50 of 51 people found the following review helpful:
Well it replaced my Picturemate
Where to begin, this printer has a lot to cover and I'm not going to hit everything.
I think foremost of importance is how does the print quality look. I have 2 other printers to compare the prints with. One is a full size HP D7560 and the other is a Epson PictureMate Dash. I printed the same test picture right from a memory card on each. Comparing the three...
Nice, but not for serious photographer
This is a very compact machine and fairly simple to use. It produces crisp and clean prints with good detail. Landscapes come out best. With portraits, the colors get funny and one needs to experiment with different manufacturers' paper, and the "Photo fix" and "Colorspace" settings under "Preferences". As the other reviewer mentioned, there is no black ink cartridge so...
This review is from: HP Photosmart A646 Compact Photo Printer (CC001A#B1H) (Electronics)
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program(What's this?)
Where to begin, this printer has a lot to cover and I'm not going to hit everything.
I think foremost of importance is how does the print quality look. I have 2 other printers to compare the prints with. One is a full size HP D7560 and the other is a Epson PictureMate Dash. I printed the same test picture right from a memory card on each. Comparing the three both HP's look better than the Epson. The HPs were sharper and more colorful than the Epson. Comparing the HPs to each other I'd say the D7560 wins but not by a lot. The 646 picture had more color saturation and the D7560 had less color saturation and a little bit more detail making it look more natural. Between 646 and PictureMate I am going to keep the 646 and sell the PictureMate. The pics aren't perfect with the color saturation but they are good.
I know I could probably tweak the color on the PC of what I send to the Picturemate and make them match but I'm not all about doing that. The Picturemate did print a little bit faster but both are fast enough that it doesn't really matter. The 646 can do 5x7 and the PictureMate can't. Another plus the 646 has over the Picturemate is print head is in the ink cartridge. The Picturemate has built in heads that if you don't print for a while will clog up. At least with the HP if that happens and it can't be unclogged a new cartridge will fix it whereas the Picturemate would probably be shot.
The 646 has built-in Bluetooth which worked well with my Blackberry Tour. The touch screen seems to work well. When you turn on the printer for the first time it will walk you through setup right on the screen which is nice. Interacting through the screen with the printer seems to work well and is nice. You can do all kinds of editing and card making right on the printer if that is what you want to do. That is not my cup of tea but I saw the wife playing with it and she said she liked it and would use it to make quick cards for different things.
My printer came with a quick instructions, padded carry case, power adapter, ink cartridge, some paper, and a stylus. What they did with the padded carry case is pretty cool. It is what the printer comes in. They wrap a cardboard sleeve around it and fasten the zipper together for in the store. Less waste is nice.
There were no software discs. The printer has software built into it for 32-bit Vista and XP. Oh it has MAC OS 10.4 and 10.5 software on it too but I know nobody cares about that. ;-) None of the built in software did me any good as I run 64-bit Vista and Windows 7 RC. I went to the HP website and got the 64-bit Vista drivers to install in Windows 7 and it works fine.
So overall I liked this enough to ditch the PictureMate and although its not perfect print wise I would say if you are looking for a compact 4x6 or 5x7 photo printer with Bluetooth this one should work well enough for what it is.
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This review is from: HP Photosmart A646 Compact Photo Printer (CC001A#B1H) (Electronics)
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The short: small, fast, minimalist, producing great looking prints.
The whole package is minimalist, compact, and designed to be simple to use: The printer arrives packaged eco-friendly in a reusable tote (made from recycled materials) that's actually nice enough to reuse. There's no driver CD, and minimal setup directions. The ink cartridge is all-in-one. The printer needs only an inch or so clearance behind, and a few inches in front (for the paper guide and output). There's a tuck-away stylus to interact with the touch screen, and a fold-down carry handle.
On powerup, the printer displays a simplified version of the paper quick setup directions, and instructs the user to print a calibration page.
When attached via USB to my WindowsXP system, the printer has an unusual design in which is appears to Windows as a CD drive, from which I did the typical driver installation, after which Windows saw the unit as a printer, not a CD drive. Unfortunately, this base Windows software installation didn't seem to offer an interface to the custom modes available from the touchscreen (eg: passport photo, greeting card, etc).
