This Device Prints Photos Directly From Your Smartphone Without Cables, Wifi, Or Bluetooth

To make up for one feature that no smartphones offer, Polaroid created a new instant photography device that can print digital photos taken from your smartphone without using wires or wireless settings. The device will instead project light from the smartphone display and expose it directly on its instant film.

Making hard copies of your digital photos is probably the easiest and safest way to back up your memories in case you lose your phone, or cause some damage to it and you don’t have backups on the cloud. The new Polaroid Lad will simplify the process and help you save memories. All you have to do is placing your phone face down on the device and it will do the rest.

The Lab’s look will remind you of the company’s iconic instant camera, but it doesn’t have a front-facing lens or an eyepiece. Instead of an eyepiece, there is a bed on top where users can place their phones face down on, and inside the Lab are three lenses for focusing the light projected from the smartphone display down onto the instant film to generate the exposure.

The device works alongside an accompanying app that lets users specify the framing for their shots based on the square aspect ratio of Polaroid film, which is a lot smaller compared with the images you take with your phone.

However, it’s not a device that produces the exact photos from your phone. Polaroid film is famous for lo-fi aesthetic, and this device will desaturate as well as soften the photos in the process.

If you want small, cute photos printed directly from your smartphone to hand on your walls or keep in the drawers to protect your memories, this device is a decent choice.