One of the things we wished Polaroid put in its Cube camera is Wi-Fi. With no way to see what you’re recording or replay what you shot, the Cube isn’t as convenient to use as Wi-Fi-enabled action cams. But, with the Cube’s low price and fun-to-use approach, we gave the company a pass. Well, Polaroid just introduced a new Cube with Wi-Fi built in, making it much more mobile friendly than its predecessor.
The Cube+ retains the original Cube’s dimensions and most of the specs, including its unique magnetic bottom that attaches easily to metal objects or specialty mounts. Besides Wi-Fi, Polaroid upped the photo resolution from 6 megapixels to 8MP, and added support for 64GB Micro SD cards. Despite having Wi-Fi, Polaroid says battery life remains the same (90 minutes of video recording, but we assume this is based on Wi-Fi turned off).
Like most smartphone apps for cameras, the Polaroid Cube+ App (iOS and Android) gives you a live view image, and you can edit, print, and share videos and images from the app. You can print directly from your phone to one of Polaroid’s portable Zink printers (via Bluetooth), like the Zip.
Otherwise, the Cube+ is similar to the original Cube (click here to read our review). It will come in black, red, and blue, and retail for $150. The price puts it above GoPro’s entry-level Hero but well below the new Hero+ with Wi-Fi. While the Cube+ has Wi-Fi and higher resolution, the Hero has advantages like burst shooting, SuperView mode, and low-light mode. However, from a marketing standpoint, Polaroid has told us it’s targeting a somewhat different crowd than GoPro.
As for the original Cube, it will stay in the lineup for $100. In August, Polaroid will introduce it in two new colors: hot pink and glow-in-the-dark green.