I've owned other photo printers, including Canon's small dye-sub printer: Canon SELPHY CP510 Compact Photo Printer , and this HP beats all of them in speed, print quality, and color reproduction. For color, primary colors are rich and vibrant, though neutrals (such as earth-tones) and pastels are slightly washed out. Blacks are solid and jet-black. I tested some complicated, textured, outdoor scenes and was very pleased with the results (one sample was a mix of sky, desert dust-storm, and people). The same complicated print took 1m43s at "best" and 43s at "fast normal". Interestingly, the quality difference between the two prints was modest. The "best" print was a little more rich and nuanced in detail, but at 5x7, "fast" seems adequate for most things I'd print.
I tried a couple of the speciality modes, and the printer did "the right thing" in printing passport photos, correctly scaling and sizing them (no more figuring out the DPI to resolution ration to get the exact 2x2 required for passports!). Greeting cards came out well also, though the small number of available designs are limiting.
While I like the printer a lot, I did have some quibbles:
* The inbuilt initial setup is a bit simplistic, and led me to at first not taking the tape off the contacts of my print cartridge (I don't usually use inkjet printers so didn't realize). Interrupting the setup before it was finished resulted in having to go through the setup process again. There's such a thing as "too simplified".
* To use the touchscreen-based modes on the printer I had to put the images on a memory card (presumably a bluetooth-enabled phone would have worked too). I realize many people leave their old photos "on their cameras", but I take a lot of photos, and all my archiving and sorting is done on computers, so the on-card-only design makes the custom modes much less useful to me.
* It would be nice to be able to create custom greeting card designs.
* For some reason the sticky protective cover on my model's LCD wouldn't come off without a lot of prodding and scraping, leaving a mar on the touchscreen. The screen itself has a non-obvious locking mechanism in its popped-up position that has to be pressed in the opposite direction from what I expected. I could see the screen getting broken in a multi-user household
My prints were all on HP "Advanced Photo Paper". Most vendors formulate their inks to match their paper, so the combination typically yields the best results.
Aside from the minor quibbles, I'm very pleased with this photo printer. Highly recommended.
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This review is from: HP Photosmart A646 Compact Photo Printer (CC001A#B1H) (Electronics)
I am a photographer so finding a compact printer to take with me is something I need to have at hand. I have the Canon Selphy 510 which takes the ink ribbon and the postcard paper (4x6).
I told myself I would never buy an HP printer since they were never that great. I took the chance and got this one since I had a gift card and figured it was worth investing in it. I wanted a compact printer that prints up to 5x7 and HP was the only one available that did that. When I first printed from it, I didn't like the way the colors printed. It felt like they bled in too much and there was no separation on the colors. However I was printing from my camera to the printer via usb pictbridge. So I did the one thing I should have done in the first place. I went to the colorspace on the printer screen and changed the colorspace to Adobe RGB. The colorspace on my camera was Adobe RGB and when 2 different colorspaces are set you are bond to get colors that don't look good or match what you see on your screen. So by changing the colorspace on the printer (its automatically set to auto) I was able to solve my color problem. Mostly all cameras are set on Adobe RGB. To change the colorspace on your printer go to the wrench icon, next go to PREFERENCES, scroll down until you get to colorspace and select Adobe RGB.
Your images should now print much much better and closer to what you see on your screen. Mine came out even better after changing the colorspace.
Also I have read the other reviews the bad ones too and realize that many people don't seem to do enough research on the printer before they even buy it. I haven't tried the bluetooth yet and wouldn't bother since phone cameras are not so great in the first place and you can't expect the printer to print high quality images from a phone. Its rather annoying when people complain that their phone pictures didn't come out great like the printer would magically fix the crappy camera phone quality. PLEASE!! If you want to print pictures from your phone I recommend the Polaroid PoGo printer for $50 you can get prints at 2x3 which is wallet size and it does print okay. Not 100% excellent but good enough to make you happy to have that little printer.
I love the fact that it takes larger than 4x6 paper, the touch screen rocks and the fact that it came with its own bag is sweet.
Also I recommend buying the ink by itself and getting the paper on sale. People don't seem to realize that they can get the paper on sale for much cheaper than what it costs. I bought a box of 5x7 50 pack for less than $8 and a box of 4x6 for under $10. If you buy things for less you do save more on ink and prints.
