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20MP Digital Camera + Prints? The Polaroid Pop - Review!
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Jun 22, 2024
It's like the good old days, except way better: The Polaroid Pop offers a 20MP camera that lets you take photos, create animated GIFs and record HD movies at 1080p, all with a big 4" touch screen. Like what you've captured? You can print it! Utilizing ZINK technology, the Polaroid Pop let's you create 3.5 x 4.25 photographic prints on the spot. No power cord needed. No Internet needed. Not enough? You can use it as a handy portable color printer from your computer or smartphone too. But there are some problems and issues too, as tech expert Dave Taylor from https://www.AskDaveTaylor.com/ found out after a few weeks of experimentation and testing. Check it on Amazon: https://amzn.to/2DGW6qv
View Video Transcript
0:00
An instant print camera like the good old days? Well, not exactly. But still, let's have a look
0:13
Dave Taylor here and I'm looking at this. Or maybe I should show it this way. I'm not sure
0:17
But this is the Polaroid Pop and it's a really interesting device. So, at its most basic
0:23
it's an HD 20 megapixel digital camera with a really nice big screen on the back. This
0:29
is actually a four inch touch screen. And so, by itself, that's pretty cool. Good for kids
0:36
Big, obviously. You know, nice big form factor here. But it also has a built-in color printer
0:43
Really, no kidding. So, here's a picture that I printed. I took the picture with the camera and
0:49
then I printed it. So, as you can see, comes out pretty well. Here's a close-up because I know you
0:54
want to see that. But turns out that it actually just saves to an SD card. So, if you never ever
1:01
use this for prints, that would be okay because it's still a nice camera and really easy for
1:06
people to work with. Especially people that maybe are not quite so technically sophisticated
1:12
You can put into up to 128 gigabyte micro SD card. And like I said, it can take pictures at
1:19
a variety of resolutions up to 20 megapixels. And I say that and you're like, hmm, well, what does
1:25
that look like? So, here is an example. I just copied this picture using their app onto my
1:30
computer. And so, I've integrated it into this video. And here's an example of some video
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All of it actually looks really clean. You can see there's nothing to complain about there. And
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here's the thing, is that since it's a color printer, obviously, you can take pictures and
1:47
print them. But you can also print from other devices. So, I thought it would be kind of fun
1:52
to do just that. So, the interface is a little bit funky. But let me see if I can figure out
1:59
how to get us into print mode. Let's see. So, I'm going to leave this here. And then on the app
2:06
I'm going to step you through. So, on the app, let me go ahead and launch it. And as you can see
2:13
let's get to the right place. You have a gallery. So, you can see your pictures and videos and
2:20
animated GIFs and all that. And then there's this sort of... It's a little confusing. Because you
2:26
need to pair to the camera via Wi-Fi. And then once you've done that, you want to go back to
2:33
your regular Wi-Fi connection because you can go through the gallery in the app. And then you can
2:39
pick out an image. And then that image, you can request to print. So, let's see if I can get all
2:44
that to work properly. So, now I'm looking at the image I want to print. Now, this image is something
2:49
I took with a different camera. But that shouldn't matter, right? So, I'm going to request print
2:55
And let's see. Make sure you're connected. Let's go back and connect again. So, to connect
3:02
you have to go, like I said, into your Wi-Fi. And then you have to pick the camera which just shows
3:08
up. And let's see. Then I should be able to go to my picture and request print. And let's see what
3:20
happens this time. Ah! So, now it's printing. So, now we should be able to see... Oh! Lost connection
3:28
That was bad. I shouldn't have touched that button. Let's go and do it again. So, I'll go here and print
3:35
And there is a little bit of fiddling involved here. And it lost connection again. Well, let's
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see. See, this is a great thing about doing it live is that you really get to see exactly what's going
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on. So, let's go back to here. And let's go back into the app. And we'll try again. I've had this
3:57
work. Obviously, I've had printouts, right? So, print one more time. Fingers crossed it'll work
4:04
this time. Okay, we have transferring showing up on the camera. So, that's great. And now printing
4:10
one of one. But now, I want you to watch how long it takes. So, it's already starting the printout
4:16
process. And printouts come from the top. So, I'm going to hold it like this. So, hopefully
4:24
it won't mess up the printing process. Now, while this is printing, let me tell you
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it's using what's called Zinc technology. And the pictures come out at 3.5 by 4.25 inches
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And Zinc is pretty cool because there's no separate ink. There's no waving the print
4:42
If you remember from the old days with Polaroid, you had to sort of shake the printer out so that
4:48
the picture would actually have all the colors and everything. You don't have to do anything
4:51
like that with this, which is nice. So, 4-inch touchscreen, dual LED flash. It's 1080p full HD
4:59
video. Built-in Wi-Fi, obviously. And our picture is coming out. Pretty cool. And has an onboard
5:08
editing here. And you can put frames and stickers and you can play all sorts of stuff. It's really
5:14
it's kind of like for the Snapchat generation, but that's okay. It has a rechargeable battery
5:20
And once it's fully charged, it'll work for up to 50 prints. So, let's have a look and see
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I would say that's a pretty nice printout from my phone. So, pretty slick set up there. Now
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that seems to be enough that it's complaining of low battery, which is a bit of a drag because
5:41
I was just charging it. But you could also leave it plugged in for prints if you wanted to. Although
5:46
that sort of takes away some of the portability. So, you know, this is very much the experience
5:52
with the Polaroid Pop. There's a lot to really like about it. And frankly, I think it's really
5:57
cool just as a camera. But the whole sort of interface with the phone app and stuff, I really
