Prynt is a $140 printer that’s also a (bulky, impractical) phone case. It looks cute and brings instant-print nostalgia to the cellphone you already have and to your very large cargo-pants pocket.
Wired’s Molly McHugh reports on the strangely-appealing gadget and its prospects against the resurgent instant cameras from Fujifim and “Polaroid.”
The device uses thermal printing technology, so there’s no ink, just heat, to create the image. The Prynt app has all the Instagrammy features you want—filters, namely—plus other effects, like stickers and meme-ify options. The adapter that connects your phone is sold separately, but that’s a decision the company made to allow for multiple adapters to all work with the same base unit. There are currently adapters for iPhone 6s, 6, 5s, 5c, 5, and Samsung Galaxy S5 and S4. It comes in black or white, and while it’s definitely bulkier than a standard phone case, it’s fairly sleek for a printer. It’s a little plastic-y, a bit toyish, and there’s a little finagling to be done to get the adapter connected. But, really, that’s OK—because Prynt is a whole lot of fun.
Interesting datapoint: they went with “physically connected case” rather than “tiny wireless printer” because Bluetooth pairing still isn’t reliable enough.