Good times were, yes? :) I clicked on the trigger, took the card, "warmed up" - and here it is, an instant photo. Now mobile phones, tablets, cloud services, virtualization and all sorts of abstruse names for familiar things are in fashion, but nothing prevents you from getting a photo "here and now" in any corner of the planet and immediately give it to someone (or keep , of course). Today our guest is a portable LG PD233 printer: you can find out about its features, advantages, disadvantages and pitfalls by pressing a button:

To be honest, I don’t remember when I last printed a photo at home. If I just need to print a picture (it doesn’t matter for a passport, or whether to make a postcard from the photo I received) - I either call a friend who has my own printing center, or go to a neighboring house and order a print there. To keep a photo printer at home is expensive, unless of course you print on it every few days.

The hero of the review does not allow you to print an A3 photo (yes, even A5 is beyond his control), but it can print from almost any source, anywhere and at any time.


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It fits easily in the palm of your hand, in a bag or backpack, has its own special paper, does not require cartridges, connects to the outlet (at least permanent) and just does its modest work: prints photos measuring 5 to 7.5 centimeters.

Here is an example of such a photo:


As you can see, nothing supernatural, but leaving the photo to parents, carrying in a wallet, making an improvised business card (if you have a graphic editor on the phone) or a photo of the documents is enough.

How it works?

At the heart of everything is the special “paper” Zero Ink. As in the case of the famous glass Gorilla Glass, it was developed for a long time, but remembered the technology a few years ago. The photographic material itself is multi-layered, the base layer is white, the rest are specialized protective and “coloring” layers containing a special crystallized dye.



Microscopic crystals are almost 100% transparent to light, but if they are heated to the correct temperature, they will lose their structure and turn into a stain of dye that will be absorbed into the paper layer of the photographic material.



The color of each point is determined by the time and temperature of heating.



Here is a gif that captures the melting of a crystal (image taken from an electron microscope):



Something like a sublimation print, only here both the “paint” and the “paper” are pressed into one high-tech sandwich, which made it possible to create a pocket printer that properly warms the paper in the right places, changing the structure and “evaporating” the desired color.

Imprint characteristics

"Basic" mode allows you to seal the photo material "to the edge", getting a full image of 75 to 50 millimeters. The resolution of the “paper” (and the printer) is 1224 by 640 pixels, not as much as we would like, but the frames cannot be called smeared or fuzzy: the details of the portraits / landscapes are preserved with dignity. Of course, to print a group photo of sixty Asians in general terms - the idea is empty: you can not make out people, and you spend the paper.

Printer

Finally, we came close to the device itself. Describe his appearance does not see the point: no frills or fancy bends. A brick with one button, one door, under which lies the microUSB and reset hole, with one tray for loading special paper. In general, everything can be seen in the photo:









The upper part (with NFC inscription) is removable, contains a spring-loaded element responsible for paper feeding, and an NFC tag rolled up in plastic with reference to the Pocket Photo special application in Google Play.



Unfortunately, the Beam will not transmit photos, and NFC is only needed for quick setup and pairing devices: there are no contacts on the cover, it means there is a regular RFID chip, the main data transfer will go via Bluetooth anyway.



iOS is also supported, but it was not possible to try: these demonic devices are not found in my environment.

The package bundle, in addition to the printer itself, is as follows: USB cable, charger, 10 sheets for “quick start” + Smart Sheet for “self-cleaning”, user manual and box in which all this happiness is wrapped.

Soft

I wouldn’t call the Pocket Photo application the height of simplicity and convenience, and for the parody of iOS patterns in the Android interface, I would put those responsible to the wall, but what is, that is, let's learn:

The first screen that opens after setup is a folder with photos from the camera. You can view both in the form of a “calendar”, with photos laid out on dates, and in the form of a “photo stream”, with thumbnails at the bottom of the screen and a preview at the top.

The second tab is a photo editor. It allows you to sprinkle a photo before printing, add a caption / inscription, a QR code with certain information, a frame and stickers.



In general, the standard menu of prepress, everything works smartly and intuitively, problems with editing photos does not arise. You can also set the print area and “duplication”: get 2 photos on one piece of paper, or even 4 is not a question. If you are satisfied with the size ... the printer is capable of that.



In the middle, there is a sheltered “print” button, which, in fact, sends an image to the printer with the “saw, shura” instruction.

The remaining buttons do not contain anything interesting - sharing photos via wireless interfaces and settings + button, which leads to the Internet upon the request for the purchase of the relevant paper. I open eBay, which, in principle, is not the most relevant source for Russia.

Printer at work

So you clicked the magic “print” button, the photo flew over the USB into a white box, it creaked and ~ after one minute you had a long-awaited photo card in your hands. There are no questions with the seal, but what about the service?

All service is the timely laying of the next dozens of sheets + a blue Smart Sheet card (it must be loaded down with a barcode, and the paper loading tray has a blue stripe, which once again reminds us of which side of the cleaning should be from the sheets). I have no idea how the printer cleans the thermo-head, but if the manufacturer recommends ... Well, then so be it.



It is recommended to clean it once after 10 shots.

Consumables

The only consumables (in addition to electricity, which must be loaded into the device through a standard microUSB port) is paper.

We sell paper in Svyaznoy, the cost of a set of 30 leaves is around 400-500 rubles. Expensive? Yes, it's expensive. However, with all this, the pictures are good, albeit small, but you can forget about the ink cartridges altogether. In addition, such advanced pieces are always worth a lot of money at first, but warm memories ... They are priceless, you know.

Instead of conclusion

Someone will call this device a toy, someone will give to relatives / acquaintances, but for someone it can become a working tool (unlikely, of course, but you never know). The device has its pluses and minuses, and they are quite obvious. Autonomy, the ability to work with almost any smartphone, portability and versatility + not bad from the point of view of software functionality in the bundle - is undoubtedly a plus. The price of consumables, their rarity and the size of the print - are forced cons, coupled with the printing technology itself.

You can always take the device with you, throw off the photo, print it, and then you will be able to dispose of the image as you like. So far, the technology has just reached the masses and is not the height of economy and efficiency. On the other hand, analogues and competing technologies are also not visible, so let's hope that the manufacturer does not abandon the support of the device, and the consumables themselves will get cheaper over time. In the meantime, I send greetings to Habra from a printed photograph and wait for interesting comments! :)



Ps: I was told here that in one of the LG contests on social networks, this device was the prize, so if you came to like it, and the amphibian prevents you from buying, you can try your luck here , here or there . Have a good weekend!