Kodak Photo Printer Dock PD-450 (Review)

If you think ‘photos’ or ‘film’, you’ll most likely think Kodak. An original pioneer in the photography marketplace and imaging industry, Kodak has a long history of providing great film, photo prints, and imaging hardware. With a public pedigree such as this, comes high expectations in product quality and usability for any of Kodak’s offerings.

Thankfully here, Kodak has created a high-quality little printer that works splendidly in a handful of different situations and set-ups. The Kodak PD-450 is perfect for printing on the go or setting up a print-station at home or in a business. Teens and young adults might especially find great value in having a portable photo printer at special events, parties, or in dorm rooms where space is at a premium.

What’s inside the box?

Kodak has assured virtually anyone can use this printer with very little setup. You have everything you need to get started printing within minutes. Inside the box you’ll find the following items:

• Printer Dock
• Power Brick (24V)
• micro-USB to Lightning adapter
• Simple user manual
• 10 photo papers
• Printer ink cartridge

Impressive features

The Kodak PD-450 has a host of impressive features that make it one of the best portable printing solutions on the market. With quick printing, one-touch capabilities, and compatibility for both Android and iOS devices, it’s hard not to recommend the PD-450 printer dock. Regardless of which device you have connected, the “one-touch” button will print the photo that’s currently viewable on screen. This makes it incredibly simple for any user to quickly print a photo from his or her smartphone.

Feature list:

• One-touch print
• Charge while docked
• Print wirelessly or while docked
• Quick print and quick dry
• Fingerprint-proof prints
• Waterproof prints
• Single ink cartridge
• Android and iOS compatibility

Kodak has also gone so far as to include 10 sheets of printer paper with the printing dock to get you started. These paper sheets are specific to Kodak’s printer dock only as they won’t easily work in a standard printer. Each individual sheet has perforated edges to allow for easy handling of the print once it has completed. Kodak advertises the photo paper to be both fingerprint proof and waterproof, but it’s nice to have the extra holding room on each sheet when the photo comes out of the printer.

Printing process

Printing from your smartphone or tablet is quick and incredibly simple. Download the Kodak Photo Printer App from the Google Play store, select your photo and any edits you want to apply and then select print. In approximately one to two minutes your photo will emerge from the PD-450.

Within the app, the user has access to all sorts of tweaks and print settings as well as the option to edit the look of the photos with filters, decorations and simple adjustments like brightness, contrast, and sharpness. To have these options within the app itself is a huge time saver for those photos that you want to tweak or modify with zany stickers, emojis or text bubbles. You can also save independent edits of any photos right to your device while retaining the original photo. There’s also a share button if you want to post any photo modifications to any of your favorite social media sites. Kodak really has covered just about everything here.

Overall quality

The Kodak Dock (PD-450) has a sturdy design and more heft than I would have expected. The extra weight assures that the dock will not easily fall off of a table or stand while in use or from accidental bumps from passers-by. Considering the dock is meant to be portable, the overall weight negates some of the overall portability of the device. Also, the paper loader (which detaches) sticks out a good six inches, which can also affect placement location.

Minor shortcomings

So the Kodak PD-450 does just about everything very well–great quality prints, portability, ease of use and a ton of features. But, it’s not perfect. My biggest complaint is paper cost. While I understand this is high-quality paper with fingerprint and smudge-proof qualities, it’s still somewhat costly. As of this writing, a 120 sheet pack of photo paper with ink is about $47.00 if purchased online. That equates to about 40 cents per print which is about double the standard 20 cents per print you’d find at other online or local shops. The main advantage with the PD-450 is that you get your photo in a minute or two instead of waiting anywhere from an hour to a few days for your photos to arrive.

My only other qualm with the printer would be that some photos turned out a little on the darker side. This is easy to fix with a little pre-editing, but without seeing the initial print, it’s impossible to know beforehand. I ended up reprinting a few pictures just because the shadows were so dark it was tough discre in normal lighting, which cost me the extra forty cents.

Docked and Loaded

Kodak has created an affordable and efficient portable printing dock that works with a handful of different devices. Simplicity is definitely key here and Kodak has hit the nail on the head with the PD-450. This little photo printer is limited to 4X6 prints, but could be a big hit at a party and is a perfect alternative to getting prints at a local or online shop. With all things considered, this is a nice all-in-one solution that works wonders with editing, sharing, importing and printing of virtually any photo that your smart-device can access.