The digital age may have put an end to the Polaroid camera, but the company hasn’t yet given up on the idea of instant prints. Polaroid PoGo is a mobile printer that creates 2×3s of the photos on your phone. It’s portable (roughly the size of a smartphone) and connects wirelessly through Bluetooth so can be used with minimal setup. It’s pretty swift, too, taking you from snap to print in not much more than 90 seconds. It also works via physical connections with PictBridge-compatible digital cameras.

PoGo prints using Zink paper. As its name (zero ink) implies there are no ink cartridges involved, helping the device to remain compact, and also means the prints come out dry and smudge proof. Instead, Zink works by being gently heated, causing colour to appear through embedded colour crystals in the paper. PoGo comes with 10 sheets.

The PoGo is every bit as appealing as it sounds, and will be a true crowd pleaser during the Christmas party season. But it is not without a few issues. For a start there is the print quality. It’s fine for mobile snaps, but is hardly what you would call tops quality, with colours not a perfect match for the original image. Then there is the battery life, which only stretches to about 15 prints at a time (and takes a couple of hours to recharge). Finally, the price. Zink paper costs around £6 for 30 sheets, averaging out at 20p per print.

PoGo is a whole lot of fun to use, and has plenty of room for development. The technology is impressive, but the price needs to come down and the quality improve before it really takes off.

£90
www.polaroid.com
Verdict 6

Popularity: 1% [?]