Customer Reviews

Polaroid CZA10011 PoGo Instant Mobile Printer

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I bought this because I wanted to be able to give prints to the many people I meet while deployed. I hoped to be able to give something, anything that resembled a photo. What the PoGo does is make AMAZING prints fast and without needing anything but time and paper.

First some requirement - you need a PictBridge or Bluetooth enabled camera. I never managed to get Bluetooth working from either my Mac or iPhone. It might work on other devices but I don't recommend it. Besides being slow, it uses precious battery power. For USB you will need the cable that camer with your camera. I say that because I lost mine and by chance it was a micro USB connection, not mini USB. I have 50 mini cables but had to get a new micro.

First things first, you need to charge the battery. Mine is a referb and the battery lasts about 6 prints on full charge. A new one should last 10. Not a lot. You can increase battery life by making sure you have all your prints ready to go and printing all at once instead of shoot print shoot print but that is still not going to get you much more. On my Pentax K200 as soon as I connect the cable it goes to PictBridge mode and asks me if I want to print. Every camera will be different but for me I simply choose all the defaults, 3 presses and it starts printing. If you are shooting RAW you will need to process them in camera or switch to JPEG. One last thing - when you first put the paper in the printer you have to put it in with the blue "Zink Smartsheet" face down. The printer will then "print" that sheet even if it is turned off. DO this while you are still plugged in to save the battery. I save my smart sheets and run them through to "clean" the printer. I have read that this reduces streaks. Considering I have had none, I think it works.

I have read lots of complaints about streaking and poor quality. I have nothing but good things to say about the quality. First, no matter what printer you use, at 2x3 there is going to be a limit to the detail. Second, we are talking about a battery operated instant printer that uses no ink. The fact that it works at all is amazing. I have found the detail and color to be exceptional. One caveat - images have that trademark Polaroid green/blue tint to them in the white/light areas. Personally, I think that is plus but I grew up with the original "shake and bake" prints. And it does not hurt to use a DSLR with good lenses and 10MB sensor to get good images to print. I have no idea how it prints with lower rez/lower quality lens systems but on my K200 the results are amazing. And I have yet to have a single streak. As for curl, I have not used any of mine as stickers. The backing is pretty stiff so unless you NEED to stick it to something, don't. And the paper is water resistant - pretty amazing by itself. Finally, if you have access to power, you can print until you run out of paper. Its not too hard to find and there is even a car charger. I have been searching for a replacement/spare battery but so far no luck. The power supply delivers 9v so I my just try hacking one with some 9v batteries.

Other reviews have complained about the cost of paper. If you buy 10 at a time its going to cost you a lot. But Amazon sells 30 packs for $4.29 - about $.15 a sheet - shipped! Fifteen cents. Sorry, not expensive.

Beyond the technical stuff, this thing is plain fun. Everyone loves prints. Where I spend a lot of my time, digital means not getting/giving anything. Now I can take a picture and get a smile a minute later. I will never see most of these people again yet they will have something from me forever. I have a collection of amazing smiles with them holding their prints. It is one of the most fun things I can do as a photographer and worth every bit of fifteen cents.

This is a very handy little gadget that is a lot of fun at parties and events! The Polaroid PoGo is a little battery powered (rechargeable) printer that makes fairly good quality 2"x3" photos, with removable backing allowing them to be used as stickers. The prints take about a minute to print and come out completely dry and ready to handle. The printer did crop off the edges of my image so it's a good idea to make sure your subject is firmly in the center of the picture.

This printer is not designed to be connected to a computer, but rather uses BlueTooth from your cell phone (I didn't test this) or PictBridge when connected via USB to your digital camera (which is how I use it). Since this printer is so small, and runs on battery power, I can just pocket the fully charged printer, my camera, and my USB cable, and I'm a walking photo lab. Note that the USB cable is not included, but that is ok for me since my camera uses a proprietary cable.

So, this rates very high for convenience and ease of use but a little lower for picture quality.

Recommended!

fabulous little portable printer that hooks into any digital camera. Perfect for my sketching and watercolor journals and for travel. I can take a photo and add to it my journal page. I've been telling everyone about this.

I definitely love the portability of this printer. That's one major plus point and the reason I give 3 stars. I use the printer to print moments I want to remember. Then I paste them onto a notebook and decorate the pages.

However, for future buyers, here's some bad encounters in my purchase that you may wanna take note:

1. note that the description says it takes 1 min to print. that doesn't include the time u take to send the file over. so if you are sending a 3mb file, it'll take a while.

2. short batt life.

3. visible streaks on photo especially if printing light colours

I just used the PoGo for the first time last night. I was happy with first few pictures the colors were pretty good but after a few they started to get streaky but the instructions tells you how to clean the printer head by inserting a piece of zink paper upside down and let the printer eject it. That worked for me. The only things that would make this awesome is if the photos were 4x6 and if they had support of iPhone =(

This little printer is awesome in theory. It prints without ink, and the paper is cheap(along with the printer). The prints are stickers and you can print right from the camera.

The only problem is the battery is inconceivably terrible. I leave it plugged in for hours and unplug it to take it with me for the day. At the end of the day I plug it in(AFTER NO USE) and its dead. No use, and its dead? Does it leak energy or something?

