Beautifully designed and feature rich, the Prynt Pocket has a lot going for it. Print quality and price might be your only deterrents.

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Prynt Pocket

There are a plethora of mobile phone cases and attachments from telephoto lenses to multi toolkits. Prynt hopes to make their mark by bringing instant printing, along with the 2018 way of spelling their company name, to your mobile phone. Did the world need this? Let's find out.

Prynt Pocket Specifications

  • Colors: Mint green / Cool grey / Graphite / Lavender
  • Interface: Lightning connector
  • Media Capacity: 10 Sheets
  • Media Type: ZINK photo paper
  • Charging Port: microUSB
  • Supported OS: iOS
  • Phone Required: iPhone 5 or newer
  • Device Price: $150
  • Paper Price: $15 - 20 Pack / $40 - 40 Pack / $30 - 60 Pack / $35 per month - Unlimited
  • Print Size: 2" x 3"

The Device

Beautifully packaged in the box, you'll find the Prynt Pocket, the magazine which holds the included ten sheets of paper, and a micro USB cable to charge the device. The Prynt Pocket itself makes for a fantastic camera grip. It feels really well built and has a grippy rubber texture which makes it a pleasure to hold. The shutter button on the top is clickey and tactile, and the sliding mechanism feels sturdy. On the top, you will also find the LED charging indicator and magazine slot.

Thankfully the lightning connector is flexible which means it isn't prone to breaking and if you have a regular phone case, you won't have to remove it to connect your phone to the Prynt Pocket. On the bottom of the device is the micro USB charging port and the slot where the prints are produced.

While the device is lightweight, it is a little on the hefty side. It's not going to be something you're going to be able to carry around in your pockets unless you're wearing an overcoat.

Getting Started

Head over to the App Store and pick up the Prynt App. The first thing it will require you to do is to create an account and grant the app access to your camera, library, and microphone. Granted, there will be some objections here, but hopefully, the social media integration and in-app photography bring some added value to your new printing workflow.

Now the device will require some assembly. First, you'd need to charge the device which takes around three hours. Now put the ten sheets of paper into the magazine, and insert the magazine into the Prynt. While this may sound a little easy, getting the orientation right is a bit confusing. Fortunately, the app provides an excellent video tutorial to help put everything together. Awesome!

Now the astute amongst you may have realized that Prynt hasn't any included any ink. That's because the Prynt actually utilizes zero ink or Zink technology. Zink is a printing technology that doesn't require any cartridges and can print full-color pictures in a single pass.

The paper has several layers including all the colors. The paper used in the Prynt is also marketed as being fade and tear resistant. It's also adhesive backed which means you will be able to stick your prints in something like a custom photo book if you enjoy scrapbooking.

The App

The app is equally well designed and has everything you need to print the perfect picture. The flow is similar to other social media services with the difference being the option to print at the end before sharing.

You simply select a picture and add some embellishments in the form of a frame or other filters. You can also make some basic adjustments like fixing exposure, contrast, and cropping. Adding a frame with some handwritten styled text to the bottom of a picture transported me back to the Poloraid heyday.

Once your picture is perfectly edited and cropped you're now ready to do some printing. Hit the print button, and in about 30 seconds you can revel in the glory that is instant printing. Because your print is adhesive backed, you can now stick it pretty much anywhere. The prints are also fortunately small enough to keep in your wallet.

The Prynt's Party Trick

At this point, the Prynt has accomplished what its forefathers had done many years ago bar the ephemeral nature of the printed pictures. There is, however, one significant difference to what the Prynt Pocket offers. Bringing your photographs to life, with sound!

Augmented reality has been something that Apple has been pushing forth with since the launch of the iPhone X. Prynt's implementation of this is fantastic. In the app, you have the option of printing a video or live photo. There is also an option to add a video to a static photo in the form of a story.

Once the print comes out, it looks no different to a regular print. But viewing the print from within the scan tab of the app reveals the pictures hidden secret.

If you're a Harry Potter fan, this is reminiscent of the moving pictures in the newspapers. You're able to play up to four pictures, which sounds kind of weird, simultaneously. Prynt actually links the Prynt you've taken and stores the video in the cloud. What this means is that you could hand this photo to anyone and as long as they have the Prynt app, they will be able to view the embedded video.

The last bit of functionality comes in the form of recording your augmented reality experience and sharing it on social media. Heading over to the discover section within the app demonstrates how creative some other Prynt owners are.

The Print Quality

Unfortunately, this is the chink in the Prynt's armor. Looking at the prints produced by the printer you'd notice a stark difference between what you see on your mobile phone screen. Images are washed out, the added text is somewhat blurred, and you can't help but feel that it could be better.

Searching on the internet, you will find that other printers that use Zink technology also seem to have similar results. If the print quality is indeed down to the paper and not the Prynt Pocket itself, this might be a good thing. Hopefully, in the future, they release an updated paper that will increase the overall quality.

Speaking of the paper, the pricing can be seen as a little on the extravagant side. That being said, Prynt is the only company (that I've come across) that offers an unlimited paper option. This is done through a subscription-based model in their store, and they will top up your paper once it reaches a certain threshold. If you're a serial printer, this will be more cost-effective in the long run. If you're more akin to ad-hoc printing, it may be worth exploring some other options on the market.

The Verdict

The Prynt Pocket is not going to be for everyone, but there is definitely an audience that is going to love the device. Younger people and people who enjoy scrapbooking are going to love this device. There's still something special about holding a physical print in your hand and having it come to life makes it even more magical. The prints are small enough to keep in your wallet and are sure to impress people once they see the magic of the live pictures.

The beautiful, easy to use app and its functionality paired with the well built Prynt Pocket make it an excellent product for the target audience. It's not the smallest device around, but it is nonetheless portable which adds to its value. Pulling out a print from your wallet and bringing it to life is sure to astound!