The printer’s accompanying software enhances your immediate prints with filters, templates, and other options. This instant film printer could be the answer if you’re sick of merely staring at photos on your phone’s screen or simply miss taking Polaroid pictures. The newest mobile photo printer from Fujifilm is a small, battery-operated device with one purpose: to transform your smartphone photos into tiny physical images on instant camera film. also you can check our article on Fujifilm Instax Link Wide review. It works somewhat similarly to an instant camera, which Fujifilm sells in large quantities, but you print photos from your phone and get to choose which ones to print. The third printer in the “Link” series, which offers more social-oriented capabilities than the conventional Instax Share SP-3, is the Instax Square Link. These traits are occasionally endearing but more frequently perplexing. The inexpensive Instax Square Link is a cute small picture printer that prints in squares similar to the old-school Polaroid format for plenty of nostalgic pleasure.
Fujifilm Instax Link Wide review: Design
Ash White and Mocha Gray are the two available colors for the Instax Link Wide. The printer’s matte plastic exterior has a textured appearance with a diagonal pattern. This does not feel like a toy or a kid’s Instax product, unlike some earlier models. The Instax Link Wide is still portable even if it makes prints that are bigger than those from previous Instax products. With a thickness of 33.7mm and a weight of 340g, it can easily fit inside a bag. Additionally, it includes a stand, allowing you to move it around the house while maintaining a tidy appearance. Additionally, you receive a wrist band for carrying it about. The device’s back has a loading area for the printer cartridges that is simple to open with a click. Ten prints can be made from a single pack of Instax Wide film. On the Instax Link Wide, the power button is situated front and Centre. When the printer is connected, charging, or printing, this changes colors to represent those conditions. The device has a Micro-USB port on the bottom for charging, and the necessary cable is included in the package. The printer charges slowly, taking around two hours to get from empty to full. The number of prints the device can produce on a single charge, according to Instax, varies depending on how long you leave the device turned on (such as if you are editing before printing).
Features
The ability to print photos straight onto Fujifilm’s instant film and in a considerably wider format than other smartphone printers is the Fujifilm Instax Link Wide printer’s most notable feature. The Wide Link printer requires the new Instax Wide film line, which is offered in monochrome, color, and formats with both black and white borders. also you will learn our article on Fujifilm Instax Link Wide review. The Instax Link WIDE app, which is available for iOS and Android, is necessary in order to use the printer, which is compatible with the majority of contemporary smartphones. The app works by allowing you to upload the desired image from your smartphone’s image gallery. From there, you can edit the image using tools like basic crop and exposure fixes, color filters, in-app stickers, emojis, editable templates, sketch transfer, and collage features to improve it and create your print. The ability to print QR codes onto photos that can link to a website, map location, audio recording, or hidden message is by far the coolest feature unique to the new Link Wide printer. One of the most exciting aspects of getting to examine this printer was the outstanding feature, which has countless applications. A collage we created with photos from our trip to Venice ended up being one of our favorite prints. The collage and template features of the Instax Link WIDE app were actually quite good. The collage capabilities of the software were simple to use and allowed me to modify each individual photograph before combining them into a collage, move around the image placements, adjust text fonts and colors, and more. When you get into the creative process of designing your print and making modifications, the customizable templates on offer actually work quite well and complimented our works pretty nicely. At first, they may appear a little simplistic and immature.
Fujifilm Instax Link Wide review: Photo quality
Instead of being printed, Instax film is developed, giving each size its own distinctive appearance. In terms of color, contrast, and exposure, the Instax Link Wide’s photographs are comparable to those of the Instax Mini, but because they are larger, they have a greater effect. You don’t need to worry as much about framing your subject because the film’s 3:2 aspect ratio is closer to the average ratio of a digital camera or smartphone than Polaroid’s square crop. In the default “Instax-Rich” setting, colors are vivid, with some hues, such blues and greens, having greater punch than others. In the app’s options, you may change this to “Instax-Natural,” which produces the more subdued appearance we commonly associate with the early instant film of the 1970s. We favored the Rich setting since it makes each print stand out significantly. Even in large landscape images, there is an outstanding level of clarity in the pictures. Only the brightest photographs exhibit exposure blowout, and they only significantly differ from the digital originals rather than being impacted by printing. However, Instax cannot compete with an inkjet picture printer in terms of overall sharpness, color accuracy, or clarity. The Instax Link Wide might not be for you if you value those over the appeal of instant film.
Battery Life
According to Fujifilm, the Instax Link Wide can print up to 100 pictures on a single charge. That wasn’t exactly what we discovered. We could get about 60–70 prints done before the device needed to be recharged, taking into account that it is only a few months old and has undergone numerous hands-on reviews. After 40 more prints, we reached 50% and recharged before leaving again. Still, 70 or so prints is not a bad number. The close to two-hour charge period is where the device does suffer a little. It takes a while to fully recharge because there is only a microUSB cord provided and no charger.
Fujifilm Instax Link Wide review: Performance
The Link Wide printer’s overall performance had both positive and negative elements, with many of its great stated features either falling short or having low quality and potential. For instance, the automated pre-crop that was applied to the image while using the Link WIDE app and setting up photographs for printing was a major obstacle because it would not let me slightly zoom out despite their being space on all of the edges. The photographs in the monochrome pack tended to print either faded and without contrast, and a few of them also had a slight green tint. Re-printing the image after darker exposure modifications to let the monochrome photos “pop” a little bit more could fix this.
Price
Conclusion
The INSTAX Link Wide finally combines the ease of use and flexibility of a wireless printer with the impact of Fujifilm’s largest instant format. You can now print any photograph you have on your phone—whether it was taken with the phone, copied from another camera, or was simply downloaded—on paper that is nearly twice as wide as an INSTAX Mini. Fans of INSTAX Wide may be interested in it just for this reason, but Fujifilm has also included some entertaining additions, such as the possibility to embed QR codes in the corner of the app, which can be used to link to websites, maps, text messages, or even little audio samples. Although you cannot use text or audio messages for archiving because they are stored on Fujifilm’s servers and lose their validity after two years, they are nonetheless entertaining to use.
