FedEx delivered my Polaroid PoGo last Friday just after I left the house, which meant I got to spend all day waiting to get home and play with it. It was worth the wait – however excited I was when I discovered this instant mobile printer, I am equally – if not more – excited about using it now that I have it.
For all the thousands of photos I take each year, I almost never make prints, which is something of a travesty in itself. I feel like that trend is about to change now. The PoGo will put a print in my hands less than two minutes after shooting the photo.
These aren’t prints that you’re likely to mat and frame. For starters, they’re tiny, the size of a credit card. Their quality is no where near professional lab standards – maybe not even WalMart standards. You can expect your colors to be off, your shadows to block up, with the occasional line through the image. And forget about fine details. I find that my prints all have something of a cross-processed look, although admittedly I haven’t played around with the PhotoStyle settings on my camera, which could affect that.
Simply put, the prints scream Polaroid, at least the way I remember old Polaroid instant film looking. It’s a digital flashback, where you trade color-management and exacting quality for a print that’s fast, and more importantly, fun.
These are little prints that you stick in photo albums and scrap books. These are prints that you send in cards. These are prints that you make just because it’s fun.
Where do I see the PoGo being useful? From a professional standpoint, I can see this little printer bring a big hit at any kind of social gig – weddings, birthdays, graduations, parties. Pretty much anytime when people would be asking you “can I see that one?” How about instead of turning the camera around to show them the shot on-screen, you plug in the PoGo and print one off for them? They get to see the photo, take the print with them, and you know they’re going to show it off. In a venue where you want to have people excited about getting their photo taken, this could be a great tool.
From a personal standpoint, it’s simple great fun to use, and I can suddenly imagine the pages of my long-languishing photo album finally getting some pages filled. Not to mention instant prints of embarrassing moments at the next family function.
Unfortunately, but I suppose expectedly, the PoGo suffers from several failings. The battery life, which is a common complaint in the reviews, is poor; you get about 10 prints on a single charge, then you need to plug it in for a 90 minute charge cycle. The PoGo will print while plugged in, although needing it attached to a wall outlet somewhat defeats the point of it being mobile, add to which the combined size of the power block and cords is larger than the printer itself. If you’re planning to use it in the go in your vest pocket, another battery (or three) is necessary.
The print time is slow, over a minute from camera connection to a finished print. This isn’t terrible, but it does limit it’s on-site use to down-time. There’s simply no way you’re going to be shooting and printing at the same time. There’s also the issue with computers – the PoGo cannot print from a laptop, at least not via the USB cable. It might work via Bluetooth, since the PoGo is BT enabled and will print from most cell phones that way. But lacking a Bluetooth laptop, I haven’t been able to test this.
In overall usefulness, I can only give the PoGo a 6 out of 10. It’s certainly not for everyone and won’t fulfill most professional’s needs. In cool gadget terms, it’s an 8 out of 10. For what I spent on it, and the cost of paper refills, I’m sure that I’ll easily get my money’s worth out of it. It’s a fun way to bring prints back into photography.
