Print IRL Polaroids straight from your phone with this ‘tabletop darkroom’

A decade ago we were all trying to make our phone photos look like retro Polaroid prints with this new fandangled app called Instagram. (Or Hipstamatic, if you were slow on the Insta-uptake.) 

Now, the aesthetic has finally come full circle with Polaroid’s latest digital-to-print gadget that turns those photos back into actual… Polaroids.

The Polaroid Lab is being touted as a “tabletop darkroom”. With your photo open in the proprietary app, you place your phone face down on top of the Lab, and the device snaps, projects and prints it onto Polaroid film and ejects it into your waiting hands. 

Now, I’m no fancy camera scientist, but it seems like that’s basically… a kind of camera? Essentially a Polaroid camera without the actual ability to take actual photos?

That said, there are also other cool features beyond the abilities of the simpler digital-to-Polaroid printers and gadgets that came before it — like the ability to build collages in the app before printing so images line up perfectly in any layout, and a feature that seems to take Live Photos into account by printing the still but allowing Live view in the app through AR.

Not to mention that it appears not to require any pesky pairing or connections between the phone and the Lab.

While there are plenty of options that allow you to get photos off your phone and into your hands, this seems like a cute way of having a “Polaroid camera” with you all the time — and also being able to immortalise your best shot in the real-deal iconic Polaroid format without the stress of using up an expensive bit of film on a shot where you’re mid-sneeze.

The Polaroid Lab is out on Oct. 10, and will work with most Android smartphones and iPhones from 6 onwards — and yes, it uses regular i-Type and 600 film.

Just remember not to shake it, no matter what Andre 3000 tells you.