Aside from HP, few companies have made a bigger commitment to portable or pocket-size photo printers than Kodak. We’ve already reviewed the company’s Mini 2 Retro Portable Photo Printer and Mini 3 Retro Portable Photo Printer (the latter nabbing an Editors’ Choice award) this year, and today it’s the $79.99 Step Slim Instant Mobile Photo Printer’s turn. While all three devices create similarly sized images—2 by 3 inches in the Step Slim’s case—the two Mini Retros are dye-sublimation (usually called dye-sub) printers.
The Step Slim, though, joins photo printers from Canon, HP, and others in using Zero ink, or Zink, imaging technology. Dye-subs generally churn out slightly nicer prints, while Zink printers are easier to maintain and use. This particular Kodak uses the company’s adhesive-backed paper that turns anything you print into a sticker. What’s most impressive about the sleek little Slim, however, is its low list price and competitive cost per print, making it a great smartphone companion.
A Palm-Size Pocket Photo Printer
More than with most other types of printers, the size of these pocket photo devices is dictated primarily by the dimensions of the media on which they print. The Kodak Step Slim, for example, measures 0.9 by 3.3 by 4.9 inches and weighs just over half a pound. As mentioned, it uses 2-by-3-inch paper, joining the PCMag Best of 2019 winner the HP Sprocket Photo Printer, and the Polaroid Hi-Print Pocket Photo Printer.
That Polaroid is a dye-sublimation device and therefore slightly larger than most of its Zink competitors. Rather than applying ink to paper, Zink devices use special paper embedded with color crystals that react to heat patterns generated by the printer. Dye-sub printers use more conventional paper and an ink-impregnated carrier film, typically bundled together in refill cartridges. Zink printers are faster, producing an image in one pass through the device; their dye-sub rivals make four passes through the paper path.
Let’s take a quick walk around the Step Slim. Paper loads 20 sheets at a time into a small compartment accessible by sliding back the top cover; finished prints exit via a small slot on the front edge. On the opposite edge you’ll find charging and printing status LEDs, a reset button, and a micro USB port for connecting the charging cable.
Despite the USB charging port, the only connectivity option is Bluetooth wireless, and the Kodak Step printing app works only on iOS and Android smartphones and tablets. You can’t, in other words, print images from your Windows or macOS laptop or desktop. Kodak says that a fully charged battery is good for 25 prints.
Purchase Options and Bundles
It’s not unusual nowadays to find a few different purchase options for little photo printers like these. During this review, I encountered three Step Slim bundles at Amazon and a few other outlets. The first, for $79.99, consists of the printer, the charging cable, and a starter pack of 20 sheets of Zink photo paper.
The next step up is a $109 bundle that combines everything in the basic kit with an additional 50-sheet pack of 2-by-3-inch adhesive zinc paper, for a total of 70 sheets.
Finally, the $129 Starter Bundle contains just about everything you need to turn your little photo printer into an arts and crafts or scrapbook kit. It combines the basic bundle with a second 20-pack of paper, a carrying case, a small photo album, thousands of stickers for multiple occasions, markers, and even a makeshift clothesline for drying your creations. (Check out the length of twine and handful of clothespins in the upper right corner of the image.)
The Kodak Step App
Like many of today’s pocket photo printers, the Step Slim relies on a downloadable photo editing, enhancing, and printing app. Kodak Step Prints is a highly developed program that goes beyond a mere printer driver to let you make corrections such as red-eye removal, image sharpening, and contrast and color adjustments.
Enhancements include snappy frames, decorative text, and filters for applying a number of special effects. The app also provides tools for creating collages and other specialized layouts from your smartphone’s photo gallery or from the cloud and social media sites. In fact, it lets you interact with your favorite social media and other sites directly.
Testing the Step Slim: Zinc-Standard Quality and Speed, Affordable Prints
Within reason, print speed really isn’t an issue for these little devices. Output quality, on the other hand, is essential, and the Kodak Step Slim joins its Mini 2 Retro and Mini 3 Retro siblings, HP’s several Sprockets (including the original, the Sprocket 2nd Edition, the Sprocket Plus, and the Sprocket Select), and Canon’s Ivy Mini Photo Printer in producing good-looking images.
In our test prints, colors are bright and accurate, and detail is better than acceptable, considering how small the prints are. Again, it’s important to note that while today’s Zink printers deliver decent-looking images (considerably better than models from just a few years ago), dye-sub devices typically churn out even better detail and slightly more vivid colors. Neither, however, can match the quality of four-, five-, or six-ink desktop inkjet printers or all-in-ones. Suffice it to say the Step Slim’s photos are excellent among its peers, although not particularly striking or awe-inspiring.
If you insist on knowing about speed, Kodak rates the Step Slim at one print per minute, which is about average for these gadgets, or a bit slower. (Depending on content and the image size, pocket photo printers usually vary from about 30 to 60 seconds per print.)
As for operating costs, the Step Slim’s 2-by-3-inch Zink paper is available in two quantities: a 20-pack for $9.99, or a 50-pack for $24.85. (Both work out to 50 cents per sheet.) Several similar-sized Zink printers match this cost per print; the Canon Ivy, for instance, also offers 20- and 50-packs at the same prices.
With Kodak’s dye-sub Mini Retro 2 (2.1 by 3.4 inches) and Mini Retro 3 (3 by 3 inches), you can buy 90-packs that bring individual prints down to about 30 cents. Costs per photo in this segment do not seem to depend on image size; the much larger 4-by-6-inch prints of the Canon and the HP Sprocket Studio can be had for roughly 35 and 44 cents each, respectively.
Verdict: A Decent Snapshot Value That Ditches the Ink
If you or your kids are in the market for a pocket-size, 2-by-3-inch photo sticker printer for use with a smartphone, there’s little or nothing to dislike about the Step Slim. Its $79.99 list price is among the lowest in its category, and its 50-cent images are competitive although not bargains. We wouldn’t be surprised if Kodak were to offer a 90- or 100-pack of media before long, as it has with the Mini Retro printers, bringing running costs down a little more.
While the base bundle with its 20 sheets of Zink paper is a good deal, the $109 kit with 70 sheets is an even better bargain. The top-priced bundle isn’t a great buy unless you need markers, stickers, and the other bundled paraphernalia, but otherwise we can’t think of a reason not to buy the Kodak Step Slim if the snapshot size is right.
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