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Polaroid PoGo

Gordon Mah Ung — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 11:00:00 -0500

If you still get warm and fuzzy thinking about those James Garner and Mariette Hartley Polaroid commercials, it’s time to let go of the past. Traditional film is barely hanging on, and Polaroid has completely ceased production of instant film.

But Polaroid hasn’t abandoned its interest in prints. The company is trying to rekindle the instant-print picture industry with its new Polaroid PoGo portable printer. This 4.75”x2.75”x1” device is the first to use Zink Imaging’s Zero Ink paper. Instead of shooting dots of ink onto a piece of paper, the PoGo uses a thermal head to heat up tiny crystals embedded in each sheet of paper. Polaroid says standard dpi rules don’t apply, but the resolution is comparable to 300 dpi and each sheet has about 100 billion crystals in it. Each pic will cost about 33 cents to print.

Fun yet flawed, the PoGo tries to recapture the fun of a Polaroid.

The PoGo holds 10 2”x3” borderless sheets of paper. On a full charge, you can get up to 20 prints out of it, if you’re lucky—not enough, in our book. It doesn’t help the PoGo that its power brick is about the same size as the printer itself.

When we connected our camera via the PoGo’s USB type A port, the printer cranked out a photo in 30 seconds. You can also hook up your Bluetooth-enabled camera phone to print pictures. Or maybe not. Three of our phones failed to print via Bluetooth. After browsing Polaroid’s list of approved phones, we came to the conclusion that you have a 50 percent chance of printing from your handset. It’s not Polaroid’s fault, though: Bluetooth is one of the most botched technology rollouts in history, but Polaroid will certainly get the blame.

That’s unfortunate because there’s a lot to be said for the PoGo’s fun factor. Each print has a light adhesive backing, so you can stick your prints anywhere. Image quality is average, but the PoGo isn’t about creating crystal clear photos. It’s about the instantaneous fun of being able to give a picture to someone right after you snap it.

The PoGo is definitely a generation 1.0 product, and as such, we recommend it only for someone willing to overlook its numerous flaws in image quality, battery life, and Bluetooth connectivity. We do, however, look forward to the second-generation PoGo.

Polaroid to Resurrect the Old

Chris Moody — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 09:46:57 -0500

Just last February, we thought we saw the last of the famed Polaroid instant film, and the iconic instant camera. Those things introduced a generation to anonymous photo processing so you could take candid photos of family in embarrassing predicaments or those steamy photos of friends-with-benefits that were to soon become exfriends-with-drawbacks. Perverts everywhere looked back on Polaroid’s instant cameras with a sense of nostalgia.

Those old cameras just couldn’t complete with digital cameras and photo printers. The picture quality was terrible, it printed the picture no matter what (photos of the ground, foot, or fingers where common), and they were bulky. It was like having around a shoebox around your neck.

Still it seems there must be some section of the population that Polaroid thinks misses the ability for their camera to spit out actual photos. Wired reports that Polaroid is teaming up with UK magazine Amateur Photographer and will work out the details of a new Camera that will have a built in PoGo. MPC took a first look at the PoGo last month and was not very impressed. The only confirmed details are the size of the prints, the PoGo prints 2x3 photos where this new camera will print 4x3, the same size as the old analog cameras. No shaking required (not that the old ones really needed it either).

Do you need a camera that can spit out instant photos? Bad idea or good? Sound off below!

(Image Credit: flickr.com SqueakyMarmot)

Hands-On Lab Test! We Scrutinze Polaroid's New Pogo Portable Printer

Gordon Mah Ung — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 15:50:03 -0500

I still own a vintage Polaroid SX-70 Land Camera but feeding it was expensive then and now nigh impossible thanks to the end of instant film. Polaroid’s POGO portable printer brings back some of the fun I had with the SX-70. This pocket printer is the first to use Zero Imaging’s Zero Ink paper that does away with ink in favor of billions of embedded crystals in the 2x3 sheets of paper.

Hook your PictBridge-enabled digital camera up to the POGO via a Type A USB cable and let the fun begin. Once the camera has finished chewing on the image, it will take about 30 seconds to print out. The POGO will print full bleed to the tiny pieces of paper and the adhesive back lets you stick ‘em anywhere.

Fun, right? Well not if you try to print via Bluetooth. It’s not Polaroid’s fault but I’d guess that you have a 50/50 chance of your phone working due to Blutooth's horrible frakking reliability. Much of the mess is the fault of the phone vendors and the providers. Even the vaunted iPhone, for example, doesn't support the OBEX profile this printer needs. A ton of others don’t as well. Your best bet is to use USB.

A few other weaknesses: the print quality ranges average to mediocre (Polaroid claims its comparable to a 300dpi printer). However, for wallet prints or the photo that’s going to get stuck on the dash board of the car, we don't mind the lack of fidelity. We’re more bugged by the sad battery life. You can probably get 20 images if you print them in one sitting. Otherwise, expect more like 10 to 15. Finally, the battery charger (see below) is literally a brick. It’s actually bigger than the actual printer, and comes close to the power bricks that come with laptops. Combine that with the crappy battery life and, well, our smile goes away.

Part of my smile does come back though just printing out the pics that we can give away. Yeah, I could say “check out the web site” or “I’ll email it to you!” but I never do. With the POGO, you truly recover some of the spontaneity that the mad the Land Camera so damned fun. We'll do some more testing, so look out for our full review soon!