Joined in 2023 
82 
63 About this deal
We have to say, if you are looking for a small portable printer to carry anywhere, the practical choice is the Polaroid Zip, as it performed well in every category. But if you want the best print quality possible, sacrificing slightly in size and cost per photo, then the clear winner is the Canon SELPHY Square QX10. So how does it work? Simply insert the Instax Mini film and open up the printer. Then turn the brightness of your iPhone to full, and place your iPhone on top of the printer. Push the button, turn the crank and watch your pictures roll out. This simplicity makes this the cheapest iPhone printer on our list, although note that the Instax film is quite costly. When it comes to software support, you’ll find the Polaroid Mint app is compatible with both iOS and Android operating systems. In other words, you don’t have to worry about Polaroid having compatibility conflicts with your smartphones, tablets, laptops, and so forth. Though you won’t find specific compatibility for Windows phones, work-around solutions are possible for more advanced users. Images from your iPhone can be moved, rotated, and zoomed in/out before printing, although you don't get any other editing features. Meanwhile, the camera itself sports a 28mm f/2, has a 4.9MP sensor, and lets you store up to 45 images internally, or more if you add a microSD card. There's a built-in flash, and a self-timer, and you can shoot as close as 10cm from your subject. The simplest way of connecting your iPhone to this printer is via NFC (near-field communication). That might sound technical, but in practice, it means you just have to lie your iPhone on top of the printer and the free iOS app will launch automatically.
The Mint’s battery is recharged with a standard USB charging cable and USB port, and the Mint is built around a sizeable 900mAh lithium-polymer battery. It’s supposed to be able to print all about 40 sheets from a single charge, which is very nearly the entire film capacity of the device. Few people should find 40-prints to be limiting, especially given the slightly prohibitive cost of the photo paper. No, these portable printers are designed to work with smart devices such as your phone –and, in the case of the Instax Mini LiPlay, to print directly from its integrated camera as well. Do I need a physical cable to connect to the printer? There’s no charging the Kiipix Portable Mini Printer, nor any need to plug it in. Simply load it with Instax Mini film, place your phone face down on the scanner (with the brightness cranked all the way up – trust us), use the reflective mirror to ensure it’s properly aligned, and then you can manually crank out the prints yourself.These printers all come with special kinds of paper, so you’ll want to consider what kind of pictures you want to print out. The standard size picture is 2x3, but some can print bigger. The Mini LiPlay prints photos in 12 seconds, and you can print 100 photos on a single charge. Note that they're the same tiny size (1.8 x 2.4in) as the Fujifilm Instax Mini Link, number 5 on our list. The Kiipix Portable Mini Printer folds up easily, making it lovely and portable. And if you're the sort of person who often forgets to charge your devices, this is one iPhone printer that won't give you that worry. How do iPhone printers work?
Think about why you want to print pictures on the move. Do you want the absolute best image quality? Choose a dye-sublimation printer. Do you want the cheapest prints, regardless of quality? Go for a Zink printer. Do you want the coolest prints? You'll probably want an Instax-based printer. If you want something easy to use, the Kodak Mini 2 is a good choice. Its accompanying iOS app makes it super simple to print out pictures from your iPhone, plus it's compatible with all iPhones running iOS 8.0 and above. Overall, this is a quirky yet intriguing little device, and we're not sure how many people would find its unique combination of features useful. But if you're one of them, then it does what it promises, very well.Bluetooth also makes this printer incredibly easy to setup. The process is arguably easier than plugging in a cable. Once you run through the setup wizard, you’ll have prints streaming out in under one minute. Assuming you want to edit your prints, it might take a couple moments longer than that. This depends on the printer. The Instax Link series uses actual instant film (the same as you put in Instax film cameras) to produce an authentic instant print. This is a definite stylistic choice, giving you a low-detail, low-fidelity, analog quality that can't be achieved on traditional printers, but comes at a cost –as instant film is pretty pricey. Finally, there are instant film cameras, which use the same film that you find inside instant cameras. This can be pretty costly though. For more details, see our article. what type of instant film do I need?
These printers operate wirelessly, using WiFi or Bluetooth technology –or, in the case of the Kiipix, using a mirror! What paper do these printers take? Of course, in practice, we all know that these things don't always work perfectly, for all manner of reasons. So it's great that this printer also has three other ways to connect to your iPhone, via Wi-Fi, Wi-Fi Direct, or Bluetooth. With this range of options, you're sure to get it working with the minimum of fuss.
Some of these printers allow you to edit and add filters before printing. Some can even attach to your phone and print automatically. Consider if you want any extra features with your printer when choosing one. How We Selected It uses Zink paper, which means you don't have to add ink, but on the downside this means the picture quality isn't the best," says Tom May in our review. "Still, if you just want to hand out mementos at a social event, it's still a good choice, and it would make a fun gift for kids too." It records sound too. And of course, you can connect it to your iPhone and print photos from there as well. You can also control the camera via your iPhone if you need to do some remote shooting. So you really do have the best of all worlds.
From a hardware perspective, the majority of the heavy lifting behind these print-tasks is being done by the print paper. Though when it comes to the hardware necessary to deliver quality color prints, Polaroid does not disappoint. In fact, color is almost synonymous with their brand.In addition to its wireless connection options, the Mint actually supports MicroSD cards up to 256GB. That leaps over the 128GB limit still widely used by most comparable devices, and it means you’re not totally at the mercy of your Bluetooth connection. Even the best iPhone printers generally need to be charged. But with the Kiipix Portable Mini Printer, you don't have to. You just have to crank it manually to get prints out, so no batteries or electricity are needed. The Instax Mini LiPlay is not marketed specifically as a portable printer, so this one may be easy to miss. Instead, it's one of a new breed of hybrid digital instant cameras that offer the functionality of an instant camera, a digital camera, and a portable printer in the same device. Since the technology is basically the same across all of these devices, you'd think the results would be similar, but we found a surprising amount of variation when we tested different cameras and printers. Below are our top recommendations for Zink-based cameras and printers.
Great Deal 
New Comment