Why it's best: The HP Officejet H470b Mobile Printer is actually the HP Officejet H470 Mobile Printer plus a battery, but it costs less than buying the H470 plus the battery separately. It weighs 4.5 pounds by itself, 5 pounds with the battery, or 5.8 pounds with the battery and power adapter. That still counts as highly portable, but HP says the battery can print a substantial 480 pages on a full charge, so there should be no need to bring the power adapter most of the time.

Why it's a best pick: The HP Officejet H470 Mobile Printer measures just 3.25- by 13.4- by 6.5-inches and is only a little heavier than the lightest of laptop computers, at 4.5 pounds by itself or 5.3 pounds with its power adapter. Not only is it highly portable, but the 13.5- by 5.6-inch footprint means it will take up far less space on your dorm room desk than a standard desktop printer. It also offers some features that you might not expect in a portable printer, including the ability to print directly from memory cards and PictBridge cameras as well as print over a USB connection.

Why it's a best pick: Measuring 2.4 by 12.7- by 7.2-inches, and weighing just 4.4 pounds by itself or 5.1 pounds with its power adapter, the Canon Pixma iP100 Photo Printer is both highly portable and compact enough to take up noticeably less desk space in your dorm room than a typical desktop ink jet printer. Claimed yields for the ink cartridges are low in absolute terms, at 191 pages for black and 249 pages for color, but the yields are higher than was typical in previous generations of portable printers. The paper capacity improves on previous generations as well, at 50 sheets, which should be ample for the amount of printing you're likely to do at college.