Polaroid PoGo CZU-10011B

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The Polaroid Pogo is a portable printer that is designed solely to print digital photos. Historically the Pogo was only available in black but it is available in other limited addition colours, at an additional cost.


==The Technology==


The Pogo uses the up-to-date “ZINK” technology, which Polaroid claims is “ an amazing new way to print in full colour without the need for ink cartridges ...
...10 sheets, it is expensive. Polaroid has a monopoly with this sort of paper so there is no competition and no chance of other manufacturers being able to undercut Polaroid and get a price war going.


==Using the Pogo==


The Pogo is exceptionally easy to use and anyone will have it up and running in a matter of seconds. It is one of the few items available where you don’t even need to read the instruction ... more

What is it?

The Polaroid Pogo is a portable printer that is designed solely to print digital photos. Historically the Pogo was only available in black but it is available in other limited addition colours, at an additional cost.

The Technology

The Pogo uses the up-to-date “ZINK” technology, which Polaroid claims is “ an amazing new way to print in full colour without the need for ink cartridges or ribbons”. This new technology is a major breakthrough for peripheral printers. However, in order to produce a photo the ink must come from somewhere and in the case of the Pogo the ink is “held in three layers of transparent crystals, coated on ZINK paper. A thermal print head sends pulses through the layers to heat the appropriate set of crystals and produce a colour image”

This means that only Pogo specific paper will work with this printer and, at around £3.99 for 10 sheets, it is expensive. Polaroid has a monopoly with this sort of paper so there is no competition and no chance of other manufacturers being able to undercut Polaroid and get a price war going.

Using the Pogo

The Pogo is exceptionally easy to use and anyone will have it up and running in a matter of seconds. It is one of the few items available where you don’t even need to read the instruction manual to work out how to get the product working.

There is a single button on the side of the Pogo that turns it on. Two three colour Led lights show the power and charge status of the Pogo. Other than that there are no other buttons or controls on the printer.

Setting up the hardware side involves releasing a spring-loaded clip on the lid of the Pogo to “split” the printer in two. 10 sheets of the ZINK paper are then inserted in to a specifically shaped recess. The lid is closed shut, ensuring the clip is firmly home, and, hey presto the Pogo is ready for action.

The Pogo is Pictbridge and blue tooth compatible so it will work with a whole range of cameras and mobile phones. This benefits the consumer in that there is no need to go and buy a Polaroid device to use the Pogo, hence reducing additional costs. It also benefits Polaroid as it opens up a much larger potential market, so it is a win-win situation.

If using a blue tooth device it is simply a matter of pairing your device to the Pogo. The Pogo’s blue tooth is permanently on so there is no need to press any buttons or configure it in anyway, it is simply a matter of doing a search no the blue tooth device and waiting for it to find the Pogo, which takes a matter of seconds. On the side of the Pogo there is a mini USB port, which allows you to link the Pogo to your camera via a cable, if you do not have blue tooth capability. It is then a matter of selecting the photo you want to print and pressing the print key.

The Pogo will whir in to life and the printing process will commence. After 60 seconds or so, the photo will come out of a slot at the top of the Pogo. The 60 second print time is pretty impressive, especially when compared to other photo printers but when you actually step back and consider the tiny size of the photos it suddenly doesn’t seem that great.

Printing using Pictbridge is quicker than using blue tooth, which is understandable, although it is not that much quicker. At a guess I would estimate using blue tooth will 5 – 10 seconds longer so it is quite impressive in that respect.

I should point out that the Pogo only works with cameras and mobile phones. It does not require any software, and doesn’t have any. There appears to be a bit of controversy over using the Pogo with PC or laptop. I have read some reviews that say the Pogo can be linked to a PC or laptop and I have read some reviews that say the Pogo can’t be used with a PC or laptop. Strange isn’t it? Personally, I can’t the Pogo recognized on either my Dell or my other half’s ACER using either blue tooth or a cable, so I am in the camp where the Pogo can only be used with a phone or camera.

The pictures

The photos are borderless and are printed on 2” x 3” sticky backed paper, which I think is quite large especially considering the size of the Pogo.

