Smile! With the end of year celebrations, the next few weeks will be conducive to bursts of photos. Preventing your best New Year’s Eve snaps from ending up buried in the memory of your smartphones is the vocation of the new Bluetooth printer Instax Square Link from Fujifilm. And to go further, the little machine also offers new editing functions through an application. 20 minutes has tested it and reveals its advantages and disadvantages.
Discreet and autonomous
Instax Mini Link, Instax Link Wide… Fujifilm completes its range of mobile printers with the Instax Square Link. This small Bluetooth printer prints photos instantly on 86 x 72 mm paper. The photo fills a square space of 62 x 62 mm. Available in “Ash White” and “Midnight Green” colours, the printer operates on mains or battery power (with an autonomy of 100 prints). The size and weight of the small machine* are minimal. We can therefore take it to Grandpa and Grandma for Christmas, and on New Year’s Eve on the 31st to Tom and Lisa, no problem!
New interactions
Observation: the quality of the photos is there, with toned colors, rather well balanced, and a very acceptable level of detail for this type of device. But if it is possible to do some editing before printing (such as adding monochrome or sepia filters); correct brightness, contrast and saturation; to crop its image and superimpose texts, emoticons, stickers and drawings, the instax Link Wide goes a little further.
How ? Through the new Instax Connect function, his application allows him to personalize your photos with messages in superimposed bubbles. The principle is simple: you select an image, add a small comment (which is automatically placed at the top, on the left, of the photo), then send it to the person of your choice by SMS, e-mail or WhatsApp. Your correspondent then receives a link to download the image.
He responds in turn, with a few words that will also find their place in a bubble on the photo. By pressing a simple button, it only remains to send you the image. It’s up to you to print it! A nice interactivity that will undoubtedly have its small effect. Thus, the process offers quite original results to freeze in time and at a distance between two people a moment immortalized on glossy paper.
Augmented reality that dazzles
Another innovation with the AR Print function. The idea here is to associate visual elements in augmented reality with a photo. There are many (Special effects, background filters, squiggles, animated text…). An automatically generated QR Code will be affixed to the image. When photographed on the printed photo, the image will come to life on the screen of any smartphone (provided you have the Square Link application), with the animations previously chosen. Frankly playful (as you will see in the video of this article), offering countless possibilities designed for all occasions, this AR Print mode has plenty to delight the youngest. Fujifilm has gone all out to attract its customers. But make him pay, too, the price of these little novelties.
0.89 euro minimum photo
Sold for 149 euros, the Instax Square Link printer must be powered by paper sold in packs of 10, 20 or 50 views. Cost price on the manufacturer’s website: respectively 0.99 euro, 0.94 euro and 0.89 euro. 0.94 euro is also the price of the print (per pack of 20 views) made with the Instax Link Wide printer. Also sold at 149 euros, it prints however in a larger format: 62 x 99 mm (against 62 x 62 mm for the Instax Square Link). But its application is less complete. It is therefore necessary to think carefully before equipping yourself…
More economical rivals
And if you are looking for a Bluetooth printer to give away for the holidays, we can recommend two others that we have tested. First the little Hi-Print, from Polaroid. Printing in credit card format (54 x 86 mm), its photos can be personalized with texts, logos and… up to 69 filters (the printer is sold for 99 euros, count from 0.84 per photo, with packs of 20 sheets).
Another option: the Selphy CP1500 from Canon. More classic, with its photos printed in 10 x 15 cm format, it is Wifi, can print from a smartphone or an SD card. His photos are larger and will suit a wider clientele. They are above all much cheaper: from 0.37 euro per view if you buy the sheets in packs of 50 views. Downside: sold for 139 euros, the Selphy CP1500 only works on the mains. Its optional battery is marketed at the crazy price of 189 euros…
* 3.75 x 10.5 x 12.75 cm for 237 grams.