Toy maker Tomy takes on smartphone printers with the KiiPix-- a battery-free printer able to produce an image by simply hand-cranking a dial, customers to easily and (relatively) cheaply print small images.
The KiiPix is rather similar to the Holga Printer, a hand-cranked printer from the venerable camera brand currently going through a crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter. Both printers are compact devices based on the same principle, namely copying the smartphone display onto Fujifilm Instax Mini instant film.
To print a photo, the user first needs to fold open the KiiPix printer, slot the smartphone (with the display at maximum brightness, Tomy suggests) in place on the fold-out stand, press a shutter button to expose the film to the smartphone display, and wind the crank to draw the film from the cassette. The result? A Polaroid-style print.
The KiiPix is available now in a choice of 3 colours, cheery blossom, sky blue and jet black.
Go Tomy KiiPix
