Home > Consumer Reviews > Polaroid CZA-10011S PoGo Instant Mobile Printer (Red)

I purchased the Polaroid PoGo today and have done a fair bit of "playing" with this compact little printer over the past couple of hours. In fact, I have already used the first package of 10 sheets of Zink (Zero Ink) paper that come with the printer. So my first recommendation is; if you are planning on buying a PoGo, I highly recommend getting extra paper so you can get through your "testing" phase without having to purchase more paper. However, don't go crazy and buy too much, there are expiration dates on the paper which may affect your picture quality if you take to long to "expose" (print) them.

Connectivity:
I have tested the Bluetooth capabilities with my Motorola Q, Laptop Computer (Bluetooth enabled), my desk-top Windows Vista computer (with Radio Shack "Bluespoon" Bluetooth 2.0 adaptor added) and my PictBridge capable Canon Powershot A 640 camera (directly connected to PoGo via USB cable) and the printer worked like a charm in all of the above tests!

Speed of Printing:
Print time is about 1 minute per photo. There was no noticeable change in print speed with any of the tests I performed. Using the Bluetooth (wireless) connection or plugging in your USB cable directly from your camera did not seem to make any difference as to how fast the image printed.

Image Quality:
Not great...but not the worst I have seen either...The pictures I printed from my camera (via USB connection) looked better than my pictures from my cell phone, but this was likely due to the higher megapixel image created by my camera versus the 1 megapixel image from my cell phone. However, the "white balance" of both my camera and cell phone images were a little "off". The whites were extremely white (almost washed-out) and the dark (shadow areas) were very dark. So if you stay away from printing bright "beach / snow" images or dark "night" photographs you will be OK. Photos with lots of color (flowers, for example) looked pretty good when printed with the PoGo.

Cool things to do:
The adhesive on the back of the photo paper is a nice feature of this product. This makes it possible to add pictures to your hand written journals. You can stick them to business card magnets and put photos all over your refrigerator. You can make photo luggage tags, cards and much, much more.

If you don't need the highest quality image, but want to do some fun, creative stuff with photographs I would definitely recommend the PoGo. If you are a photographer hoping that the PoGo would give you a quick "proof" of what your printed images will look like, then this printer is probably not for you, since the image quality is not as good as you could get with some standard ink jet printers.

Have fun...

I used to take my old Polaroid on every trip and give people a picture of themselves and while they were admiring it would snap another picture--they were always smiling in that second picture. Now I can do it again. I have only printed a few samples but am very happy with the quality (printed from my Canon SD900) and time to print. My only negative comment is that the charger is large and heavy. I am hoping I can find an extra battery as sometimes it is hard to find electricity for charging when traveling. I definitely recommend this product.

The new PoGo mobil printer from Polaroid is a very nifty little gadget. While not a high end printer, this will serve the BBQ, sports, school, birthday party, college campus circles just fine. I also see vast almost unlimited potential for artists. Being an artist myself and a lover of traditional Polaroid film this new portable printer is a new step in the right direction for Polaroid. With no ink to speak of this ZINK, (zero ink) printer removes a very pricey aspect of home based printing. I found a pack of 30 prints for a mere $10 at Best Buy today. I was also the only one waiting to get one of these when the doors opened.

I already see that a digital camera/POGO printer is in the works. taking pictures with this thing is actually all that is lacking. The print size is small but i am sure Polaroid is just testing the waters. With their old technology cameras and film on the way out, it is nice to see a new, simple, clean technology replacing the old before it has even left the shelves. I do love traditional Polaroid film and hope they find a way to keep it around, even if only in a limited/artsy capacity.

The quality on these small prints is decent. Nothing spectacular though. Decent enough for casual prints. Nothing more.

Thoughts for future models:

* Larger Paper Models
* Built in Camera with a macro lens
* Cool Polaroid Special Effects (BW, Old film, Sepia, negative, borders, Etc.)
* Miniature Spy version
* I'm sure I will think of more after a few days.

