- [Michael] History lesson.
80 years ago, a company called Polaroid started right
here in Cambridge, Mass, where its special polarization
technology soon found its way into products
across the country and across the globe.
Everything from glare-free desk lamps, to sunglasses.
That work later led to military contracts, including
pilot goggles, spy satellites, and even a special
synthetic quinine for treating malaria.
Well it turns out that that chemical
was useful in photography.
And over the next 40 years,
that's where Polaroid built its empire.
With instant cameras that didn't need a darkroom
to develop their film.
Flash forward to 2017 and this accessory doesn't use
any of the technology (chuckles) I just talked about.
And what's more, the brand on it has been bought and sold
so many times, it's basically meaningless.
But, two things tie this moto mod to its roots.
It still produces instant photos you can hold
and it uses technology that got its start
inside Polaroid to do it.
I'm MrMobile and this is the
Polaroid Insta-share Printer review.
(techno music)
By now you've probably seen a moto mod in action.
It's an accessory that slaps onto the back of a Moto Z
smartphone to charge it up or to give it a louder speaker
or give it a 360 camera, there's tons of 'em.
The Insta-Share Printer works just like most.
It's powered by its own internal battery and it incorporates
hidden magnets that stick it firmly
to the phone's back plate.
When the phone detects the mod for the first time,
it prompts you to download the Polaroid app to control it.
It tells you to load in the special ZINK paper,
we'll come back to that, and then you get a quick run-down
of how the app works.
After you take a snapshot, you can add custom frames, dopey
stickers and emoji, and play with the colors until it looks
just the way you want it.
Then, you hit print.
And about 15 seconds later, you've got a little mini picture
that you can stick to stuff.
Now I'm mainly a digital photo guy, and that's probably true
for most of you as well, otherwise (chuckles) the digital
revolution that killed Polaroid never would've
come about in the first place.
But, the resurgence of physical photos is a real thing.
For the past few years, I've seen more and more
instant cameras at parties.
And it's novel, you know, even if you didn't grow up with
physical Polaroids, you can see how having an immediate
paper copy of a picture is a lot of fun.
Now, here's where it gets cool from a geeky perspective.
This is a pretty incredible piece of technology.
See the ZINK logo down here in the corner?
That brand name comes from the fact that
this printer uses zero ink.
Instead, the magic happens inside the paper, which contains
layers of amorpha chromic dyes that start out colorless.
When a specific level of heat is applied for a specific
length of time, the crystals inside those dyes melt into
either cyan, magenta, or yellow.
While the printing process might seem kind of pokey at
about 15 seconds, it becomes a lot more impressive when you
realize that a single 2x3 inch print
takes 200
million distinct pulses of heat,
arranging from 100 to 200 degrees Celsius.
The resulting print is dry to the touch,
and even water resistant assuming you'd wipe it off quickly.
And the mod's battery lasts for about two packs
of print paper before you need to recharge it.
As I mentioned before, this technology was actually
developed within Polaroid in the 1990s.
And when the company's financial troubles started,
it spun it off as a separate entity and some of the same
folks who developed it, continue to work there today.
It's oddly satisfying to see this technology,
initially invented inside Polaroid,
find itself back inside one of those products again.
But, it's important not to expect the quality
of the true Polaroid out of this product.
The biggest downside I've experienced is reliability.
Sometimes the app just doesn't think the mod is connected
even when it is, and it takes a few tries
to get everything working again.
That could be a real pain at a party.
The photos it produces don't have a lot of
vibrance or contrast either, so right out of the printer,
they kinda look like they've been sitting in the sun
for a few weeks.
Also, because the whole printing process
relies on thermal reactions, the mod won't work in
temperature extremes, like the 24 degree day
we just had here in Cambridge.
Some might consider the paper a little pricey.
After you blow through the ten pack that comes in the box,
you'll pay between 30 and 50 cents a sheet.
And, the mod itself is expensive, I think.
If you missed the holiday sale for $149, you'll pay $200.
I cross-shopped the mod against similar products from
Polaroid Print and Fuji Film and I found that
prices varied a lot, from 60 bucks all the way up to $200.
Now, the advantage to those other printers
is that they're universal.
You can use them with any Android or iPhone
because they connect wirelessly.
So, if you don't carry a Moto Z,
well your decision (chuckles) is made for you,
get one of those.
If you do carry a Moto Z though, this is one of those
accessories that really validates Motorola's
approach to modular phones.
It brings a feature you won't use often, but when you do,
it saves you from having to buy a whole new camera.
A camera that could be worse
than what's in the Moto Z series.
You don't have to fight with Bluetooth
or wait for wireless transfers, you just slap
the mod on there, shoot and print, most of the time.
And, rather than confine you to new photos,
like a stand alone camera would,
the mod lets you print any photo
you've ever taken or downloaded.
Whether that's worth 200 or even 150 bucks, is dicey.
Especially given the reliability problems.
Once again, I feel like Motorola has
missed the mark in pricing here.
Frankly, I don't think I'd buy it for myself.
But this being the holiday season, I have to admit that,
if someone were to buy it for me, I'd end up spending
more money on paper and sticking more photos on fridges
than I have since college.
If you don't have a Moto Z but think you might want one,
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Until next time folks, thanks for watching.
Please subscribe and stay mobile, my friends.