Review: Fujifilm Instax Link Wide Printer

I can't lie: I am a huge fan of Fujifilm Instax printers. I like the Instax cameras too, but those have limited use cases, and most of the time I don't want to carry it around. I prefer to shoot with my phone or mirrorless camera, and then print those images on an Instax printer.

As much as I love Instax prints, the original format is only 1.8 inches by 2.4 inches. That's rather small, and it's no Polaroid. The square Instax format film is moderately larger (2.4 inches square), but if you wanted Fujifilm's largest-format Instax prints (3.9 inches by 2.4 inches), you had to buy a camera.

That was until now. The new Fujifilm Instax Link Wide smartphone printer brings the company's biggest instant film to a standalone printer.

Photograph: Fujifilm

My first Instax printer was a frivolous purchase that has turned into an integral part of how I interact with people when I travel. It has also sparked an interest in photography in my kids. It's not perfect, but there is something about the magic of an instant print that transcends its limitations. They aren't gallery-worthy prints, but they sure are fun.

I still use my old Instax SP-1 printer. The prints are a nice, small gift; they're also a good icebreaker. I love photographing people, but I'm not an outgoing person, so asking someone to take their portrait is tough. It's especially hard nowadays, when everyone assumes you're going to put your image on Instagram. If you can tell someone you're not interested in social media and offer them a print of the image right then and there, you often have an entirely different conversation.

Even if you have no desire to travel or photograph strangers, there's something about physical prints that makes a greater connection between view and image. You can't just scroll onto the next image. Trust me: Make prints. You'll thank yourself down the road.

This is part of why I like the new Instax Link Wide printer so much. It makes the same great Instax prints, only bigger. The 3.9-by-2.4-inch prints are landscape oriented—the large edge of the white border is at the bottom of the long edge, though there's nothing stopping you from printing a portrait-oriented image if you like.

Other than the size, the Instax Link Wide printer is much like Fujifilm's Mini Link. It's a relatively nondescript gray (or white) box, about the size of three CD cases stacked up. If you're under 30, that's 5.25 inches by 4.75 inches, and an inch thick. There's a single button on top to turn it on and print the last image again. On the back you'll find a USB-A port for charging (USB-C would've been nice). You load the film into the bottom, close it up, and interact with it entirely through the app, which connects to the printer via Bluetooth.

Photograph: Fujifilm

The new Instax Link Wide app for iOS and Android is really the heart of the Instax Wide printer. Fujifilm apps are a mixed bag, but lately Instax has been improving. The new Wide app is very similar in functionality to the Mini Link app that goes with the company's latest Mini printer. However, the layout is totally different, and in my opinion it’s much cleaner and easier to navigate.

There are three printing options beyond what the app calls "Simple Print," which prints a photo that you pull from another source. That source can be any other app you share from or your camera roll on your device, like Snapseed or Google Photos. I did have one issue with a heavy green color cast when sharing an image directly from the Nextcloud app to the Instax Wide app. Downloading the same image to my phone and importing it from the camera roll solved the problem. (I should also note that this bug came up in a prerelease beta version of the Instax Wide app.)

The other three options are similar to what's in the Instax Mini Link app. The first is a way to tile images for side-by-side collage prints (Instax Wide prints are large enough to print two Instax Mini prints side by side). Collage options range from side-by-side splits to 4, 5, 6, even 12 images to a single print. As you'd expect when you try to tile 12 images onto a 3.9-x-2.4-inch print, the images are pretty tiny. I tested all of them, but the only one I could imagine actually using is the vertical side-by-side portraits.

There are also dozens of premade, customizable templates if you'd like to add text in a heart or a sidebar. A few of the templates use multiple images per print as well. The last option is the most creative—what Fujifilm calls "Sketch, Edit & Print." It allows you to photograph a drawing and display your image in the negative space. 

There aren't many settings, but one that I suggest playing with is the Print Mode. By default, mine was set to Instax Rich Mode, which I felt oversaturated the colors a bit. I preferred the results in Instax Natural Mode, though this is a matter of taste.

Once you have the image or images you want, you get to the editing screen, where you can adjust contrast, brightness, and saturation; apply filters; crop and rotate; add emoji stickers; or add a QR code (which can link to URL, or contain a hidden message, sound, or location). Use the QR code to embed a URL to your website and you have a fun, impromptu business card, or an easy way to send people to larger versions of your image.

There are quite a few ways you could use the Link Wide, but in the end its main goal is fun. It's not for museum-quality prints; it's a printer for people who want photographs to be artifacts that exist in the real world.