So that is the skinny so far. great little product with room to grow.

This is a fun little printer mainly for on-the-spot prints. Kids especially like getting prints instantly. The Bluetooth connection works well, as does PictBridge via USB cable directly to camera. The unit is small enough to fit in a jacket pocket - you can take a picture of someone with your cell phone camera, send it to the printer wirelessly, and then magically hand them a print a few minutes later.

Now for the rough spots. While I really enjoy this printer, you should probably be aware of some hassles you may encounter (as I did). The battery life is not super-great - it's rated at 15 pictures, but if it's cold outside you may find the battery dead until you warm the unit up again. The metal case doesn't help matters in this regard. You can bring the charger with you, but be aware that the charger is about as big as the unit itself - a minor annoyance.

Picture quality - there's a reason the prints are so small. The quality is somewhat marginal, but usable. Most people are impressed that the thing exists in the first place and don't scrutinize the prints that much, so the quality is generally good enough. I attended a wedding and started printing lots of prints for an on-the-spot scrapbook. The printer started streaking badly on the prints. There is a cleaning process you can run, but it became quite a time-consuming hassle. Not to mention the waste each time a print was unusable.

I still give it four stars because it's a fun product and usually works well. The Bluetooth connection is a great feature for cell phone pics. Just be aware that you may have some occasional hassles.

Update: I've discovered that I get consistently very good looking results by keeping the special blue cleaning/calibrating sheet that comes with each pack. I run the sheet through before using the printer each day (if it hasn't been used that day), and also after every three prints. The colors come out nice and rich, and no streaks!

I received one of these for Christmas, and I'm pleased to say I really like it. The picture quality is only as good as the file you are printing, so please keep that in mind.

First up is the size: It's a PERFECT size for traveling, it fits in my back pocket, in my purse, in my computer bag, and just about any other small space I'd want to put it in. It's just about the size of a Nintendo DS, or just a little larger than my largest compact digital camera.

Mine is red, and it is PRETTY! It's got a nice shiny, brushed metal type of finish that will not show scratches well, and that's a huge bonus for me. The red color makes it easy for me to spot in my backpack with all of my pink devices.

Next we'll go to the Zink paper, the think that makes this work. The paper is very thick and tough, it is indeed water resistant, and it is very tear resistant. I dunked it into a drink of soda, gave it to the 5 yr old to try to damage, and generally tried to mess it up. I just couldn't do it. I haven't tried the sticky backing yet, but I will once I get my new batch of paper. The Zink paper is the thing that makes this a Polaroid. You put the paper in and that's all the maintenance it needs. You never need to change ink or toner or any of that mess. The color is in the paper.

It was VERY easy to pair with my Palm Centro, not so easy to pair with my brother's iPhone. This little bit of info might be important to someone with an iPhone, that's why I mention it. I haven't tried any other phones besides my Centro, the iPhone and my Blackberry 87803e. The iPhone was the only one of the three that gave me a problem at all. I just went to bluetooth devices, added it as a trusted device, and sent a picture via bluetooth. Less than a minute later it was printed and sitting in my hands. Quick, painless and fun!

As I mentioned, the printed picture is only as good as the file it's coming from. The picture I took with my cell phone wasn't the best of quality, so the photo wasn't the best of quality. I haven't tried a better quality format as of yet, but I will soon.

I have not tried to use this with the pictbridge technology, but that seemed pretty straight forward. I would imagine to to work just like any other pictbridge printer.

Battery life is only so-so, and that's probably my biggest complaint for this device. If you plan on using it for more than a few pictures at a time, plan on bringing your power cord with you. It printed effortlessly 3 to 4 pictures on the first charge, but then I didn't use it or charge it for 3 days and I couldn't print without plugging it in.

All in all this is one of the best presents I've ever gotten. It's smooth, sleek, sexy and fun. What more could a girl ask for?