By April 4, 2009

Review Polaroid PoGo instant mobile printer

DSCF0312 Superetrader called and asked if we wanted to review a mobile photo printer which uses Bluetooth technology to transfer digital photographs from, well anything that can use Bluetooth file transfer. Yeah sure that sounds interesting, then we realised that OBEX which is the standard required is not available on the locked down iPhone Bluetooth stack. Thankfully our notebook has full support for Bluetooth built in so we managed to make the connection. Read on for our thoughts on this tiny mobile printer.

As with all our reviews we like to take a quick look around the externals of the device first so here we go:-

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We have an on/off button, indicator lights for charging and error state. Next to that we have a standard USB port to allow you to connect a Digital Camera directly to the printer.

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The opposite side has a charging connector because the printer comes with a rechargeable battery and as usual it’s a non-standard connector so forget any mini-USB charging solutions, when will manufacturers standardise on one charging solution?

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The top edge of the device has a slot which is where the print will come out of when it is complete.

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The device opens up and this is where you place the paper, multiple sheets at a time, this is special paper which contains everything you need to produce the printed photographs as this is an inkless printer.

Pairing and Bluetooth Connection

Firstly it is worth mentioning that the instructions supplied with the printer are pathetic, they tell you nothing really and if we didn’t have any experience of pairing Bluetooth devices before we would have been really struggling.

Once set up sending pictures to the printer was really simple, open the Bluetooth file transfer within vista and select the picture to print and select the printer and away it goes.

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Transferring a 1.5MB file via Bluetooth took about 30 seconds then the printer bursts into life. It takes about 45 seconds for the the print to appear and the these are the results below of a variety of pictures all were high quality images.

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As you can see the output was not that great. The colours were better on some prints than others and a few artefacts were visible with some vertical lines, having said that, you have to bare in mind that this was never designed to produce top end results but quick photograph printing on the move.

The paper size of 50mm (2”) X 76.2mm (3”) is strange in itself and more resembles business cards than actual photographs but each sheet does have a sticky back to it so some sticker fun can be had.

Conclusion

If you are looking for a portable printer for quick print outs or fun with the family then this could be a great solution and to be honest the only reason why you would want it, the quality and print size prevent it being useful for much else really.

Its not that expensive, currently on sale at Superetrader for just under £60.00 but bare in mind paper costs, this currently retails at just under £8.00 for 30 sheets but remember no ink is required.

Also before you buy it makes sure that your mobile phone is compatible as a lot are not, the full list can be found at the Polaroid site here.

Available from Superetrader

Features

* As Seen on ‘The Gadget Show’
* Smudge-proof, water-resistant, tear-proof photos
* Fade-resistant, long-lasting images
* No waste – no ink cartridges
* Prints in about 60 seconds
* Rechargeable lithium-ion battery
* 2” x 3” borderless, sticky-back print

Specification
Size 120mm (4.7”) H X 72mm (2.8”) W X 23.5mm (0.9”) D
Weight 8 oz (without paper) includes battery
Battery 7.2V rechargeable lithium-ion
15 Prints per charge at 25 C Battery is replaceable
User Interface 2 Tri-Color LED indicators
AC Adapter 9V output Universal Input 100V to 240 VAC
Printer will print when plug into the AC adapter
Connectivity Bluetooth (Class 2) OPP USB 2.0 USB A connector
Print Speed 60 seconds per print, from send to share
ZINK™ Paper:
Size 50mm (2”) X 76.2mm (3”)
Features Full-bleed, borderless image
ZINK™ inkless printing embeds color into the paper
Prints dry-to-touch, waterproof, tear-proof, smudge-proof
Peel-off, sticky-backed
Automatic image quality optimization

About the Author:

Seasoned tech blogger. Host of the Tech Addicts podcast.
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