The only cons I have with this printer is that it does print a bit slower than I would like for a 5x7. However the print quality is set to best so I would believe that is why it prints slow. If it was set to normal or even fast normal I'm sure the speed would be much faster. I also don't like the fact that it doesn't take compact flash cards but it does accept pictbridge.
All in all I was glad that I like the printer. Also I am still using the ink that came with it. I have already printed 5 5x7 size prints and still have ink to spare, although I am sure I will run out quickly since I am printing larger sizes. It says it can print up to 15 4x6s on the ink that came with it which everyone should know is how all printers are. I also think that they based it on normal printing not BEST printing quality.
*Read the whole specifications about the printer before you buy so you know what it is saying. I hear too many people complaining how the printer doesn't have this or that, well you should have read what it comes with before you buy it! Its called research. That's why I got this because I liked what it said and was worth a shot buying.
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This review is from: HP Photosmart A646 Compact Photo Printer (CC001A#B1H) (Electronics)
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program(What's this?)
I've enjoyed this printer tremendously; in fact, I've traveled with it by car on two long distance trips. My grandmothers were absolutely thrilled to be presented with 4x6 and 5x7 photos immediately after having their pictures taken with their great-grandson. The quality of the photos printed on the HP A646 is equal to the photos printed on my two Canon printers (MP620 and MP830). I set the A646 up on my grandmother's nursing home bed, inserted the camera card, and printed photos that she was able to keep within minutes. At my other grandmother's, a kitchen countertop did the trick. When my in-laws came to visit us, I set the printer up outside on a small plastic deck table (near an outside power outlet) and printed family photos. The heat and humidity were high, but I was able to print about ten photos before experiencing any noticeable problems (the edge of the last printed photo appeared warped, as if the humidity impacted the paper or the ink).
Pros:
#1 - Excellent quality prints, equal to CVS' Kodak machines and the Canon MP620 and MP830.
# 2 - Lightweight and easily portable. Easy set-up allowed me to quickly print at a nursing home, in a kitchen and on a (covered) front porch in inclement weather.
# 3 - Attractive carry-pouch holds wall plug, plenty of 4x6 and 5x7 camera paper, and a full size extra ink cartridge.
Negatives:
#1 - No batteries. To be truly portable, you should be able to use batteries to power the A646. You cannot take this printer to the beach or a park unless you use a converter and hook it up in your vehicle.
#2 - The printing time is slow - each 4x6 print takes 1 minute, 30 seconds to print. This is too long if you plan to print your entire vacation from a camera card, but its fine for traveling to the houses of family/friends and printing a few shots.
#3 - Not all functions are intuitive. Why does the "pet eye fix" pop up on the main menu, but not "human red eye"? The user guide (only available online at HP) is about 100 pages in length. On page 46, it says: "to remove red eye: (1) touch the Setup icon to display Setup menu; (2) touch Preferences, (3) touch Red Eye Removal; (4) touch On to remove red eye from all prints. Touch Off to undo."
Still, I recommend the HP A646. Photo quality is excellent. I am enjoying the printer, and I use it far more than my other printers because it's fun to take to events and print off photos for friends and family.
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This review is from: HP Photosmart A646 Compact Photo Printer (CC001A#B1H) (Electronics)
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program(What's this?)
This is a very compact machine and fairly simple to use. It produces crisp and clean prints with good detail. Landscapes come out best. With portraits, the colors get funny and one needs to experiment with different manufacturers' paper, and the "Photo fix" and "Colorspace" settings under "Preferences". As the other reviewer mentioned, there is no black ink cartridge so the print colors are compromised and, often, inaccurate. I see this as a printer to use if one doesn't own a computer or to take to a party and print photos on the spot to give to friends. The limitation on this latter use is the slowness of the machine. Prints take 1&1/2 minutes and imputs such as editing and scrolling are also slow. Print sizes are limited to 4"X6" and 5"X7" (and panoramic 4"X12").
The printer did not do a good job of finding and correcting red-eye and pet-eye (a feature I liked because I take a lot of pet photos). It was hit and miss. Also, while I didn't try all the special effects, I found problems with those that I did use. I could not get the machine to print a border on an edited picture. Despite showing the preview of the border on the edited photo, the actual print would be a border on the unedited photo.
I do not know how long an ink cartridge lasts, the sample provided is not a full cartridge. Cartridges are about twenty dollars.
It does not take all sizes of memory cards but can print from a Pictbridge certified camera (whatever that is). So check to see that your card is compatible.
