Sometimes, you just want to enjoy the tactile fun of printing Instax photos without the hassle of actually using an Instax camera. If that's you, the new Instax Mini Link 3 smartphone printer could be your next impulse purchase for birthday parties and weddings.
The successor to the Instax Mini Link 2, which arrived in 2022, works just like its predecessors. Connect it to your smartphone via Bluetooth, then choose a photo in the companion app and you can print out a little keepsake copy. That takes about 15 seconds, followed by the fun 90 seconds of waiting for it to develop.
But the Mini Link 3 also brings a few new tricks to the Instax party. For starters, it finally has USB-C charging. There’s also a new photo booth-style twist on creating collages: you capture a series of photos in three-second intervals in the app, then combine two, four, or six of them into a collage print.
The Mini Link 3 can also print from videos and has been launched alongside a new Mini ‘Sprinkles’ film, which has a sickly sweet charm for little ones, including an “attractive sprinkle pattern reminiscent of cake toppings, ice cream and candy”. An option best reserved for birthday parties.
As before, you can also add what are optimistically called “3D AR effects” to your photos before printing them. This involves choosing a background in the app and adding some effects, such as confetti, spotlights and sparkles – again, you can see who the target audience is.
Another interesting update for long-time Instax fans, though, is an update to Fujifilm's Instax Up app. This app lets you scan, import, and organize your Instax prints, and now has a new “Instax Days” feature that automatically dates and adds your scanned photos to a calendar.
If all of this sounds interesting to you, you can pick up a Mini Link 3 in green, pink or white from August 28 for £115 (which works out to around $150 / AU$225, though we'll update this page when we have international pricing).
Go wide or go home?
Considering how expensive Instax film is, it's worth spending some time deciding which of the three formats you prefer most.
The diagram above is a handy comparison of their sizes. The Mini format, about the size of a credit card, is the smallest, making it ideal for small souvenirs that fit in a wallet or purse.
If you want slightly more generously sized photos, though, we're big fans of the Instax Wide. Despite being twice the size of Mini film, the Wide format isn't that much more expensive to buy, and as our Fujifilm Instax Link Wide review concluded, that printer is “a dedicated instant camera, much more portable and customizable through its dedicated app – it's our new favorite instant printer.”
We're looking forward to trying out the new Instax Mini Link 3 when it arrives later this month, but it's got a lot of work to do to tempt us past its Wide sibling.
