Polaroid Two

Old-style Polaroid instant cameras are now extinct, but the company is remaining true to its roots with the Polaroid Two, a digital camera that can print pictures instantly.

In addition to saving images to an SD memory card (not supplied) the Two has a built-in printer that prints images in under a minute. Unfortunately the print quality was not very impressive at all.

Colours were muted and washed-out, there was visible banding and the physical quality of the images was low enough for us to be able to see defects in the printed pictures.

Although the camera is supposed to be a five-megapixel model we have seen better pictures from a three-year-old mobile phone camera.

One reason for this is the lens on the front. Despite the camera being bulkier than any we’ve seen recently – it’s about the size of an old-fashioned tape Walkman – the lens itself is tiny.

The bulk is understandable – most of it is down to the printer inside – but the lens size and quality is unforgivable.

The battery is another problem – as with the Polaroid Pogo portable printer the Two can only take and print 15 images before it needs to be recharged.

This isn't a problem for a printer but a camera needs to be easily portable without needing to be plugged into the mains all the time.

The printer uses the same paper as the Pogo, which costs £8 for 30 sheets.

When we viewed the photos on a computer they looked much better than how they had appeared on paper, but you could easily pick up a very good £100 camera and a £100 portable printer and still have money left over compared with the price of the Polaroid Two.

And the results you’d get from that combination would far outstrip the Two’s. There is some novelty value but the camera’s price precludes buying it just for fun.

Putting a camera and a printer was a good idea – it’s just a shame that neither the camera nor the printer are much good.