As with all electronic products, currently, at least in my experience, there is no full owner's manual provided, only a "Start Here" guide. One has to download the full manual from HP's website, so now I have an unbound stack of 47 8&1/2"X11" pages. I think this is an unbelievably cheap practice.
To make prints at home of casual snapshots, this does an adequate job, especially if one doesn't have a computer or printer.
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This review is from: HP Photosmart A646 Compact Photo Printer (CC001A#B1H) (Electronics)
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program(What's this?)
The A646 Printer is a good compact photo printer for every day small photo prints around the home. Notice the key word being GOOD, it is not GREAT but it does work and for what it is it works perfectly fine.
Whats Included:
Printer
Handy Padded Nylon Bag
Documentation
One packet of 5x7 Photo Paper (3 sheets)
Introductory Printing Cartridge (Note: Introductory cartridges do not have as much capacity as a regular RETAIL cartridge, they are provided for test/play).
Ac Adapter
Stylus
Once the unit is plugged in you are prompted to select the language of choice followed by the country you are located in. Once completed, using the beautiful touch screen, you are prompted to load your cartridge and finally some paper to do a cartridge alignment. The beauty of this is that you need not manipulate any documentation as the screen has handy built in animations that describe the process...Pictures tell a thousand words and this implementation makes it a breeze to get started. The alignment takes about 30 seconds, but does waste one sheet of photo paper. Once completed, the unit says it is successful and we should recycle and or discard the printed page.
Bluetooth Printing: Now this was the fun part, since I have never used a printer via Bluetooth before. I have two devices which have simple 3.2mp autofocus camera's built in. The blackberry 8900 and the iPhone. The printer detected the iPhone 3gs but the iPhone did not see this device at all. The Blackberry and Printer both saw each other and voila, I was able to select an image on my blackberry and send it to the printer. About 45 seconds later I had a decent 5x7 print of my picture and I was satisfied...all things considered this picture was taken on a cell phone and thus the quality will be of that. I was more then satisfied, with the exception of the iPhone not pairing.
Printing via Memory Card: More and more all photo printers now have the ability to read images directly from memory cards and naturally USB. This printer is no different. It has slots on the front for Memory Stick and Memory Stick Duo, SD and XD Cards, and finally a usb slot for a thumb drive etc. Simply insert your memory card and select images from the screen. (There is a blue LED that flashes when a card is inserted.) Simply hit VIEW/Print on the screen, select the image you want to print, confirm, and voila 60-90 seconds later a 5.7 image is presented. Naturally you can print on 4x6 sheets too.. The quality of the print is dependent on your image quality. For testing purposes the image printed was taken on a Canon SD 1100is Canon PowerShot SD1100IS 8MP Digital Camera with 3x Optical Image Stabilized Zoom (Silver) in super fine mode. The print was GREAT, it was not excellent but good enough to put in a frame and hang on the wall....in the end, what goes in is what comes out. While I am sure high end photo printers will give you a EXCELLENT print, portables gives you the next best thing.
Printing via Computer (PC/MAC) - Although no computer is required, some will prefer that they connect this printer to a pc or mac so that they can edit images and print them out. Not a problem at all. Details are as follows:
Windows 7 x64 - Plug in a standard USB cable and the printer automatically prompts you to run the setup software to install the driver. Naturally a 64bit driver is not included and thus you are prompted to go to HP's website and download the right driver. Click on the link and select your operating system (in my case I had to get the Vista x64 drivers). Start the installer, about a minute later the drivers are installed. However, there is a TRICK - once installed, unplug the printer, plug it back in, and run the SETUP on the printer itself...it will detect that you have new drivers loaded and set the printer up in Windows 7 x64. Printing from there on is seem less and quite easy. Prints take the same amount of time.
MAC OS X Snow Leopard: The easier of the two, since no software is required. Plug the printer in and go to System Preferences. Click on Print & Fax and hit the plus sign to add a new printer. 20 seconds later you are ready to print pictures. Quality and time are the same as pc, direct from card.
Overall I like this printer and feel that it is a great portable device. I can see our family using this a lot more then a full size printer, simply because it is easy to use and has a beautiful touch screen interface. My only negative, which is Apple's fault, is that it does not pair with an iPhone....therefore HP cannot be held responsible.
