Capturing the moments of today that will wow your hearts tomorrow. -Anonymous
I was sent the Instax Wide Link Smartphone printer by Fujifilm South Africa. I have to say that I was keen to see how this gadget performed compared to the Instax Mini Link Smartphone printer which I reviewed last year which was so popular in the market. I was pretty excited to print out some photos of my family. I currently have over 30 000 photos on my phone (I’m that mum!). Its so much nicer when photos are printed and you can put them in an album or stick them in a frame.
The nice thing about the Instax Link Wide is that it connects to smartphones through a dedicated app via Bluetooth. The app, specifically designed for the Link Wide offers a variety of functionality. The Instax wide link app was easy to find on the android Play store. What I loved about the app was that I was able to edit the images with the Instax-Rich mode for enhanced colour saturation. You are able to select between this mode or the Instax-Natural mode for Instax’s signature soft tone to enhance your photos.
Elegant style for the home, or on-the-go
The Instax Link Wide has a modern look, very sleek looking. It has stylized metallic touches at the front and top of the device. The printer comes with a matching stand to for ease of use.
The Link Wide is compact and lightweight (340g) and comes with a hand-strap for enhanced portability. It is powered by a built-in battery which allows this smartphone printer to be carried anywhere. The Link Wide can also be recharged via a USB cable.
Fujifilm South Africa will be offering both the Ash White and the luxurious Mocha Gray colour options in South Africa.
A WIDE print for BIG occasions
The Wide prints measure 86mm x 108mm, double that of Instax Mini prints (86mm x 54mm). This makes the Wide format highly suitable for group photos, landscape photography or wide-angle shots that benefit from a larger print area.
Apart from the regular Wide white border film, Fujifilm is also launching the new black Wide-format film, which helps accentuate each photograph thanks to a dark border.
Enhanced functionality via the app
Fujifilm has specifically designed the dedicated smartphone app to make printing as easy and feature-rich as possible. Once connected, users can instantly transfer an image to the Link Wide by swiping up from the bottom edge of the smartphone screen. It’s also possible to select a favourite moment from a recorded video by scrolling through video frames to select one to print.
Interestingly, users can add a voice note, website link, location data or hidden text to printed images through the app. This is done via an embedded QR code that’s printed with the photo. By scanning the printed QR code, viewers are able to access the hidden information via smartphone. This QR code functionality has several practical applications, such as using an Instax Link Wide print as a wedding invitation to include, for example, the couple’s wedding website or venue location data. (See the QR functionality in action in this video demonstration.)
To help spice up images, there are a total of 29 design templates, including designs perfect for special events such as birthdays or celebrations. The colours and fonts in the templates can be freely adjusted to create a perfect greeting card on demand. Users are also able to decorate images with the emojis that come with their smartphone’s operating system, or use some of the 100 design stickers from the app.
The Instax Link Wide app will be available for free for both Apple and Android devices in the respective app stores.
Availability and Pricing
The Fujifilm Instax Link Wide smartphone printer is ideal for users looking to get the most details from their smartphone photos. The printer will be available in South Africa in both Ash White and Mocha Grey. It comes with a recommended retail price of R2 499 incl. VAT.
Instax Wide White border film will be sold in packs of ten, retailing for a recommended R195 incl. VAT per pack, and the Black border film for R210 incl. VAT per pack.
I completely enjoyed testing out the Fujifilm Instax Link wide printer. It is a pretty nifty gadget in my opinion. Honestly as a parent and a very sentimental individual, having physically pictures printed means so much to me. I have added some of Instax Link wide prints to our family album. I am thinking of putting a few wide prints into frames around the house too.
I hope you enjoyed reading my experience with the Fujifilm Instax Link wide printer.
Until next time!
Mira
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