Kodak Mini 2 HD Instant Photo Printer - Review 2022

Earlier this year, we looked at the Kodak Photo Printer Mini, a portable snapshot photograph printer that, like the highly rated HP Sprocket, or the Polaroid Insta-Share, churns out small photos (in this instance 2 by iii.4 inches, or concern card size). The problem for the Mini, though, is that, at half-dozen inches long—or an inch or so longer than these other models—it's only large enough not to be all that miniature.

Kodak has fired back with its new Kodak Mini 2 Hd Instant Photo Printer ($99.99). While information technology yet prints 2-by-three.4-inch photos (other photo printers of its ilk print 2-by-3-inch pics), it'south nigh an inch shorter than the original Mini, and very close to the Lifeprint 2x3 Hyperphoto Printer and its other competitors in size and girth. And, much like its predecessor and the other portable photograph printers, it prints passable photos. The output, however, isn't most as good as photos printed on a few closely priced five- and six-ink consumer-grade photo printers from Canon and Epson.

Shrinking the Mini

At ane by three by 5.two inches (HWD) and weighing eight.iv ounces (the same weight as the original Mini), the Mini two comes in either all-white or all-black, and is closer in length to the Polaroid Insta-Share. The HP Sprocket is nearly an inch shorter and weighs about 2.5 ounces less than the Mini two. Though it may not audio similar much, that inch or and then makes a lot of difference when toting the device effectually—peculiarly if you're carrying information technology in your pocket.

Like the other pocket photo printers mentioned here, the Mini 2 works wirelessly from but your iOS- or Android-equipped smartphone or tablet. It has very little by style of a control panel—just a power push button and 2 status LEDs (On and Connected) on the left edge, and there's a mini-USB port, a Reset button and a charging status LED on the back border.

The right edge opens upwards to reveal a compartment where the combination ink and paper consumable cartridges become. The Mini two is a thermal-dye-sublimation (oftentimes called dye-sub) printer. With dye-sub machines, the ink is solid until impress time, which, in this case, occurs when your mobile device starts sending data to the printer. You go a cartridge with enough ink and newspaper to print eight photos in the box. In contrast, the HP Sprocket, the Lifeprint 2x3, and its sibling, the Lifeprint 3x4.5 (stay tuned for the full review), and the Polaroid Insta-Share are all zilch-ink, or ZINK printers. That means that they don't use ink, per se; instead at that place are particles of colors that reside inside the photo paper until activated past the printer.

Printed pictures come out of the front end of the Mini 2 via a slot that runs the length of the front edge. The Mini two'due south impress engine uses a method that Kodak calls 4Pass, because the photo newspaper makes four passes over the printhead. During each laissez passer, the paper comes out through the output slot, and information technology's pulled dorsum into the printer. On the beginning pass, the printer lays downward yellow ink; then, on the next pass, magenta; on the third pass, cyan; and on the fourth laissez passer, a clear coat that brings out the highlights and protects the image is applied.

The clear coat also makes the ink, to a reasonable degree, waterproof. To test this, I sprinkled water on one of my examination images, without any noticeable issue, so, I got a trivial bolder and held the photo under the running faucet for a second or so—again, the ink didn't wash away, but the paper on the dorsum of the impress volition get soggy and damaged if it gets too wet.

Connecting the Mini 2

Depending on the capabilities of your smartphone or tablet, y'all tin connect to the Kodak Mini 2 using one of four wireless protocols: Wi-Fi, Wi-Fi Direct, nearly-field advice (NFC), and Bluetooth. I tested all four methods from a Samsung Galaxy J7 running Android 7.one.1. Wi-Fi Direct and NFC are peer-to-peer networking protocols that allow you to connect your mobile devices to the printer without either them or it being connected to a network or router. Bluetooth, too, is a router-less protocol, merely unlike Wi-Fi Direct and NFC, which are one-to-one connection types, Bluetooth is one-to-many.

During my tests, I found that the easiest way to connect to the printer by far was NFC. I simply laid my phone on top of the Mini 2. Earlier the smartphone rested itself completely on elevation of the printer, the Kodak Mini 2 app launched, and a 2d or and so later, the phone and the printer were connected. After that, information technology was merely a affair of selecting and press my photos, from either the Google Gallery app, or by pressing the Connect button and selecting 1 of half-dozen supported cloud or social media sites: Facebook, Instagram, Google Photo, FotoRus, Photo Wonder, and Snapseed.