The printer earns a solid 4/5 from me...the missing one star for the quality of photos not being excellent, and the fact that a retail cartridge is not included. When spending on a device like this I feel the MFR should include a full cartridge and more then just one pack of 3-4 sheets of photo paper. It is a significant investment and should allow the user a full use right out of the box...not a trial size.
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This review is from: HP Photosmart A646 Compact Photo Printer (CC001A#B1H) (Electronics)
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program(What's this?)
Digital cameras are both a blessing and a curse. On the one hand, they allow you to take great quality pictures ad nauseum without having to buy film, lug the rolls with you on vacations/family gatherings or wait for the pictures to be processed. On the other hand, how many of you have SD cards FULL of unprinted memories? Me too.
I have a nice HP Deskjet hooked up to my home network, but it always seems like a pain to copy the pictures over, load the printer with 4x6 or 5x7 paper and set it up for borderless picture printing. Well, I am pleased to say that the HP Photosmart A646 Compact Photo Printer has solved that problem. It has SD card slots so I can just remove my SD card from my camera, plug it in and there are all my pictures. The LCD display is very nice quality and allows you to make (minor) on the fly adjustments to the pictures (i.e. red eye reduction, contrast, dark/light etc). Then just print and like a flash it prints out very nice quality prints. It's incredibly easy to use and set up. It has a port in the back for a USB printer cable, should you choose to print from your PC. I use Windows 7 and had no problems with recognition. The bluetooth was a bit temperamental with my fiancé's G1. It would pair but had trouble connecting. Not a big deal, as anything we take a picture of with our camera phones is probably not worth printing anyway. If it is, we can just email it to ourselves and print it out from the PC in a matter of minutes.
It comes with a nice compact carrying bag that will hold an extra cartridge and the power cable and, of course, the printer. It's all very lightweight, but solidly constructed. The cartridges apparently print 50 photos. Not great in my opinion, but the quality is at least as good as if you took them to your nearest drugstore or retailer to print. The price for the ink and photo paper may exceed taking them somewhere however. You'll have to weigh cost vs. convenience in this case.
Ultimately, for a printer in this category, the HP Photosmart A646 Compact Photo Printer does the job and does it VERY well. The only negative thing I can say about it is the cost of use may outweigh the convenience. However, the quality of the product, the features it offers and the quality of prints it produces will make this a great choice for those who want a compact photo printer that can be thrown in a bag and taken wherever they need to go.
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This review is from: HP Photosmart A646 Compact Photo Printer (CC001A#B1H) (Electronics)
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program(What's this?)
I need to come clean with a little bit of information first, because the HP Photosmart A646 Compact Printer broke an illusion for me. I used to think that many--if not most--of the portable printers currently on the market were battery powered for on-the-go printing (with an AC adapter included, of course). The only portable printer (if you can call it a printer) that I've owned is that little PoGo thing "Polaroid" has been selling. It ran an a terrible battery that lasted a good 15 2x3 images but it at least had the option. I look at Canon's SELPHY CP790, which comes in a beach bucket (making me think you'd take it to the beach, or outdoors at least), and I just assumed it ran on a battery. So when I received the HP A646 for review I just made the assumption I could charge it and then take it with me. I could go to the park and print a picture, perhaps. It doesn't have a battery either, just like (it seems) every other portable printer available. That was the first let down, which I was ready to forgive because I had no reason to expect it, but the A646 didn't do much other than disappoint after that.
What's probably most important is image quality. What's, perhaps, next most important is speed. It's slow at producing prints (about 1:15 for 4x6s and 1:30 for 5x7s), and the prints it produces are not much to look at. I think the biggest problem with the image quality stems from the tri-color ink cartridges the A646 uses. With no truly black ink being supplied to the printer, you just can't get the deep and rich blacks you want in a photo. They results tend to look washed out the minute they're out of the printer. If you have a photo with mostly lighter colors, you may not notice this so much, but chances are you have some black in the photo and it really affects how you view the photo as a whole. It makes everything else look lighter by comparison, even though the color you get is acceptable for the casual prints you're probably going to make with a mini printer like this. There are other minor imperfections with the print quality but ultimately you're going to get better results from a cheaper inkjet you wouldn't necessarily port around with you. One good thing in regards to the lengthy time it takes to print, however, is that there's a little countdown timer on the printer's LCD screen that lets you know how long it's going to be.
