Novel and Fun (Updated)

Author's Rating:

Pros: Easy to use, Bluetooth and Pictbridge (USB) connections to cameras, no ink or tapes needed

Cons: mediocre quality, battery life, clunky power adapter, some streaking of photos

The Bottom Line: 
Lots of fun and a unique technology in a super portable package.

Author's Review
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 figured out a trick to getting good prints consistently. Basically, each pack of paper comes with a cleaning/calibrating sheet that runs through the printer when you load the paper. I just keep the special sheet and run it through after every 3 printouts, or any time the printer hasn't been turned on for a few days. The prints come out consistently much, much nicer that way. Pictures printed from a digital camera turn out very nice compared to pictures from my Centro cell phone.

One last note: Zink offers a website where you can send your cellphone pics via sms and they will return an optimized image. Optional fun effects, such as frames and text, can also be applied. www.zink.com