Bluetooth was the next easiest protocol for connecting to the printer and and then printing without a lot of fuss, with Wi-Fi and Wi-Fi Straight running an even third in simplicity to connect. Of the iv protocols, all the same, NFC is the merely one that was a little unreliable to really use. At least three times during my testing, even though the Kodak app showed that my smartphone and the Mini ii were still continued, I couldn't print. The app displayed a "Printing" message, but information technology just hung in that location until I rebooted and reconnected the Mini ii to the phone.

The Mini 2 tin can be powered past either a ability adapter (not included) similar to the one that came with your smartphone or tablet (the latter will charge it faster than the former), or via a charging USB port on your desktop PC or laptop (the slowest method) with the included cable. In any instance, Kodak says that the Mini 2 takes 1.5 hours to charge, and that each charge is expert for about 20 prints. My tests proved the former to be truthful, depending on the charger I used (an iPad adapter charged much faster than my PC); unfortunately, the latter proved to also be true. Twenty photos per charge seems miserly, but that's all it takes to drain the Mini 2's 620mAh battery.

The Kodak Mini 2 App

The Kodak Mini 2 app is nearly identical to the software that comes with the original Kodak Mini. The opening screen offers you several choices, including Camera, Gallery, for accessing the photos saved on your smartphone or tablet (Apple iOS devices accept slightly unlike options), and Connect, for accessing the cloud and social media sites mentioned earlier.

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After you open an image, you lot can choose to either print it or edit it. The editing options are robust. They include: Adjust, for irresolute brightness, contrast, saturation, and color levels; Filters, for applying enhancements; Decorate, for calculation text, borders, airbrushing, and stickers, such as hearts and stars; and several other editing and enhancement features. Yous besides get several templates to plough your photos into business cards, greeting cards, or to simply add decorative frames.

Print Speed and Output Quality

Of the portable photograph printers we've looked at recently, the Mini ii is one of the slower ones, at an average of nigh 1 infinitesimal 20 seconds per print. It's well-nigh 2 seconds slower than its predecessor, the Kodak Mini, 38 seconds slower than the HP Sprocket, which prints 2-past-3-inch photos, as does the Lifeprint 2x3, which is about 50 seconds faster than the Mini 2.

In terms of quality, near of these devices print, well, okay photos, but a lack of blackness ink causes them to come out with less depth, peculiarly in images that incorporate a lot of black. In the case of the Mini 2, I printed 28 photos, using all the consumables Kodak sent me—8 inside the printer out of the box, and the 20-pack the company included with the review unit of measurement.

From those 28 prints, epitome quality was a mixed bag. In a few photos containing people, for instance, I noticed color shifts where some mankind tones came out with a pink or an orange tinge, and several of the photos were short on detail. That's not to say that the Mini 2's output looked bad. It didn't. But information technology was far from perfect, equally was the 2-by-iii-inch output from the other portable photo printers I've looked at lately.

Cost Per Photograph

Kodak offers three unlike sizes of consumable packs for the Mini two: a twenty-pack, a 30-pack, or a 50-pack. Based on the company's advertised yield sizes and prices, I calculated the cost per photo at 75 cents, 73 cents, and 70 cents, respectively. Kodak also offers a 20-pack of 2-by-3-inch adhesive-backed paper that lets you lot plough your photographs into stickers, for $19.99, which comes out to well-nigh $1 per print.

These running costs are about the aforementioned as those of the preceding Kodak Mini, and most 20 cents higher than the HP Sprocket and the Polaroid Insta-Share. Information technology likewise runs nigh 17 cents higher per print than the Lifeprint 2x3 .

Is Smaller Better?

Frankly, aside from its price, its size, and the size of its consumables cartridges, there are not a lot of differences betwixt the Kodak Mini 2 HD Instant Photo Printer and its predecessor, the Kodak Photo Printer Mini. Print quality and impress times are about the same, equally are the prices of the paper-and-ink cartridges. Granted, that 0.8-inch difference in length does indeed make it easier to carry around with you, and the Mini 2 is closer in size to its competitors. That makes it a better choice than the previous Mini.

As for overall print quality, the Mini 2 is slightly better than its ZINK competitors, just Lifeprint's hyperphoto technology that allows you to (virtually) turn stills in to short movie clips makes it a more than interesting production. If y'all don't heed the higher running costs, the Kodak Mini 2 is a fine choice for printing small snapshots and stickers on the route.