edge of the printer and there is also a USB 2.0 port for memory drives and PictBridge cameras to print from directly. A second USB port sits alongside the power connector in the rear of the P350 so you can connect it to a PC.

Although both the printer and the manual mention Bluetooth, the P350 actually doesn't come with it; you have to buy that as an extra.

This is one of the cheapest dedicated photo printers around, but on the other hand it has a very slow print speed. Especially disappointing is the lack of a battery pack, so it doesn't have that 'use anywhere' feeling.