Polaroid GL10 Portable Printer

The basics

The Polaroid GL10 is a portable printer that works without the need for ink. It's almost small enough to fit in your pocket, so you really can take it everywhere you go.

The good

The Polaroid GL10 is a portable printer that works without the need for ink. It's almost small enough to fit in your pocket, so you really can take it everywhere you go.

The Polaroid GL10 prints photographs measuring 4 x 3 inches. It uses zink (zero-ink) technology, so there's no need to buy ink cartridges – all you need to pay for is paper, with packs of compatible sheets working out at 50p per print.

There's a lithium ion battery in the Polaroid GL10, and it offers around 35 prints from each charge. It takes around a minute to print out each of your photograph.

You'll be able to hook up devices in a variety of ways, including PictBridge, Bluetooth and USB. There are apps available for BlackBerry, Android and Nokia, letting you print from your mobile phone, and it's all very easy to use.

Colour and contrast is relatively good – it's certainly an improvement on previous zero-ink printers.

The bad

Although photograh quality is better than older printers, it still falls short of regular inkjet options, lacking the brighter and more detailed tones.

There's also no app available from Apple, so iPhone users won't be able to print directly from their handsets.

The bottom line

Whether you like the Polaroid GL10 depends almost entirely on just how portable you need your printer to be. If you need the smallest device possible, while still printing out decent sized snaps, it's worth a look. If you can opt for something slightly larger, however, you'll get better quality from an inkjet printer.