Travel-Friendly KODAK STEP Slim Instant Mobile Photo Printer Debuts at Pepcom

[TheLostSwede]

Today, Kodak brand licensee, C+A Global, announced the availability of the KODAK STEP Slim Instant Mobile Photo Printer at Pepcom's Digital Experience in New York City. Sporting a more compact design, this newest addition to the STEP Instant Print Line is the perfect summer accessory. Its easy-to-use, travel-friendly design won't take up unnecessary space, meaning it can go anywhere with you so that you never miss the chance to capture the moment on the spot. Other STEP instant print products include the KODAK STEP Instant Mobile Photo Printer, KODAK STEP Instant Print Digital Camera, and KODAK STEP Touch Instant Print Digital Camera.

The new STEP Slim Instant Mobile Photo Printer still retains the characteristics that make the STEP Instant Print Line so popular, just packaged into a more compact design - at just three quarters of an inch. It prints out each 2" x 3" photo in under 60 seconds on sticky-backed Zink paper, eliminating the need to swap out ink cartridges.




"Today, more than ever, people are constantly on-the-go. Consumers want products that fit into their more flexible lifestyles. They want quick, compact, and efficient. We created the STEP Slim Mobile Photo Printer to give users instant print action without sacrificing space or portability," states Jessica Bitran, public relations director at C+A Global.

Through the free KODAK STEP Prints App, you can connect the Slim Printer to your phone and gain instant access to the editing suite. In the app you can easily edit, brighten, add frames, and customize all your favorites from your camera roll before bringing them to life.

The STEP Slim Instant Mobile Printer is available now on Amazon for $79.99.

View at TechPowerUp Main Site | Source

 

[ShiBDiB]

Have no interest in this personally but was curious about the picture quality (as why print pictures if the quality is gonna suck)

And all the reviews that actually mention picture quality seem to say it's pretty subpar (ranging from "good enough" to "terrible"). Most of the positive reviews cite its size and battery life but don't even mention image quality which is strange for a product that exists solely to print pictures. Even this press release doesn't mention image quality one time?

Seems like a good gimick gift for a young teen or old adult.. maybe..

 

[randomUser]

Xiaomi has this for quite some time now. For 53 eur.
Doesn't look like Kodak tried to make a competitor here. Or maybe they didn't make anything, just ordered OEM printer with slight design modification?

 

[Lianna]

Have no interest in this personally but was curious about the picture quality (as why print pictures if the quality is gonna suck)

And all the reviews that actually mention picture quality seem to say it's pretty subpar (ranging from "good enough" to "terrible"). Most of the positive reviews cite its size and battery life but don't even mention image quality which is strange for a product that exists solely to print pictures. Even this press release doesn't mention image quality one time?

Seems like a good gimick gift for a young teen or old adult.. maybe..

"Quality" is complicated. Having both old Canon 15x10 cm / 6x4" Selphy (multipass thermal printing) and new Zoemini 3x2" (Zink) printers (this one seems very similar) I can tell you:

- both by default print heavily overcontrasted photos; if you want to have any highlight and especially shadow details you have to lower the contrast in the input image and lighten it up a bit (or, as I did for Selphy, create a macro for hand-set "curves" preset for something resembling "color profile"); if you do not do that, in any objective metric the quality or color fidelity will be low to medium; this may be one of the reasons for "bad quality" reviews;
- this behaviour is very similar if not identical to commercial booths that use print on demand (for Selphy I tried quite a few different services, both on-demand and developing on photo paper, on same photos); and in contrast to any old-fashion (digital) photo developing process, say Kodak, that mostly preserves the shadow/highlight scale;
- if you adjust contrast/brightness as stated above, they are very convincing; for any good quality input they are similarly qood on Selphy as any commercial one (and more predictable), or better than "on-demand" (see above);
- if you are a pro and a perfectionist they may be lacking (like most of commercial options), but you probably may adjust it to your liking; but forget about color-matching and comparing to 6/8/10-ink pro photo printers;
- it's difficult to compare Zoemini's photos, as most competition often have only white/black border printing that affects visual comparison and makes resulting photo smaller; I think borderless printing is a great advantage; you can always add border if you like it;
- personally I think Zoemini's (Zink) photos are much, much better (higher fidelity) than any "photo paper" pocket printers; but some people still like the "analog feel" even if quality is definitely inferior;
- personally I think Zoemini's photos are good enough in quality and have nice, sensible colors (after adjustment, as said above); this is eye-based opinion, not based on color space or colorimeter scores;
- that said they are small and that affects perception for at least some people, as even as the dpi is high enough you can see less details;
- I have an old Selphy unit (wired only), so I have no opinion on its mobile app but Zoemini's one is quite usable and easily allows for fast adjustment of contrast and brightness before printing (as stated above, I feel this is required) - and of course all the other adjustments you may want to do to your photo; I think the app itself does not require you to have a printer, so you can install it and check the features for yourself.

"good gimmick":

Selphy is small in transport and not that heavy, but it requires semi-stationary setting even if you add the optional battery pack and have one of newer, wireless units, as you have to install "paper" tray - that makes it "table-top".
Its photos are great in quality and 10x15 is good size for many people, but photos are somewhat fragile (say, water droplets, abuse), though not more than commercial prints.

Zoemini is great for pocket and on-the-go printing - with a little bit of practice you actually print from phone with printer in the back pocket of your jeans (and magically pull ready photo out of seemingly thin air).
Photos are heavily abuse-resistant and have sticky back (after peeling the tape). Treated as a gift they are definitely on the small side.

Edit: Addendum: As you can guess I bought both for giving printed photos to family / friends / at the events, not for color-critical work. Small photos from Zoemini make it statistically worse the older the recipient is (because of eyesight and not being accustomed to small phone screens), but portability means I have it with me most of the time. Selphy's photos are much better, but its mostly gathering dust because of its table-top, backpack luggage nature.
Both are somewhat expensive per photo, the Zoemini more (and the photos are much smaller so...), so they heavily depend on the application. Zoemini's photos' sticker nature make it possible to use them for warnings / labels / short notes in a pinch.