The pocket printshop shrinks again

The LG Pocket Photo PD239 is a compact mobile printer that makes printing photos from your smart phone fun. It’s easily carried in a shirt pocket – it’s only 76x126x20mm, 4mm thinner than the original in this series, and weighs only 221 grams.

What you get is Polaroid-like photos, 2x3 inches in size at a good resolution of 313dpi. The built-in rechargeable battery handles up to 30 photos per charge.

You can pick up the pictures from your phone or tablet using a Bluetooth connection, with NFC (near-field communication) technology ensuring the linkage.

There’s no ink cartridge. Instead, thermal technology raises the images in special paper from Zero Ink – no actual ink or any ribbons necessary.

Zero Ink’s Zink Paper is an advanced material composed of multiple layers of colour-forming chemistry, including cyan, yellow, and magenta dye crystals. The layers are “stacked” thinly onto a base and finished with a protective polymer overcoat to keep out moisture and UV light. The colouring takes place between the layers, which, combined, are the thickness of a single human hair.

Inside the Pocket Photo printer is a mechanism containing micro-heaters that activates the dye crystals in the Zink Paper, so it develops like a Polaroid. 

The photos aren’t quite as clear and defined as what you get from a professional print shop, but they’re good enough to generate smiles and good cheer at social gatherings.

The PD239 has a chamber inside for holding pieces of Zink paper. The printed photo will come out on the top side.

If your phone has NFC technology, you simply tap the NFC logo on the cover of the printer to download and install the latest Pocket Photo app from LG. Tap the logo on the printer while viewing any photo within the app and it will be automatically sent for printing. 

If you don’t have NFC, you just link via Bluetooth to the printer and then manually order a print from the phone.

The transmission speed depends on the size of the photo, but it won’t take long for a photo taken with your phone. I tested it using photos taken with a proper camera so the files were large. Nevertheless, it was only about 16 seconds before the printing began, and the printing process itself took another minute.

The Pocket Photo app lets you jazz up your shots first, using filters or adding frames. You can also add a QR code. The prints come out a bit dark, so you should first boost the brightness.

LG Pocket Photo 2.0 is available in pink, white and lime with a suggested retail price of Bt4,490.

 

KEY SPECS

 

Mobile technology supported: iOS (iPhone/iPad), Android (Mobile/Tablet), Windows Phone8

Bluetooth: v4.0

NFC tagging: Yes

Printer engine resolution: 313dpi

Printer engine speed: 60 seconds

Built-in battery: Li-Polymer (7.4V, 500mA), charges in 60 minutes

Picture Format: Jpeg, PNG

Port: micro USB (v2.0)

Size: 76x126x20mm

Weight: 221g