Designed for Polaroid‘s 600-series integral film, the Impulse AF models are similar in body design to the autofocus models released for SX-70 film (usually known as OneStep AF models) in that they feature a non-folding plastic body, plastic lens and sonar focusing. The Impulse autofocus models feature higher quality 3-element lenses than the fixed-focus Impulse models.

The Impulse AF is usually found in a mid grey colour, but there were a variety of different colours of Impulse released including yellow, blue and purple. The body is a hard-wearing plastic, and features rubber grips around the rear, a tripod-socket, flash-ready light, film counter and timer LED. The flash is raised by pressing down onto the top of the unit; this also turns the camera on and retracts the lens cover.