Polaroid PoGo Digital Photo Printer with Zero Ink (Zink) Technology

If you're thinking of buying the pogo, you should know beforehand exactly what you're getting.

As it currently stands, the printer is more of a fun/arty toy. I have a polaroid izone, which was great fun when I was able to get film for it, and if you've ever owned one then you'll already have an idea of what to expect. The pictures aren't large (2x3 inches) but I really like that, they'd be a perfect size to keep in a wallet if you wanted. The sticky back is handy, and I've found that it won't peel paint from walls when removed.
The cost of paper means each picture should average between 20p and 30p, the cheapest I've found works out to 21.4p each.

The printer itself is larger than I expected at roughly 120 x 71 x 23mm, but that's still a very manageable size.

You shouldn't buy the Pogo if you want professional quality prints; the colours aren't totally accurate (in my experience, dark red/brown may come out a little pink-ish and in most cases colours won't be as vivid as the original) and although I don't know the exact DPI equivalent, it's certainly not going to rival a photo printer.

Depending on why you buy it, however, these points may not actually count against. The quality of Polaroid photos was always a little different anyway, that was the cost of immediate images and this printer is no different. I actually like the colours being a little abnormal, it seems more authentic.

Bare in mind that since the colour reproduction is reliant upon the paper rather than the printer, there's always the possibility that Polaroid will bring out new paper and maybe even firmware updates to complement it, though that's entirely speculation.

Hi all,

I will write about a well-established problem with this gadget's operation, specifically the inconsistent image quality and the dreaded streaking most owners experience at some point. I'd like to help others get rid of this frustrating problem too.

So I got some good news on this. I've received my PoGo a couple of days ago and have been working on it to get rid of the unacceptable amount of streaking I suffered from the second or third print on.

Examining, testing, printing test pics, etc. I have finally come to realize the method suggested in the manual to clean the printing head/heat plate does not quite work the way it should. The fine dust stays in, being not a dust friendly design it messes up the printing performance. The streaking is almost always about the fine dust particles gathered on the heat plate, not about the paper however old they happen to be.

The trouble is a simple design fault with the springy pressure plate underneath the lid. It's supposed to apply enough pressure on the paper to both print clean pictures and to clean the heat plate with the blue lead paper that comes in each paper stack. Basically it neither quite covers the whole width of the paper nor applies enough pressure on the papers or the blue cleaning/calibrating cardboard to perform the cleaning action.

I have found a consistent solution for this that worked perfectly for me:

Always keep the blue cardboard calibration/cleaning cardboards when you open a satchel of papers. Turn the printer on. Open the lid, empty the paper bed, slide the blue paper towards the slot as suggested in the manual. Don't close the lid but hold the little switch on the opposite corner down that tells PoGo the lid is closed. The roller will start working with the lid open and you'll see it begin ejecting the blue paper through the gate. While its pushing the blue paper out gently rub over it with your finger in a left-right-left-right motion along the inside wall above the roller till the paper gets ejected fully. This is to apply some extra pressure so that the fine dust particles collected over the plate do get stuck on the paper, cleaning it. Then place the papers back and put a couple of (two or three) blue papers on top of the stack to increase the thickness of the stack, therefore applying some more pressure via the springy plate at all times. If the streaking is heavy (you got too much dust in the slot) do it more than once before printing anything.

As a final note, the top and bottom edges of the paper that are not covered by the breadth of the springy pressure plate inside are more prone to streaking so if you get those try a little bit harder with the manually assisted cleaning process.

And so, ideally, whenever you get a streaky print first go with the cleaning process with a ZINC paper with the bottom facing up and then a second run with the blue calibration/cleaning cardboard. And use a couple of blue sheets on top of your paper stack at all times when you insert paper.

I know it sounds like a hassle but it doesn't take more than another 60 secs to make sure the next print gets out properly saturated, vibrant and streaking free. And although at varied intensities this is probably a design problem all units will suffer from at some point. Replacing the unit won't make too much of a difference I'd guess.

Once you accept this little bump, the PoGo is quite fun and I'm actually enjoying it quite a bit when it works the way it should! : )

Cheers,
N

I've just got my second pogo (bought the bundle with paper as I know how much you get through once you start) as I had to relinquish my first one to my niece! It's amazing how useful this little gadget is - my niece has been using it for school projects (much cheaper than one of those photobooks you can make online)and I have now used it to put photos on shoe boxes, on a card for my gran (me in Florence)and even on the dog's bed. It's as much fun as the old instamatics and if you're a dab hand with your mobile phone cam, you get good quality results. Useful note for those not happy with print quality - make sure you always run the blue sheet (in the media pack) through first, it does something to clean the unit I think, I forgot once and noticed a drop in quality.