Creativity 521 #122 - Printing on the go {Review & Giveaway of PoooliPrint}

When I first heard about PoooliPrint, I was intrigued to know that it is not just a pocket printer but an INKLESS one too. Yup, you heard me right, it doesn't need ink to print! Just how does it do that, I wonder. So curiosity got the better of me and I started reading all about it.

The moment the girls received their PoooliPrinters, they couldn't wait to start exploring and try printing all sorts of things. For these two who love to draw, love scrapbooking and love making notes for the people they care about, these handy, lightweight and easy-to-use pocket printers are the perfect tools.

In this Creativity 521 post, I share with you all about our experience and the different creations we made with PoooliPrint. For those who are keen, I also have a giveaway where one of you will receive a new PoooliPrinter L1 and two acessories of your choice so you can start getting creative too. So read on and join in the fun, yeah?

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HOW IT WORKS

PoooliPrint makes use of inkless thermal printing using its Japanese heating print head technology, which means no expensive ink is needed. All you need to do is charge the printer using USB, connect to your smartphone through Bluetooth, open your Poooli app and start printing away. Each charge will provide you with 24 hours of printing which, to me, is pretty good since we don't use more than an hour each time.

One thing to note, PoooliPrinters supports black colour printing on thermal paper rolls and cannot print in colour. Yup, so don't expect to get a picture printed out in full colour. I did hear that the printers can print pink/blue if you use the Pink/Blue Prints paper rolls but since we have not tried that, I can't tell you how well that works.

PoooliPrint currently offers three different printers, namely L1, L2 and XL. PoooliPrinter L1 has a 200 dpi resolution while L2 and XL offer instant HD with a 300 dpi resolution. PoooliPrinter L1 has a 48mm printing width, L2 is 54mm while XL is 110mm. We tried out PoooliPrinter L1 which is the most affordable one in the range. Yup, I did wish we could have HD printing but let's see if this is good enough too!

For L1 and L2, there are four colours to choose from, namely Yellow, Pink, Blue and Green. These are distinguished by that unique beak on the printer but the LED colour on the front can be selected and switched anytime using the app. Oh, what function does the beak serve? It is in fact a detachable magnet that you can remove and use to display your notes on a metallic surface. Otherwise, it can also stand on a flat surface as a cardholder. You don't actually need it to be attached to the printer but it does look cute, right?

So how long do the printouts last? I wondered the same thing too. While the retention time may be affected by the exposure to the sun and the type of paper used, it is said to last approximately from 10 to 22 years.

PAPER ROLLS AND CASES

Paper rolls are a must when it comes to printing, right? PoooliPrint offers a wide variety of paper rolls, including white paper, coloured paper, sticky paper, semi transparent paper and more. You can check them out here.

The good thing you can easily replace the paper rolls at anytime. Yup, that means you don't have to wait till you fully finish using one roll before switching to the next because they can be reused anytime. While it largely depends on the type of paper you use and the picture size you print out, a general guide is that you can print up to 100 pictures (each approximately 95mm x 57mm) for each roll which measures about 9.5 metres.

Since the printer can be easily carried along whenever you go, you can consider getting it a protective casing too. PoooliPrint offers a few choices when it comes to casings, including hard cases, soft bumpers, faux leather covers and silicone cases. You can check them out here. In my view, it's good to have but not a necessity. The way I see it, our printers have been following us out in our bags with no casing and they are doing fine too. If you prefer to, you can always keep the original packaging to contain it when you bring it out.

GETTING CREATIVE

Here comes the FUN part! Let's share with you what we have done so far. This is not an exhaustive list of what can be printed on our PoooliPrinters but these are our top five favourites for now.

1) Drawings

The girls love this best because it's so fun to print out your own drawings right after you finish them. It's easy, all you have to do is open the app on your phone, go to 'Print Notes', select 'Drawing' and doodle away! Once you are done, you can connect your phone to the PoooliPrinter and see your drawing get printed out instantly. See more in my video below. The girls love adding a splash of colours or names onto their drawings after sticking them in their books to make them more vibrant and personalised.

2) To-do Lists 

There is a section called 'Notes and Lists' in the app which comes with cute templates and you can personalise them before printing them out. These come in really handy when we need to jot down something to remember and I'm not sure about you but I still prefer a hard copy anytime. Personally, I like to print out a to-do list and will stick it on the magnetic board in front of my workstation so that I will remember what I need to do for that day.

3) Notes

The big girl has been printing out notes to help her remember her year end exam schedule and make a revision plan. Instead of typing everything out on the Poooli app, she still prefers to write it out by hand but it does help to have a template or border to write within. Adding colours is also something fun and I love seeing these notes stuck all around her study table.

4) Photographs

We usually take lots of pictures using my phone because they are just such precious memories of the kids growing up, right? The thing is, we seldom print any of them out because it can be a hassle. Having PoooliPrinter makes it easy for us to print out any photograph we like at the touch of a button and even though the resolution can be grainy for PoooliPrinter L1, it still suffices for us to use them for scrapbooking or card making purposes.

5) Name labels

Besides the normal white paper rolls, we also tried out the sticky paper rolls where you can use them as stickers and peel them off to paste onto anything you like. We think these are perfect for making name labels and the little girl has been printing out her name to personalise her books too.

Besides the above mentioned, you can also print out documents, recipes, graphics or basically anything you want from the internet or your phone.

OUR REVIEW

We are definitely loving our PoooliPrinters because they are portable, convenient, fuss-free to use and most importantly, INKLESS! It's the first pocket printer that we own and I think it has well exceeded our expectations. The good thing is these printers have sparked the girls' creativity and they have been feeling eager and excited to doodle, design and craft more these days.

We did think that the pictures turn out a little blurry but considering that the L1 printer is not of HD resolution, I think it's good for a start. One thing we love is that the possibilities of what you can churn out are practically endless and we are looking forward to exploring further and doing more with our PoooliPrinters.

Check out our video below to see more of what we've done. I am pretty sure you and your kids will enjoy having this handy pocket printer too!

DISCOUNT CODE

For all A Happy Mum readers, you can now enjoy a 15% discount when you shop at PoooliPrint. Just enter the code "SUMMER15" when you check out.

 
GIVEAWAY

Good news for all, I am now giving away a PoooliPrinter L1 + Free Paper Roll + TWO Accessories of your choice (worth over $130)!

To join the giveaway,

1) Visit PoooliPrint HERE to choose your two desired accessories (click on the tabs Paper or Cases). Leave a comment in this blog post with your choices, name and IG handle.

2) Hop over to my Instagram post HERE to follow the rest of the steps.

3) For a bonus chance to win, like and share my Facebook post HERE.

This giveaway ends on 30 October 2359hrs and is not affiliated with Instagram or Facebook. The winner will be randomly chosen and contacted via DM. Good luck, everyone!

Disclosure: This is a sponsored collaboration between PoooliPrint and A Happy Mum. All opinions and photographs are my own.