Customer Reviews

HP A716 Photosmart Compact Photo Printer

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This little HP printer makes the most unbelievable 4X6 and 5X7 prints on HP's glossy Advanced Photo Paper. I am amazed each time I make a print. I generally work with a large format Epson Stylus Pro 4000 which contains 8 inks. That HP has found a way to get results like this with just three colors, is remarkable. The pictures are tack sharp, the color is accurate, the image is flawless. You feel you are looking at a print done "the old fashioned way" by a quality lab. I like the fact that each time you replace the ink cartridge you are automatically replacing the print heads as they are an integral part of the cartridge itslef. This should make clogging quite rare. I have just gone through my first cartridge and not one problem. As pointed out by others, the per-print price may be a little higher, but it is so much fun and so effortless to use, that the HP A716 is a winner in my book.

I purchased this so I could print photos while traveling. It has met my needs 100%. It's easy to use, the print quality is really good, and it's lightweight. The compact size also makes it easy to pack in a loaded vehicle for travel or setup in a small area for printing. As for supplies, I found that it is currently the only compact photo printer which you can purchase the ink cartridge and photo paper separate at a local office supply store. If you're looking for ease of use, good print quality, and compact size, I recommend the A716.

I have not yet advanced to anything beyond "auto" on my digital camera; but within minutes of starting to print pictures using this photo printer, I was able to crop, enlarge, and brighten. I have printed over 300 pictures since receiving this printer, and I love it! It is so easy to use, and it prints an extremely sharp picture. I would highly recommend this printer.

This photo printer is very easy to use. Compact and lightweight. Good for those who just want to print pictures without a lot of high tech nonsense.

this printer is great- its easy to use, there is really no need for a manual, prints pictures quickly and the color is excellent. i love how you can put a jumpdrive or a memory card to it and it will show all of the pictures. you can rotate the pictures, delete them off of your memory card as you go, on the printer, you can turn the pictures black and white, sepia, antique, ect. you can change the brightness from the printer, crop it... all in all, excellent! i'd reccommend this to anyone :)

I was very hopeful that this printer would meet my needs. The printer worked fine with my 1GB SD card, and also when I connected my PictBridge-compatible camera. (I should mention that the dark tones in the printer appeared very dark.) However I also just bought a couple of 2GB SanDisk Ultra II cards. The printer doesn't recognize these cards when inserted into the appropriate slot - it gives an error message that the card could not be recognized. I contacted HP support and they verified indeed that the printer does not support SD cards larger than 1 GB. I'm sorry that I'll have to return the printer.

The photo that accompanies this product description doesn't really show how tiny this printer is. Imagine a 1 liter bottle on its side.

I narrowed my choices down to this printer or a small Epson photo printer. This one won because it prints 6x8" as well as 4x6".

The "brick" power supply is fine for a stationary location but I bought the optional battery so I can carry it around (great carrying handle) to use on other computers or connected to the TV with one fewer cable to connect. With the battery, you can put this in your lap, scroll through photos saved internally (4 GB on internal memory accessed by USB) or from one of several flash memory (camera card) slots. When you see a picture you like you can mark it and then batch print all marked images. It knows the difference between landscape and portrait and prints without being told.

You can connect a video cable from the A716 to your TV's video input and watch an automatic slideshow or scroll through manually. It comes with a remote control! As with watching on the clear LCD screen, you can print immediately or mark for batch printing.

I found it took a little bit of time for me to understand the user interface. It uses a concept I wasn't familiar with. After playing with it, I get it and it's fine.

PC Magazine says that prints cost [...] cents each. I use Costco Kirkland photo paper and bought multiple ink cartridges from an Amazon merchant at a big discount. I have not figure out what the final costs are. The convenience over using a drug store or on-line printer is great.

Basically you prepare your photos for printing and then print directly from your computer as you always have, or download the images into the printer or to a flash memory card to plug into it. Most other printers use CPU cycles so this printer will not slow you down.

As it prints, it gives a progress report in terms of photos printed and how much time is left. Very nice.

My old printer would do wacky things when printing to boarderless photo paper. It would lob off a tiny bit of the side and bottom of the photo and then stretch the remainder out to fit. If you sent a picture that wasn't the right aspect ratio it would make some idiotic decisions. With the A716, you have complete control. It takes up about 20% of the space of the old printer.

The engineering and finish of this product is outstanding.

Update: 9 months later

This printer locks up about once a month. I pull the power cord out to reset it. But if you have the battery in place, you have to pull the cord and remove the battery. I really haven't found much use for this as a portable "print anywhere" printer. It works very well as a computer-attached printer. I do NOT use any of the HP software.

I have a 4x6' bulletin boarde with many pictures printed on this printer. They look great!

Bottom line: a very good printer.

This is a very good affordable photo printer. Easy to setup and understand controls. Remote is great for viewing and editing photos on TV. Handles all media cards and even jump drive. Good quality prints.

I love this little thing, so quick and simple, the photos come out looking professional, wish it would do 8 by 10's, but then it wouldn't be so compact. My only gripe ~ this thing goes through ALOT of ink.
But all in all, it's a great photo printer !

Bought this Photosmart A716 along with the battery for my wife who likes to scrapbook. As a portable printer, it should be great. I like that it is compact, and prints up to 5x7 or 4x12 panoramic prints. But, it isn't a top-quality photo printer. Prints are acceptable, but if you look closely, they aren't high quality. The resolution is visible in people's eyes, and in solid color backgrounds, there are speckles of color. I'm sure the per-print cost isn't going to be cheap, either. I still plan to keep it, because it seems really well made, and is very compact, and will serve a purpose.

1/2/2008 Update: The handle came off while I was lifting it out of a bag, at an angle. There are two brass pivot pins that the handle fits over. There is only about 2 mm of engagement of the pins into the handle. The trouble is, the die-cast handle can spread out at least this much, when the printer (with the battery in it) is tilted end-wise, and most of the weight is on one end of the handle. I dropped the printer about a foot (luckily, it was over a table at the time). If it had dropped to the floor, it may not be working now. I consider this a design flaw, and something to definitely be wary of.