Easy and fun, but lacking in quality

While we take more photos than ever, those photos largely live in the digital realm, rarely seeing the light of day. There’s something special about having a physical photo, though. Holding a print in your hand or seeing it on your wall daily sparks something different than scrolling through endless images on your phone. It’s a way to start a conversation, relive a memory, or spread inspiration and joy.

Ordering prints through online companies takes time, though, and photo printers are typically bulky and expensive. The Kodak Step Instant Smartphone Photo Printer offers an affordable, portable alternative. It allows you to easily and quickly print photos from your phone, no matter where you are. Unfortunately, though, that convenience comes at a cost to quality. But if you accept it for what it is — a playful photo printer — it performs well enough.

See our process

How we test and review products at Pocket-lint

We don’t do arm-chair research. We buy and test our own products, and we only publish buyer’s guides with products we’ve actually reviewed.

Price, availability, and specs

The Kodak Step Instant Smartphone Photo Printer is available from Amazon, Target, Walmart, Kodak, and more for $69.99. It comes in black, white, pink, or blue and can be bundled with a range of accessories or packs of paper. The printer uses three-by-five-inch ZINK paper instead of ink cartridges and features a rechargeable battery.

What I liked about the Kodak Step Instant Smartphone Photo Printer

Portability and simple controls

First and foremost, the Kodak Step printer is incredibly easy to set up and use. Once you download the Kodak Step Prints app, it’s fast to pair your phone and get started. That means you can get to printing within a matter of minutes instead of fussing with pairing and settings.

The app is intuitive and makes it easy to import your photos. There are fun tools to mark up your photos, including plenty of playful stickers and frames. You can also add text or draw on your images to create unique designs or pass along a message to friends. The printer spits out a print relatively quickly, so you’re not stuck waiting long.

One of the main benefits of the Kodak Step is its small size. It easily fits in a pocket or backpack so you can bring it with you on vacations or outings with friends. The battery is rechargeable, and Kodak says it will last for roughly 25 prints (I didn’t have enough paper to test that limit). Unfortunately, it charges via micro USB, not the more common USB-C format, so you’ll need to remember to bring a cord along on trips.

The Kodak Step uses Zero Ink (ZINK) technology, which uses special paper with embedded color crystals instead of ink cartridges in the printer itself. The printer exposes those crystals to heat patterns, creating your image. As a result, you won’t have to worry about buying ink cartridges. A 50-pack of ZINK photo paper costs around $25, so it’s a significantly cheaper alternative to the Fujifilm Instax Mini instant camera.

Beyond the benefit of not messing with ink cartridges, ZINK technology also means that when the print comes out, there’s no wet ink. You can grab it immediately without worrying about smudging it. The paper is also highly durable and is resistant to moisture, rips, tears, and smudges. As an added fun bonus, each sheet is a sticker.

0:33

Related

My new favorite mini printer brings major retro vibes to my photos

This cute and convenient photo printer makes quality photos in under 90 seconds.

What I didn’t like about the Kodak Step Instant Smartphone Photo Printer

Quality and controls are lacking

While the Kodak Step is certainly small and convenient, the printer has some downsides, especially regarding quality and control over printed images. As a disclaimer, I am a professional photographer with high standards for photo prints. While I recognize that the Kodak Step isn’t meant for people like me, I still wasn’t thrilled with the print quality. Granted, all ZINK-based printers lack pristine quality, so this isn’t an issue to the Kodak Step specifically.

Prints from the Kodak Step do have nice sharpness and levels of detail, especially for small three-by-five-inch prints. That much was impressive. But the colors are wildly different from the original photos. One came out extremely pink, while all are significantly warmer in color temperature than the originals. Once you learn the printer, you could perhaps learn what adjustments to make to your photos to accommodate for those differences, but that’s not ideal.

Another frustration I had was that the Kodak Step cropped in rather significantly on images despite not showing that it would crop in the print preview. In one example, it chopped off the top of the hat of the photo’s subject, even though the preview showed the entire image in the frame. Similarly, while you can resize an image in the Kodak Step app, the only way to do so is by using the two-finger pinch-to-zoom or zoom-out method. That process is very imprecise, and there are no tools to ensure the image is straight or centered in the frame while you are doing so.

Additionally, while there are many fun editing tools, the only basic adjustments are temperature and brightness. The ability to adjust contrast is notably lacking despite its inclusion in any other type of photo editing or printing app. Oddly, the temperature controls shift the image from blue to red instead of blue to yellow as it should be. Finally, a confusing addition is the ability to adjust individual colors (a color mixer, for those familiar with editing tools), but only when you tap the Print option. It’s very odd that this wasn’t included in the main editing menu.

0:59

Related

This digital-instant camera hybrid’s pictures self destruct — and I’m not a fan

The Kodak Mini Shot 3 Retro is a digital camera with a built-in printer, but the unusual feature list leaves a clear answer on whether or not to buy.

Should you buy the Kodak Step Instant Smartphone Photo Printer?

Those looking for a fun and approachable way to print photos from their phone will likely enjoy the compact Kodak printer. It is, after all, more affordable than similar options. Thanks to the sticker paper and playful editing tools in the app, it would be a fun option for kids.

However, this printer (and other ZINK-based products) will not be the answer if you’re looking for quality. Likewise, if you want lots of control over your images, the Kodak Step will not be your best option. The app’s editing tools are rather basic, but even with those, what you see in the app is decidedly not what you get in the print, both in terms of cropping and colors.

Kodak Step Instant Mobile Photo Printer

The Kodak Step is a compact and portable photo printer that lets you easily print photos from your phone. It uses Zero Ink technology, which doesn’t require pricey ink cartridges and produces durable sticker-backed prints.