Review: Polaroid Pogo photo printer

Polaroid's long heritage in instant photography has taken a beating over the last few years as cheap digital cameras made the old Polaroid cameras obsolete. The company's clever answer is the Pogo, an instant printed photo system for the 21st century.

The Polaroid Pogo is a pocket-sized printer that prints digital photos directly from a Bluetooth-enabled camera phone or a compatible digital camera. It also has a rechargeable battery, meaning pictures can be printed while on the move and away from a mains socket.

The Pogo produces 2in x 3in photos with a peelable adhesive backing – something that will undoubtedly appeal to children. Despite its small size, its mainly metal construction lends it a feeling of sturdiness and quality while still managing to remain light enough to be comfortably carried in a pocket.

During testing, we found the Pogo simple to use – there are no settings to adjust and it has just one button for turning it on and off. Pairing the device with our Nokia 5310 camera phone was as easy as searching for it from the phone’s Bluetooth menu. However, when we connected our test camera, a Fuji Finepix A500, we weren’t able to print, despite the fact that it is was all set up. We had no problems printing from another test camera, a Ricoh 500SE, though. We’d recommend making sure that your camera is compatible before purchasing the printer.

After hitting the Send key, it took an acceptable 60 seconds for each photo to land on our desk, and we were pleased with the exposure, colour accuracy and brightness of the output from such a small printer. The Pogo’s most impressive feature, though, is that it doesn’t require ink. Instead, it uses special paper containing crystals, which are activated as they pass through the device. Importantly for this type of device, running costs are also very reasonable at just 30p per print.

Prints from the Pogo are dry the moment they emerge and are durable and resistant to water. Our only complaint is that it has a very short battery life at just 10 prints on a single charge, which detracts significantly from the device’s mobile credentials. Still, this is the first genuinely usable mobile photo printer we have seen and above all it’s great fun.