New Polaroid Camera Lets Users Print Images and Share on Social Two years ago, the Polaroid Socialmatic was just concept art. Now, it's the real deal.
By Nina Zipkin
For Instagram aficionados with an affinity for the nostalgic (a.k.a. pretty much every millennial), Polaroid just rolled out a new camera for you.
The Polaroid Socialmatic is a camera that both prints mini photos (rectangular ones – not your standard square Polaroid photo with the white border, sadly) and allows users to upload photos to their social accounts instantly. It's now available to pre-order and is set to ship in January.
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The Socialmatic concept was developed by a designer named Antonio de Rosa with marketing and communication firm ADR Studio, and first went around the web back in 2012. The physical camera made the rounds at the Consumer Electronics Show last winter.
The camera itself looks like an oversized, three-dimensional Instagram icon and comes in black and white. It costs $299.99 when you buy enough paper and ink for 10 prints, and $350 for 110 prints.
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You can upload photos to your followers with the camera's built-in in Wi-Fi connection, but you can also use Bluetooth to hook it up to your phone or tablet. It has a 14-megapixel front-facing camera and a 2-megapixel camera on the back (for selfies, naturally) and 4 GB of storage.
The camera has a 4.5 inch touchscreen and is powered by Android, so users will also have an internet browser, e-mail and apps at their disposal. It also comes with a unique QR code to track the images and is GPS-enabled. The prints are two inches by three inches and have an adhesive back.
