Review: Polaroid printer is pocketable
NEW YORK (AP) - June 19, 2008 Called the PoGo, the printer spits out 2-by-3-inch color photos
that can be peeled apart to reveal a sticky back. It can receive
photos wirelessly from some cell phones, or via a cable from a
digital camera.
Don't expect great picture quality from the $149 PoGo. The
colors are a bit whacky, which is especially noticeable in the skin
tones. There are faint lines across the print, artifacts from the
printing process.
But who cares? Consumer Polaroids were always lo-fi, and that
was part of their charm. The PoGo prints look like leaves from the
Polaroid family tree. In fact, they're reminiscent of the small,
sticky-backed prints from the i-Zone, an instant-film camera of the
'90s.
But the technology in the PoGo is quite different. The printer
uses paper with billions of embedded dye crystals. It selectively
heats them up to produce different colors. There is no ink, toner,
or liquid chemical in the process. The prints come out dry.
With no ink to buy, the only cost of using the printer is the
paper, which it eats in packs of 10. These cost $3.99 each, or
$9.99 for three. That's a little steep compared to regular photo
printers, but cheap compared to instant film, which costs around
$15 for a 10-pack. (Polaroid film is still in stores, but stocks
are expected to run out next year. After that, Fujifilm will be the
only maker of instant film).
Polaroid films have always been a boon to experimenters. People
used to peel apart the films fresh out of the camera, then smear
the image onto paper to produce attractive "emulsion transfers."
Others massaged the prints coming out of their SX-70 cameras,
distorting the image in entertaining ways.
The thermographic, or "heat-writing," technology of the PoGo
is also somewhat hackable. Flitting the tip of a soldering iron
across a PoGo paper produces streaks of yellow. Slowing down yields
red, and pausing produces blue. Set a clothes iron to low heat and
pass it over the edges of a photo to apply a blue-green border.
A simpler form of thermographic paper has been used in fax
machines for a long time, and it's not known for holding up over
time. It darkens with heat, which can make it illegible. That makes
me a bit concerned with the longevity of the PoGo prints, yet
Polaroid says they will last 15 years in normal indoor lighting
conditions.
A clearer disadvantage of the thermographic process is that it
needs a lot of heat, and thus energy. The rechargeable battery in
the PoGo is good for only 15 prints. I could easily see myself
bringing the PoGo on vacation, printing out photos to put in a
journal or stick on postcards, but the need to bring a power
adapter that's as big as the printer itself is a turnoff.
Then there's the question of compatibility. For a cell phone to
connect to the PoGo, it needs, first of all, a Bluetooth chip. But
not all Bluetooth-equipped cell phones work with the PoGo, and it's
not easy to figure out which ones do, because printer compatibility
is not something many phone shoppers ask for.
Out of 12 Bluetooth cell phones I tried, half worked. There
didn't seem to be any particular trend in the results. An advanced
phone like the iPhone failed, while a simpler one like the Samsung
Trace worked. Polaroid has a compatibility table online at
http://polaroid.com/pogo/comptool/index.html, but I found it didn't
match my results in all cases: It says the LG Voyager doesn't work,
but it did for me; and that the LG Venus does work, while it didn't
for me.
Mating the PoGo to a digital camera is easier. It will accept a
connection via USB cable from any camera that adheres to the
PictBridge standard, which has been widely adopted.
To make things even more convenient, it would have been nice if
the PoGo had a memory card slot and an LCD screen, so you could
pick the picture to print. Some photo printers have these features.
And while we're at it, why not add a lens to it? Then we'd have a
real Polaroid instant camera again.
Until then, the PoGo will fill a niche for those who need prints
on the fly. The sticky back alone nearly doubles their usefulness.
And while it's nice to be able to snap pictures with a phone and
see them on the screen, having a real picture in your hand is still
special.
The PoGo goes on sale on July 6 in Best Buy stores, and on July
20 at Target.
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On the Net:
http://www.thenewinstant.com
More about the PoGo's printing technology: http://www.zink.com
