According to Kodak, the onboard battery charges in about 90 minutes and lasts long enough to produce 25 prints. While, as I said, the printer has a mini USB port for charging, Bluetooth is its only connectivity option.
In any case, you start by pairing the device to your phone or tablet via Bluetooth, after which you can download and install the Kodak Photo Printer app that lets you print images from your device's storage or your favorite cloud site.
The Mini 3 Retro software supports both Android and iOS mobile devices-i.e., smartphones and tablets-but, like many photo printer apps, is designed to run only on handhelds and doesn't support Windows or macOS laptops or desktops. (Zero-ink printers use special paper infused with colors released by the printer's application of heat.) Kodak says that, with proper storage, images from the device should last for up to a century.
(We'll look more closely at consumables and running costs in a minute.) The dye-sub cartridges slide in and out of a compartment at the bottom edge of the printer.Īs mentioned, the dye-sub printer makes four passes-laying down cyan, magenta, and yellow ink, plus a clear coat that helps colors pop and protects the image from fingerprints and dust. The printer comes preloaded with enough ink and paper to print eight images. Photo paper and the dye-sub ink ribbon cartridges load into a compartment accessed by opening the side. As with most pocket photo printers, the Mini 3 Retro's images exit a slot on the front edge. On the back edge of the printer, you'll find a mini USB port for powering and charging, and your printed photos roll out of a slot on the front edge, as shown here. Otherwise, the Mini 3 Retro is a simple device. The 3-by-3-inch square format is less than half the size of its 4-by-6-inch competitors. But then, it prints 3-inch-square images, against those models' 4-by-6-inch snapshots. Versus other pocketable dye-sub photo printers like the HP Sprocket Studio and the Canon Selphy CP1300, the Kodak is small. You have your choice of three colors-white, yellow, or black-and two bundles, the kit reviewed here with 68 sheets of media or a cheaper ($141.99) package that comes with only eight sheets. The Mini 3 Retro measures 1 by 5 by 4 inches and weighs just under a pound.
Dye-sub printers and their four-pass imaging process usually produce photos superior to those of their Zink rivals, and its handsome output and low running costs render the Mini 3 Retro an excellent take-it-anywhere photo printer and our latest Editors' Choice award winner in the category. Like the HP Sprocket Studio, the Kodak printers use dye-sublimation (commonly called dye-sub) imaging technology, instead of inkjet or the zero-ink (Zink) process of other Sprocket and competitive models.
Kodak's Mini 3 Retro Portable Printer ($156.99) is a snapshot photo printer that prints on 3-by-3-inch square media, as opposed to the 2-by-3.4-inch paper of the Kodak Mini 2 HD Instant Photo Printer reviewed here in April 2018. Best Hosted Endpoint Protection and Security Software.