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The Kodak Mini 2 HD printer is easy to use and easy to carry on one's person. It develops surprisingly good photographs. In some cases, it was better than others we observed of our best photo printers, though it has the advantage of rendering in a smaller format. Our main gripe is that it uses a throwaway plastic paper cartridge that holds eight sheets — a bit wasteful by our estimation.
REASONS TO BUY
Relatively good image quality
Easy to set up
Useful app
REASONS TO AVOID
Wasteful paper refills
Limited dynamic range
Single size format
Editor's Note: We updated this review for the Kodak Mini 2 HD on March 28, 2022, with an unbiased take on value and suggestions for other products that may better suit your needs and budget.
Our Analysis and Test Results
The Kodak Mini 2 HD is about the size of a smartphone though a bit thicker. It renders both color and grayscale pictures with a surprising degree of fidelity to the original image for a mini printer. It has a good tonal range, though it drops off at the darkest blacks and the whitest
whites. The accompanying app is intuitive and has some beneficial features, such as a photo queue, that other machines lack. All and all, we were quite impressed with this affordable little printer.
Performance Comparison
The Kodak Mini 2 HD produces small prints with surprising definition.
Credit: Laura Casner
Likes
We liked the quality of the photos coming out of this instant printer and that there is no maintenance save refreshing the paper. We also liked that the printer is easy to use with a smartphone while on the move.
An ability to select and crop photographs makes it easy to hone-in on the part of the image you want to capture in print.
Credit: Laura Casner
Additionally, the Kodak's accompanying app allows the user to queue up five photos at a time. That way, you can set the machine aside and come back to photographs that you can hand out to your friends and family.
Dislikes
The main problem we have with this printer is that its photo paper comes in a heavy plastic cartridge. The cartridge is not reusable, and it only holds eight sheets of instant print paper. When you're done, you just throw it away. Additionally, the paper costs 68 cents a sheet, which is the high-end for instant paper.
The plastic cartridge seems pricey and wasteful compared to the system being used on other mini printers.
Credit: Laura Casner
We also had a problem with the machine turning itself off while printing multiple pictures. Perhaps it was a bug in the app that will be resolved. Regardless, it was annoying. The machine prints slowly (about a minute per print), but we liked being able to fill the queue with photos, so we didn't have to sit the machine while it worked.
Should You Buy the Kodak Mini 2 HD?
The Kodak Mini 2 HD is one of the better mini printers that we have had the pleasure to test. This machine renders fine prints in both color and grayscale. It's easy to use, convenient to carry, and the operating cost is manageable. Best of all, its ease of use will make it more likely that you get the images off your phone and into the hands of friends and family.
What Other Photo Printers Should You Consider?
Occasionally we review products worth exactly what they cost — the Kodak Mini 2 HD is just such a product. Interestingly, the award-winning Canon IVY offers more performance from a mini printer at the same price point. If you want more versatility in print size, the mid-sized Canon PIXMA TR4520 also costs the same amount but offers substantially better print capability than these mini-printers.
