Polaroid PoGo Portable Photo Printer

For parties, outings, sports events, and anywhere else where you may want to print small photos quickly and without the hassle of wires, you're going to love the Polaroid PoGo portable photo printer. If you want your pictures to look spectacular, you'll be dissatisfied; but this little printer is not meant to compete with a more expensive and full-blown compact photo printer.

You're going to have fun using the Polaroid PoGo portable photo printer. My review unit came in the back-pocket of a fake pair of jeans to emphasize just how small and portable it is, and there's no doubt about it; the PoGo printer has got to be pushing the limit on compactness when it comes to printers.

The main reason it's so compact is that it doesn't use any ink; rather, the special ZINK photo paper that the PoGo has dye crystals that are activated by the printer's heat.

Prints don't look as sharp and clear as they do when printed by a compact printer such as Canon's Selphy, but then again, the PoGo weighs eight ounces and can print a photo from your cell phone without any wires or electric plugs (it has a rechargeable lithium-ion battery). It can also print from a digital camera via PictBridge.

Prints come out pretty fast; from my BlackBerry, a print took about 49 seconds, which isn't bad; of course, the photos are only 2x3, roughly wallet size. You can peel off the backing if you want to post them on your wall.

So the PoGo lost some stars because in terms of printing quality and size flexibility, it can't touch other compact photo printers, nor can you edit photos for red eye (or anything else). But nevertheless, I thought this was a great printer and I recommend it if you frequently take pictures with your cell phone and feel an overwhelming urge to print them out right away and distribute them, even if they're a bit small.

Trust me, the PoGo printer will make you the life of the party. It's available at Best Buy and will be available from Target soon (by the end of July).

Disclosure: Review samples were provided by the manufacturer. For more information, please see our Ethics Policy.