The Fujifilm Instax SHARE SP-2 is a wireless photo printer that’s small enough to take anywhere and built for use on the go. If you want to print digital photos in seconds to share with friends and hang on locker and refrigerator doors, it is a good option.
Unlike inkjet printers that deposit ink onto the surface of photo paper, the SP-2 uses Fujifilm’s Instax Mini self-developing film. It goes through a photochemical process, with the printer actually exposing the image with an internal three-color OLED printing engine. The result is photos with a surprisingly charming analog, lo-fi feel, but since you’re stuck with Fujifilm’s Instax film for printing, you’ll pay 74 cents per photo.
The actual image quality isn’t great, since you’re dealing with wallet-size photos that only have a 2.4 x 1.8 image on them, and there’s noticeable discoloration along the outer edges. They also aren’t particularly high detail, with 800 x 600 resolution. Printing is fast in the sense that the device outputs finished snapshots in 15 seconds, but that number doesn’t quite tell the whole story. Because the printer uses self-developing film, the photo isn’t fully visible with final colors and details for another two minutes. Printing several photos in succession is much faster than with other printers, but having those photos in their final form actually takes longer.
The compact photo printer is just a bit too big to fit in a pants pocket, but it is still quite portable, measuring 7.12 x 5 x 3 inches and weighing just 0.54 pounds. The Instax SHARE SP-2 comes with an internal battery that should last through 100 prints, making it the longest lasting of any battery-powered photo printer we reviewed.
There are a few features on the printer, including a power button, a reprint button for when you want a second copy of the same photo and a latch that opens the printer for loading a new batch of photo paper. There’s also a port cover that hides a USB charging port. Along the top of the printer, there is a glowing row of LED indicators that tell you how much charge is left in the battery or how far along in the printing process you are.
Printing is all done through Fujifilm’s smartphone app, helpfully called Instax SHARE. It lets you sort through photos on your smartphone or tablet, crop and edit photos, apply filters and templates, and more. Some of these features seem genuinely helpful, like a template for printing Facebook and Instagram images that include the poster’s profile picture and the number of likes the photo had at the moment of printing. Others seem less helpful such as options to tag photos with time and weather info or number them like a limited-edition item.
Its Wi-Fi connection is irritatingly quirky – you connect to the printer over Wi-Fi, and it requires the same connection for several other features. For example, when you print images from Instagram or Facebook, you have to manually switch from the printer’s Wi-Fi direct connection to your regular network and back again for every online image you want to print. Other photo printers avoid this problem by connecting via Bluetooth, which lets your phone maintain a connection with the printer while letting you stay connected online.
Fujifilm covers the Instax SHARE SP-2 with a one-year warranty. The coverage period is pretty standard, but the overall tech support is pretty thin compared to the competition. You can contact support through phone or email, and that’s it. You’ll be hard pressed to find an online manual, let alone troubleshooting guides or other support options.
The Fujifilm Instax SHARE SP-2 is a handy small photo printer that lets you take photo printing with you on the go. It’s designed with fun in mind, with quick printing, charming self-developing photos and the best battery life of any digital photo printer we reviewed.
