Is 10 MP real or “interpolated?”
I can’t find any details on the sensor used in this camera, which isn’t particularly surprising, as this is more a toy than a serious camera. Sensors in the size range that this camera would likely use with >10,000,000 photosites are common and cheap though, so there’s no reason I can see to suspect it’s not a ‘real’ 10MP sensor.
The main thing anyone asking about megapixels needs to know is this: Megapixel values simply are not useful for comparing the image quality different cameras will produce. They don’t tell you anything about how good or bad a given camera is, they only tell you the rough size limit on prints you can produce from the images the camera captures. The manual suggests that print quality may be reduced if source images are less than 1280x2448, which is 3MP. This produces 2.1"x3.4" prints, and at 1280x2448/3MP that would mean 600 DPI prints, which most folks would consider more than sufficient for this purpose. 10MP at this size would be around 2420x4080, resulting in 1200 DPI, which is bananas.
Have you been able to drive deeper into this? I am interested in this camera for someone who wants to get into print photography and I’m unsure if this would be a good starting place.
Have you read the reviews for it yet?
That’s always a good start as long as there’s over 50 reviews.
(hint: click on ‘most recent’ reviews)
This is a poor starting place for any photography hobby. The camera itself is going to give you pretty poor quality pictures overall, especially if you want to use them for any purpose other than immediately printing like a polaroid. Your phone’s camera is almost certainly vastly superior to this one.
The printer functionality can be used with pictures taken on your phone, and the print quality is likely pretty good. Do you want a bunch of 2.1" x 3.4" photos for some reason or know someone who does? If the answer to that question is no, there’s no reason to even consider buying this.