No more Pogo




I am quite sad that my Polaroid Pogo printer has finally died and no longer works, despite some best efforts to fix it.

Polaroid Pogo

I bought my Pogo printer back in 2009. This was a battery powered zero ink (Zink) printer which did 2” x 3” prints (which were also stickers). You generally sent the images to the printer by Bluetooth, but you could connect an USB stick or camera to the printer as well.

I had bought one after getting feedback from friends on the Twitter.

It cost me £50, though within a few months it had fallen in price to just £17.

I did use it for a while, but there were some core reasons why it never really clicked for me, partly the size of the prints, just 2” x 3” which was too small for most things. Couldn’t really see a practical use for such small prints, even if they were stickers. The other main reason was that the quality of the prints was quite poor in comparison to the HP photo printer I had at the time. So like many other devices after the novelty had rubbed off and the curiosity value had waned, it went into the cupboard.

When I started a new role in 2015, I dusted off the Pogo and started to use it much more.

Dusting off the Pogo

…after making notes in a my new work notebook (trying out visual note taking for project planning) that I realised I actually wanted to include a diagram in my notes. I could have attempted to draw the diagram, but I am not that good at drawing clear diagrams. Also in this case I wanted the actual diagram, not a drawn representation of the diagram. I then remembered the Pogo printer and I wondered…

I had to connect it to the power adapter and remember that the easiest way to do this was to send it the image file over Bluetooth. I was actually quite surprised and impressed that it worked.

The battery had completely lost its charge, and wouldn’t hold a charge, so I had to use it tethered to a power supply, it would have been useful to take with me on trips and events.

Polaroid Pogo printer

Over the last few years I found it a really useful. However because of the Bluetooth restrictions imposed by Apple, I couldn’t print to it from an iOS device such as the iPhone or the iPad. With the current version of the Pogo (and other similar Zink printers) most now have an iOS app that allows you to print images from your iPhone.

I did have a few streaking issues following a paper jam.

Streaking on the Pogo

Pogo print

However following a quick Google search I did manage to clean the printhead and fix the streaking.

Having not used it for a while and needing to print I gave it a go and alas it didn’t work at all. It wouldn’t feed the paper through, so I think it has finally died. 

I have decided at some point to get a replacement as I did like using it and did find it a useful accompanying tool for visual note taking.

11 Replies to “No more Pogo”

  1. Trying to find some POGO compatible paper as trying to get original paper is almost impossible these days, does anyone know if any of the other 2×3 Zink Papers work in our PoGo’s these days ?

    1. I have a pogo printer plus paper that’s got a best by date of 2010. Free to a good home if you want to pay postage? I’m in UK

  2. I just restarted to use my pogo. I think I have it for over 10 years. The quality is good enough for my kids stickers. but not for portrait photos.

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