6:03
wanted it to work better than it did. I really wanted error messages that were sensible when it
6:08
didn't work. I really wanted it to actually just once I had paired it initially, to have my phone
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as soon as I go into the app, immediately look for that and connect to it. I don't know, maybe
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that's beyond the ability of smartphones, but it's just, it's a little clumsy and you had to, just as
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we saw, go back and forth and connect and check to see if it's still connected and make sure that
6:30
it's here. Now, you can transfer photos and video and everything wirelessly onto your smart device
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and that's exactly what I did. So, that worked out great. But again, I wish all of that was just a
6:42
little smoother and maybe, I don't know, one more generation would do that. But frankly, you can also
6:47
pop out the micro SD card and you can just go and read everything off of there directly. So again
6:54
for kids, this could be really fun because you can just give this to them, maybe without any paper in
7:00
it. And you can just say, go and take pictures and print and videos and animated gifs and whatever
7:06
you want. Go have fun on board. You can delete things, you can edit things, you can do stickers
7:11
all that sort of stuff. And then the kids, you know, find their two favorite pictures and then
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those are what you print, right? So, that leads me to the paper. Now, when you buy the full set
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the standard Polaroid Pop comes with five photo paper pages. I don't know, five potential photographs
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That's all. Now, it turns out this stuff's kind of expensive. So, here's what you're most likely
7:39
going to get, which is 10 packs. And this gives you 10 sheets of print paper and it gives you this
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one color calibration thing, which you use, it ejects, you toss it. So, that's not a big deal
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or recycle it, hopefully. But this is $9.99 for 10 sheets. So, they're about, if not exactly
7:58
a dollar a print. So, you know, you're definitely paying for convenience. But the zinc has some nice
8:06
characteristics too, one of which is that it's water resistant and it's supposed to be color
8:10
fast. So, hopefully, you know, if you take pictures like this and then you put it on your wall, then
8:16
you come back in six months and the colors are staying the same and nothing's changed. That's
8:21
pretty important. And still, a buck per picture for this size picture, that's not inexpensive
8:28
But you're obviously paying for the convenience of being in the field, of being at the party
8:33
of wherever you want to be. You can just make a color printout. So, that's actually pretty darn
8:38
cool. And they are really good prints, I have to say. It does a really nice job. Now, you have to
8:46
fiddle a little bit. And I will say that Polaroid says this can work in lower light situations
8:53
Our experience with it is that you really want well-lit shots. You want it to be really bright
8:58
and really pop. And even with this print, if we look at the original, you know, the original is
9:04
definitely more color range and more dynamic than the print is. You could probably fiddle with the
9:10
settings a little bit to get it to be a little more vibrant. But if you're in a low light situation
9:15
like an episode of Game of Thrones, then it's probably not going to come out very well
9:20
in our experience. Your mileage may vary. Oh, so I said that this is 10 sheets for $9.99. They also
9:29
sell a 40-sheet pack for $38.04, which makes it what, like 98 cents per print? In any case, you
9:36
just want to think that it's a buck a print. So, if you want to supply something like this to your
9:40
kid's party, then you really, I would say, probably want the printouts to be done at the end. Let
9:47
people take tons of pictures and then they can vote and figure out like the five best photos and
9:53
then that's what they actually can print and share. Or maybe you just, again, use this as a camera and
9:59
it does a really nice job. It's got a really nice little CMOS sensor in there and so it's taking
10:05
good pictures. If you aren't finding that with yours, it might be that you just have it at the
10:10
wrong settings. If it's a five megapixels, you're not getting much information for an HD image
10:15
But, you know, use this just as a camera. Transfer everything onto your smartphone
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Email it to all the other parents. So, that's actually kind of cool too, right? So, still lots
10:25
of fun. And the paper goes in the bottom. You can see there's actually some sheets of paper in there
10:31
now. And the camera comes with a bunch of different color options. So, if you don't like this sort of
10:39
I don't know, lime green, then it also comes in black and blue and yellow and pink and white. So
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you can pick the color that most describes or matches your personality. How fun is that
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And you're ready to rock and roll. So, the only thing left to talk about really is the price. And
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before we get there, if I can ask for you to subscribe to my channel. I really appreciate
11:01
when you do that. Great. Now, the Polaroid Pop with hand strap and charging cable and a sort of
11:11
starter pack of five sheets of photo paper will cost you $199.99 at amazon.com. And, you know
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read through the comments and reviews people have. It's kind of a mixed bag, but I've looked through
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a lot of the negative reviews and I feel like people don't spend the time to figure out how
11:30
to use this device. My impression after using it for a while and trying a lot of different settings
11:36
is that there's a lot to like here, but it's going to reward you spending a little time. And, of
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course, having it be a little better and smoother on its connectivity with the app would be a big
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win. So with that, I will catch you in my next video
#Camera & Photo Equipment
#Gadgets & Portable Electronics
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