ZINK is still relatively new technology and this is evident in the quality of the photos. Despite the small size the images can be blurry and blotchy and not sharp, crisp or well defined. The pictures produced are for ‘fun’ use only, so don’t go expecting professional quality here. I guess it would be naïve to think otherwise but it would be nice to have semi decent quality since the quality of Pogo produced photos doesn’t even come close to the old style Polaroid instants.

The sticky back does enable you to peel the photo off and stick it to a beer glass, your leaning spot on the bar, the wall, a mate’s forehead or anything else you wish. This is quite good fun and produces a talking point at first, but it does grow tiresome very quickly.

Polaroid claim the final pictures are “Smudge-proof, water-resistant and tear resistant”, and all statements are true to a certain extent. I can honestly say that I have never had a picture smudge on me, no matter how quickly I touch a part of the photo as it comes out of the slot in the Pogo the photo has never smudged and the section is always dry and I applaud Polaroid for this.

I am a bit more sceptical about the waterproof and tear proof claims. I have dropped a small amount of liquid on a photo, and it did just produce a droplet, which could be wiped off. Done in a timely manner I found no damage was caused to the photograph. I have not tried submersing or drenching a photo, even for a review’s sake since they are quite pricey to produce. The photographs are durable, which I think is down to the sticky backing, and whilst it will take a bit of punishment before the photo can be ripped in two, it definitely is not tear proof.

The point Polaroid are trying to get across, or what I think Polaroid are trying to get across, is that the durability of these photos are the same as that of normal pictures, and providing you treat them with a bit of care I can confirm that the Pogo photos are no different to other photos.

Polaroid also claim the photos are “fade-resistant and long lasting”. I have had my Pogo for a few months now and the quality of the pictures have not decreased at all, however they are stored in an album and out of direct sunlight. Unfortunately, a couple of months is not really long enough to pass any judgement on Polaroid’s claims on longetivity.

Specifications

At 72mm x 23.5mm x 120mm and weighing in at a meagre 226g (including battery, but without paper) the Pogo is a tiny printer, the battery charger is larger than the printer itself, making it ultra portable and small enough to fit in the pocket of the tightest jeans.

The Pogo is powered by an internal 7.2V lithium-ion battery, which is fully rechargeable. Polaroid claims that each charge will give 15 photos, however I find I get around 10, which is one pack of paper. This printer is very power hungry so if you are going to print of several photos then you need to take the charger with you, which kind of reduces the portability of this device.

Availability and Price

The Pogo is readily available from many online stores and physical shops, so getting hold of one will not be a problem. The ZINK paper, on the other hand, may prove to be a bit more problematic and I would suggest getting this online for the best deals.When the Pogo was released it cost a whopping £99.99, which is far too much for this product. I would never have purchased one at this price or even half this price. It certainly was one expensive gadget.Luckily, the price has decreased significantly and the Pogo can now be bought for as little as £21.99 including VAT, but excluding P&P from Misco, making it a lot more affordable and available to the masses. Because the price of the Pogo varies so much I would recommend searching around to ensure you get the best deal.

Positives of the Pogo

i) Small, light and portable
ii) Cheap
iii) Good fun

Negatives of the Pogo

i) Can’t be used with a PC or a laptop (although there are some reviews that say otherwise)
ii) Only 10 photos per charge
iii) ZINK paper is very expensive
iv) Only one supplier of ZINK paper, i.e. Polaroid
v) Novelty factor soon wears off

Conclusion

The Pogo is another gadget that I found to be quite useless once the novelty had worn off. It has the occasional outing but most of the time it sits on a shelf collecting dust. I think the negatives easily outweigh the positives (as described above), and it is for this reason I would not recommend it, unless you want to print off pictures of yourself to make the occasional business card.

In my opinion the picture quality just isn’t good enough and the technology is not quite there. Give it a few more years until the picture quality gets to a decent level (and I am sure it will if Polaroid continues to develop it) and it may actually be of some use. Until then I will continue using the standard photo printers.

 

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