The VuPoint Solutions Photo Cube IP-P28-VPS ($149.99) is the latest iteration in the company’s line of portable thermal-dye photo printers geared toward users who like to print from mobile devices. It offers a much-needed upgrade in replacing Apple’s 30-pin connector with the 8-pin Lightning connector. The Lightning connector and dock only work with iPhone 5 and iPhone 6 ( at Amazon)(Opens in a new window) models, but you can still print from older models—as well as iPads, Android devices, and PictBridge-enabled cameras—over a USB cable. Its cost per print is relatively high, and print quality isn’t particularly good, but it is convenient if you have a newer-model iPhone.

The Photo Cube IP-P28-VPS ($179.99 at Amazon)(Opens in a new window) , which produces 4-by-6-inch photos, as well as 4-inch-wide panoramic prints, operates independently of a computer, and supports printing from mobile devices, as well as PictBridge cameras. It’s a small, white, rectangular box with rounded corners, measuring 5 by 7 by 6 inches (HWD) and weighing 3.1 pounds. The top sports a dock with an 8-pin Lightning connector. The dock fits iPhone 5 and 6 series smartphones, but is too small to fit an iPad Air. For iPads, older iPhones, and Android-based smartphones, you’ll need to supply an adapter to connect the device to the Photo Cube’s USB port.

The Photo Cube IP-P28-VPS is replacing the VuPoint Solutions Photo Cube IP-P28-VP, which is the same printer except that the two little triangular posts that bracket the iPhone when in the IP-P28-VPS’s dock were not in that version, meaning that the IP-P28-VP could fit an iPad Air in the dock. According to VuPoint, the posts were added at Apple’s request.

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One advantage of the printer’s single cartridge is that it makes setup easier than with traditional thermal-dye printers, with only one thing to load. Another is that it enhances the printer’s portability, since you don’t have to carry paper and a paper tray separately. Even better, if you need to bring additional supplies, you need only one package for both ink and paper, with a single cartridge able to print as many as 36 photos.

To use the printer, you must first download a free app called Photo Cube Advance from the iTunes app store or Google Play. (Before downloading the app for Android, you must enable USB debugging on your Android device, a simple procedure explained in the printer’s user manual.) I did my testing with an iPhone 5.

The Photo Cube comes pre-loaded with a trial cartridge that’s good for up to 10 photos, and setup couldn’t be easier. You just plug in the adapter and power supply. When the blue status light to the right of the dock goes on, you can dock or tether your device and open the app, and you’re ready to print.

Using the Photo Cube Advance app is the essence of simplicity. From the home screen, you’re given four options: Take Photo, Choose Photo, Panorama Photo, and Create Photo. With Take Photo, you shoot a photo with your device’s camera. Choose Photo lets you select an image or images from your iPhone’s albums. Once you’ve selected an image, you can choose the number of prints you want (up to 10). You can also partition your prints to create “mosaics” combining two or four equal-sized smaller images on a single print.

When you select the partition option, at first all the mini images will be the same; you have to touch each partition in turn and select a new image to create the mosaic you want. One caveat is that once inserted into the partitions, the images are stuck in their original orientation. If you shoot in both Landscape and Portrait style, some of the images may be tilted 90 degrees, so it may take some extra work to find enough images pointing in the right direction.

Speed and Output Quality
The Photo Cube’s speed for printing a 4-by-6-inch photo from an iPhone 5 was consistently about 1 minute 32 seconds on our tests. This is slow for a small-format photo printer. We clocked the Editors’ Choice Epson PictureMate Charm ($539.99 at Amazon)(Opens in a new window) at an average of just 41 seconds per print, and the Fujifilm Instax Share SP-1 ($249.95 at Amazon)(Opens in a new window) at between 18 and 28 seconds per photo, although its prints are just credit-card size.

Prints are best described as being of snapshot quality; they are acceptable, but unimpressive. They showed a soft focus and some loss of detail, especially in bright areas. Colors sometimes seemed off, and/or muted.

Running Costs
Each Photo Cube cartridge is good for 36 4-by-6-inch prints. Based on a minimum advertised price of $19.99 per cartridge, the cost per print is 55.5 cents. That’s less expensive than the FujiFilm SP-1, which runs between 75 cents and a dollar per print. The Epson Charm came in at just 25.3 cents per glossy 4-by-6-inch print, unusually low for a thermal dye printer, with most similar inkjets running 28 to 32 cents per print. The Epson Charm was faster, and had better print quality as well.

Apple’s 8-pin Lightning connector debuted with the iPhone 5 in September 2012. Between the iPhones 5 and 6, there are now more iPhones with Lightning ports in circulation than ones with the 30-pin connector. The VuPoint Solutions Photo Cube IP-P28-VPS lets you dock such a phone and print directly from it, as well as print from iPads, older iPhones, and PictBridge-enabled cameras when connected via a USB cable. It’s a convenient and effective solution, although there are other choices that offer better speed, cost per print, and/or print quality.