 |
Polaroid PoGo Digital Photo Printer
by Joker25
As part of my job, I work with children who have learning difficulties. Oftentimes these children are not yet ready for formal recording (i.e. writing) or require a lot of practical work to consolidate whatever they are currently learning.
The education system being what it is, schools and teachers are inspected once every ... few years. And, when the inspectors are in they want to see formal proof of what children are learning and what they are working towards. Besides which, keeping a record of children's work and achievements is good practice. Normally, this record consists of their exercise books, jotters, artwork etc. However, when working with a child who cannot grip a pencil or who has limited ability to process their thoughts as writing, recording can be tricky. The teacher can scribe for the child or work can be done on the computer, but this often doesn't give the child the same sense of ownership that they get from seeing 'their' work. If a child has spent an entire lesson using maths equipment to show their understanding of tens and units, it can be frustrating when it must be put away at the end of the lesson, or when magnetic letters that have been used for phonic spelling work must be used again by a different child.
For this reason, I bought the PoGo printer. Teachers often take photographs of children engaged in a task and print them, but doing this was a little bit more tricky for me. Because I am not based in one school permanently, I don't have access to a school printer or digital camera. I didn't want to use my own camera for fear it would get broken and nor did I want to print pictures out at home; for a teacher to have images of children on their home PC would be unwise in the extreme. What I wanted, therefore, was some kind of portable printer that I could use to print photos off from my mobile phone. After the pictures had been printed I could simply wipe the photos from my phone's memory.
~*~Appearance~*~
This is a really dinky little piece of kit. It's just slightly smaller than an outstretched hand and is matte black with a silver trim. It's about an inch deep and there is a flap on the back which lifts up to reveal the paper. Its dimensions are such that it will easily fit in the majority of handbags or laptop cases.
~*~Power~*~
It comes supplied with a cable for charging the battery. A full charge takes 2+ hours but it can be used whilst charging. I found that a full charge lasts for around 8 printings and after that the battery loses its power very quickly (although I frequently forget to turn it off as soon as it's finished printing, so you might be able to get a couple of extra prints if you were less absent-minded than me). I didn't mind this aspect too much as I'm generally always in a room with plug sockets, but for those who wish to use this for nights out, or for printing a lot of photos in quick succession, this may be quite a large negative factor.
~*~Ease of Use~*~
Once I've taken a photo on my mobile I activate Bluetooth and make sure the PoGo is turned on and close to my mobile. I then open the photo in the phone's memory, select 'send via' and choose the Bluetooth option. The phone will then offer me the PoGo as an option under the name of Polaroid 10. Once this is selected the photo will start to send, usually taking around 30 seconds. Straight away the PoGo will whirr into life and start to make printing noises. Essentially, as long as your phone or laptop is Bluetooth enabled, this device is quite straightforward to use (but I'd advise checking on the Polaroid website to make sure that your phone/camera is compatible with the device). No software needs to be installed on your phone or camera.
Photos can also be printed from a digital camera via a usb cable which came supplied with mine. I've never used the printer with my PC and I'm not sure how it would be possible but there is perhaps a technological genius out there who knows how to do it.
The photo paper is only produced by Polaroid but can be bought from a range of retailers both offline and online - mine came from Amazon - and comes sealed in small packs of 10 sheets. Once the flap at the back is lifted, it simply slots into place (although you have to be careful to ensure that it is facing the right way, otherwise your pictures will print on the dull side). The printer is inkless - the 'Zink' paper somehow magically contains everything needed for the colour to develop - so that's one less hassle.
~*~Speed~*~
The printing process is quite slow; it's certainly nothing like what you'd get from a Polaroid camera. I'd say the whole Bluetooth, sending and printing process takes at least 3-5 minutes. Not ideal if you want to print something immediately, but not really prohibitively slow, either.
~*~Picture quality~*~
Professional photographers would probably reel in horror, but the pictures look fine: not amazing, but not blurry and awful, either. And, for the size and cost of the printer, you probably couldn't realistically hope for more than that. The pictures print without a border and are 2" by 3" - quite a bit smaller than the average snapshot but not really tiny. Colours are reasonably true, although pinks, purples and browns tend to be a bit interchangeable. If you've taken a glorious picture of a sunset over mountains, you may find the resulting print disappointing. If you've taken a quick snap of a friend, or a day out with the family this will do the job nicely. I tend to use it for prints of practical activities children have been doing, so there are lots of primary colours and objects that are close to the camera. All of these prints have been fine and have given a good level of detail. A pleasing bonus is that the photos have an adhesive backing and so can be stuck in exercise books or albums immediately. Furthermore, if you want to look like you're out on day release, you could take a picture of yourself, print it, and then stick it on your jumper. Or you could take pictures of a colleague and then plaster their monitor in multiple copies. These are just my suggestions, mind. The ways of annoying your workmates with this are probably endless.
~*~Price and availability~*~
It's now retailing on Amazon for just under eighteen pounds, which is a bargain when you consider that I paid more than twice as much as that for it a year and a half ago. The expensive part, though, is the paper: Amazon currently offers it for £3.58 for 10 pages which is quite expensive if you're going to be doing a lot of printing. Obviously, just cutting up ordinary paper to size won't work, as it won't contain the magic Polaroid Zink stuff.
~*~Overall~*~
Unless you have a specific need to print photos immediately, as I did, I'd say this is best avoided. It's a great little gadget which does exactly what it claims to and its relative uniqueness will no doubt endear it to many, but digital cameras and home printers are now so advanced that the average person will get much better results doing things that way. Ultimately, this is likely to be something that is used for a month or so and then deposited in a drawer once the novelty wears off and the expense hits home.
Read the complete review |