Maybe I should just bring the charger with me? No, that is even worse. The charger is slightly smaller than the actual printer and you cant charge and print at the same time, it will create an error that the battery is too low.

The image quality is OK, the blacks are VERY black and you will likely lose all detail in the shades. There is very minor streaks.

I wish they would fix the battery problems, I don't recommend buying this, I will look for another product

This is an amazing product! It prints super fast and the color is outstanding. It's small and compact so it's easy to stash in a purse or a bag for quick access. I use this with a blackberry smart phone and it picks up the blue tooth just fine. Also the battery life is really good. Definitely a great product that makes picture sharing fun, simple, and fast!

I have been having so much fun with this product, right at home. The intent of purchasing this was to take on my road trips and travel journal as I went (something I've always wanted the ability to do). I have yet to take a road trip since buying, but have played with the printer a lot at home. You have to know what to expect when purchasing this to be happy with the product. You will not get perfectly printed prints from this, like shown on the box/website advertising. The images have a definite blue-green cast to them, like Polaroids of the past and they tend to print on the dark side. I'm okay with this and knew that going in having read the reviews. I find the color cast charming and I only need the image to remind myself of what i'm journaling, and not a perfect representation of what i'm talking about. If I needed that I will print from my home printer or send to a lab.

I do find that in some cases a few prints in I get some streaking. If I run the blue sheet that came with the ZINK photo sheets back through before running my print, I find the streaking goes away. I always run the blue sheet back through before I start printing (if it's been a few hours or a few days) and re-run it through every few prints just to make sure I have no streaking. I think some of it depends on the paper pack and how old it might be, as the other day I did 10 prints back to back without using the blue sheet between and had no issues with streaking. None of my paper packs have expiration dates on them, as I've read, and if you look closely at the packs you can see where they have been rubbed off with alcohol. I'm not sure why they've done this, but you can search and read more about it online.

My battery doesn't last very long, but have found a friend that has the printer say they find the battery to last a good amount of time, so i'm thinking my battery is just defective. This printer does not print directly from the iPhone, but if you are jailbroken there is an app that can be purchased through Cydia for $10 called Celeste Bluetooth File Sharing. They have just released a Beta test for working on the new iOS 5.1, but i'm not sure if you can test the Beta if you hadn't purchased it previously. So far with the Beta it works great. I just go into my photo through the iPhoto app, and send it via Bluetooth to the printer. Prints in a jiffy. This is the only way I've found to print from the iPhone to this printer. I printed to this from my husbands Android phone without any special app's.

If you have an iPhone, but it's not jailbroken, there are other ways to print to this printer. If you shoot with a DSLR you can print directly from the camera's interface. Starting with both devices off, plug the camera into the printer with the cable that came with your camera for USB data transfer. Turn on the printer and then your camera. Go to the photo you want to print on your camera's viewer and it should automatically pop up instructions/print dialog for printing. If you happen to have a Mac or a PC with Bluetooth capability you can also print to the printer via that. This option works well if you have an iPhone, but it's not jailbroken. Because of the Cloud and the ability to put your phone images on you computer via the Cloud, you can easily find those photos on your computer and then send via Bluetooth to the printer. This also works well if you have a photo from an email or other device on your computer you'd like to print. Macs are great with their built-in Bluetooth, but if you have a PC without you can purchase an inexpensive Bluetooth dongle online ($5 range on eBay).

I love this printer, and would give it a 5 star rating if the prints were a little better. Because their advertising shows crystal clear, perfect color prints and that's not what you are getting, i'm giving this 4 stars. With that said, I love this product and would purchase it again in a heartbeat. Know what to expect and you will be very happy with this.

zwholesale:
Excellent customer service. The printer was missing a part. zwholesale promptly replied to my email through Amazon and promptly shipped another when they received the incomplete one. AND they reimbursed me for my shipping cost.
Yes, it would have been better to receive a printer with the part in the first place. But I've been around long enough to know that it's unrealistic for every item I purchase to show up perfect. zwholesales response demonstrated their integrity to me, giving me the confidence to purchase from them again.

Printer:
This was a Xmas hit. The photos are of good quality. I used a Canon compact A620. The quality of the device taking the photos is important. Most phone cameras don't take quality photos, and lack low light sensitivity - yes they take a photo, but it's grainy. A (not cheap-o) camera with a flash makes a big difference.
This camera connected through Bluetooth fine to my XP laptop. Use the Bluetooth application to "SEND" the photo file. It won't show up as a printer.
PICTbridge (USB) connection to my camera worked fine. The printer comes with a short USB cable. I liked the short length, anything longer would just get tangled up.
The printer stores about 20 print sheets.
I was not able to find a compatible phone list at Polaroid.com. Nokia phone: connect=yes, print=unsuccessful, could be my lack of knowledge.

The instant pictures from the PoGo were a huge hit at Christmas parties. If you remove they back of the photos, they become stickers. I got a lot of "oh! cool!"s. Great party gadget. The negatives are:
1. The pictures are poor quality. The people who received the instapics didn't seem to care, but if you do, wait a few years for this kink to be fixed.
2. Pictures must be taken directly from your camera with a camera cord, which can be a bit cumbersome. I recommend figuring out how to use it before taking it to a party.