instax mini 12 vs Polaroid Go

#	Product	Best for	Cost per shot	Price
1	Fujifilm instax mini 12Cheaper to buy, far cheaper to run, and impossible to operate wrongly.	Best for most gift buyers	$0.85	Check price
2	Polaroid Go Generation 3A genuine Polaroid square, shrunk to pocket size — at the highest running cost here.	Best if it has to be a Polaroid	$1.37	Check price
3	Fujifilm instax mini 13The mini 12 with the one feature a party actually needs.	Worth the extra look: same price band, adds a self-timer	$0.85	Check price

The short version

Both of these are real cameras from real manufacturers whose film you can buy without hunting. Neither is a mistake. But they are optimized for different things, and the difference does not show up on the price tag — it shows up every time the recipient presses the button.

The instax mini 12 is the cheapest camera in the category to own. The Polaroid Go Generation 3 is the cheapest camera in the category to buy that still gives you a Polaroid. If the person you are buying for has said the word "Polaroid", read that literally — they want the white frame, and an instax mini will land as a near-miss.

Side by side on the things that matter

The running cost, which is the real decision

A camera in this category is a subscription with a one-off joining fee. Film is the subscription. At 85 cents against $1.37, every ten photographs taken on the Polaroid Go cost about $5.20 more than the same ten on the instax mini 12 — and the gap compounds for as long as the camera gets used.

That table is the argument. Over a first year of ordinary use the film bill, not the camera, decides which of these two was the cheaper gift — and it is not close. Our full breakdown of instax film costs and the same workings for Polaroid show where every figure comes from.

Print size: the thing people get wrong

On paper the Polaroid Go print is bigger — 2.6 x 2.1 inches against 2.4 x 1.8. In the hand the difference is smaller than that, because the Go print puts a thick white frame around a 47 x 46 mm image. The instax mini uses 62 x 46 mm of its slightly smaller print for the picture. So the Go gives you more paper and less photograph.

Neither is large. If print size is what you actually care about, both of these are the wrong camera and the answer is instax WIDE or a full-size Polaroid.

Batteries: the quiet reason the mini 12 wins as a gift

The mini 12 takes two AA batteries. The Polaroid Go has a built-in lithium cell charged over USB. For a gift, AA is the better property: the camera works the moment it comes out of the box if you tape a pair of batteries to it, it works again in five years when the cell in a rechargeable camera would have degraded, and it works at a party without someone finding a cable.

Who should buy which

• •Buying for a child or teenager: instax mini 12. Cheaper film means more photographs, AA batteries mean no charging arguments, and the camera survives being thrown in a bag.
• •Buying for an adult who asked for a Polaroid: Polaroid Go Generation 3. Nothing else in this price band produces that frame.
• •Buying for a party or a wedding table: instax mini 13 instead of either, for the self-timer — or read our wedding guest book picks.
• •Buying for someone who takes a lot of photographs: instax mini 12, and spend the difference on film rather than on the camera.
• •Not sure the recipient will use film at all: neither. A phone printer prints the photos they already have.

What the reviewers who handle these say

We do not test hardware, so the hands-on judgments here are other people's. Engadget calls the instax mini 12 "a basic instant camera ideal for newbies that lets you get started shooting", and describes the Polaroid Go as "basic and relatively cheap, but it offers a lot". Both verdicts match the specifications: these are simple cameras that do one thing.