Polaroid Go Generation 3 review

1. Verdict: a real Polaroid, genuinely pocketable

Polaroid Go Generation 3

The cheapest way into Polaroid film, as long as the small print is what you want.

Buy it for

Someone who will carry it everywhere, or who wants the Polaroid name under $100.

Skip it if

Anyone expecting the classic 4.2 x 3.5 inch Polaroid. This photograph is 2.6 x 2.1 inches, smaller than an instax mini.

• •**$89.99 listed** — the lowest entry price to genuine Polaroid film.
• •251.9 g and 106.5 x 83.8 x 64.6 mm. It really does fit in a coat pocket.
• •Go film is **16 photographs a pack**, so about $1.37 a shot — Polaroid's cheapest by a wide margin.
• •Self-timer, double exposure, a selfie mirror, and up to **15 film packs per charge**.
• •A vacuum discharge tube flash, which Polaroid credits for better shots in poor light.

Running cost: Polaroid Go works out at $1.37 a shot, so a hundred photographs in the first year puts the real total at about $243.92 including the camera. See every format’s cost.

How it scores7.5/10 overall

• Portability10
• Running cost5
• Print size4
• Ease of use8
• Focus accuracy5

Our editorial scoring, built from published specifications and reviews by outlets that test hardware — see how we pick. We have not handled these products, so these are not test results.

Engadget, which publishes hands-on reviews, calls it “basic and relatively cheap, but it offers a lot”.

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Read the full review

What it is

The Go is Polaroid's answer to the obvious objection to its range: everything else is large and expensive. This is small and, by Polaroid standards, cheap — $89.99 listed, 251.9 grams, and small enough that carrying it is not a decision you have to make.

It is a real Polaroid in every meaningful sense. The print has the white border, it develops over 10 to 15 minutes, and the film is Polaroid's own chemistry at ASA 640. The only thing shrunk is the picture.

Specifications

What it costs to own

Here is the pleasant surprise: the Go has the cheapest film of any Polaroid, because a pack holds sixteen photographs rather than eight. Go film was $21.99 for 16 on 13 October 2026 — about $1.37 a shot, against $2.37 for i-Type.

So the Go is both the cheapest Polaroid to buy and the cheapest to run — but it remains 60% more expensive per photograph than instax mini, for a print of a similar size. That is the comparison that matters if the brand is not the point.

What it is good at

• •Being carried. The entire case for this camera. At 251.9 g it goes in a coat pocket, and a camera you have with you takes photographs a camera at home does not.
• •Being a real Polaroid under $100. Nothing else in the range comes close on price, and the white-framed print is unmistakable.
• •Battery life. Up to 15 film packs — 240 exposures — per charge is excellent.
• •Having a self-timer, which several more expensive instax models do not.
• •Cheap film, by Polaroid standards. $1.37 a shot is the lowest in the brand's range.

Where it falls short

• •The print is very small. Smaller than an instax mini, and about a quarter the area of the Polaroid people picture. This is the single most important thing about the camera.
• •Fixed focus, and Engadget specifically reports the autofocus "delivers spotty results". On film at $1.37 a frame, a soft photograph is not free.
• •Go film fits nothing else. No other camera takes it, and the Go takes no other film — not i-Type, not 600, not SX-70. You are locked into one format with one supplier.
• •Still 60% more than instax mini per photograph, for a comparable print size. If the brand does not matter, the economics do not favor it.
• •Built-in battery. When it eventually stops holding charge, that is the camera's working life over.
• •Albums are harder to find. Most instant-photo albums do not fit Go prints, which is why Polaroid sells a Go-specific pocket album.

What published reviews say

Engadget names the Polaroid Go its best basic instant camera and writes that it is "basic and relatively cheap, but it offers a lot" — while noting in the same assessment that the autofocus "delivers spotty results". Both halves of that are worth taking seriously.

Alternatives

• •[Polaroid Now Generation 3](/instant-cameras/polaroid-now-gen-3-review) — the full-size print with real autofocus, for $30 more and $1 more per shot. If the classic photograph is what you want, this is the camera.
• •[instax mini 12](/instant-cameras/instax-mini-12-review) — a similar print size, 85 cents a shot instead of $1.37, and film in supermarkets.
• •[instax SQUARE SQ40](/instant-cameras/instax-square-sq40-review) — a proper square print at $1.15 a shot, in a better-built body.

Who should buy it

Buy the Go if portability is the priority and the recipient wants a Polaroid specifically. It is the only genuinely pocketable camera that shoots real Polaroid film, and the self-timer and double-exposure modes make it more capable than its price suggests.

Do not buy it as the budget route to a classic Polaroid photograph, because it does not make one. If the print size is the point, the Now Generation 3 is the camera; if cost is the point, an instax mini is cheaper per shot for a similar print.