As for additional features in the printer, it has some...just not the ones I'd want, personally. Like the little PoGo I used to have, it supports Bluetooth printing. This is really only useful if you have a cell phone that can send pictures to a printer. If you have one, awesome. You might like this. If you don't, it's pretty much pointless. Sure, I can send pictures from my Mac to the printer over Bluetooth (assuming I'm sitting no more than 30 feet away from it) but I'm hard pressed to think of an occasion where I'd actually want to do that. I'd love to send photos from my phone, but I can't because I can print from Bluetooth. It would be great if this printer at least had a WiFi connection so I could print over the air, or even better if it could check an e-mail account and print photos it finds as attachments. That's getting a little complicated but I think that would be really neat. Or maybe it's just connected to photo sharing services and you can print from those services. A few years ago this might have been a neat device as-is, but in 2009 I'm expecting a little more innovation. It's pretty much just a little printer.
It does try to add value through it's user interface and fun software features, which aren't bad despite being mostly useless. The UI is nice, but it's a little sluggish because it's running on a printer's processor. This is acceptable, but the nicely animated menus would work so much better if the picture thumbnails loaded faster and the animations were smooth. I love the effort HP's made here, though, and I'd like to see this sort of interface in a printer that can keep up. It's not a huge deal given what we're dealing with. The thing is pretty tiny. Still, when the photos load slowly it can get a little aggravating if you have a bunch of them to go through. The choppiness of the animation is reasonable and doesn't impede use. I'm just wishing for perfect in this case.
HP does have a number of photo correction features in the software, however, that'll help you to remove red eye/pet eye, brighten up dark pictures and change colors in both meaningful and silly ways. You can also add clip art, write on photos, add frames and enter greetings. It works pretty well and is actually pretty fun. It's not really something I'd do often, but that's just me personally. I did enjoy playing with it, though. The only problem you may run into is with the size of the screen. It's fairly large all things considered, but a few extra inches of screen real estate would make things a lot easier--especially with writing on the photo. To make changes to the photos, there's a stylus that has a holster right in the printer (so you don't lost it). What's really nice about the A646's touch screen is that you don't actually need to use the stylus. You can use your fingers just as well but the stylus offers precision you can't get with a finger, plus you won't get fingerprints on the screen. Nonetheless, I appreciate the ability to use my fingers. Sometimes it's just easier if all you're doing is pressing a button.
Other benefits of the A646 include the bag it comes with and how intuitive it can be. It's rare to get a carrying case with a product these days and I always welcome it. It's a pretty nice bag made just for the printer and it'll help you carry it around. The printer is also designed to be easy to figure out. If you don't understand something and aren't into reading manuals or quick start guides (both included), the printer will actually walk you through setup the first time you start it up. HP created animated videos that play on the printer's LCD screen. I thought that was a very smart thing to do. When you open up the front of the printer it opens up the rest of the printer for you, make it really obvious what's what and where to put the paper and how to adjust the LCD screen. The only problem I ran into was closing everything. The paper feeder and the front close fine, but the LCD screen requires you to push two buttons on its backside before it'll recess into the printer. It's a small annoyance, but something that could've been done more elegantly (like the way it opens up).
The design of the printer is also nice, and it really is a tiny piece of machinery. It's a real printer and it's very much small enough to take with you. The bag with the printer and AC adapter is about the size of a (D)SLR bag with the camera body and a couple of lenses. For a printer, I think this is very reasonable. The problem for me, however, is that it ultimately makes no sense to have a portable printer that requires power at all times. For me, the fun of taking a printer with you is to be able to print from anywhere. If you can't do that, what's the point? Why can't you just wait until you get home? Are you really going to go somewhere that you need to print mediocre photographs at a moments notice? Maybe this would be useful for the people who print photographs at parties as souvenirs for the guests. In that case, however, why not just bring an inkjet? If you have to plug it in anyway you might as well get better quality prints and pay less for the printer. Perhaps I'm short-sighted her, but I can't really see the appeal of a device like this. I don't expect to take it with me because I have to plug it in. I can't print to it wirelessly unless it's over Bluetooth, and I've said my piece about that already. My inkjet does more and it does a far better job. Would I want to take it with me? No, not really. But would I ever want to take a printer with me? Not unless it was particularly compelling. But given the number of portable photo printers on the market, people are obviously buying these things. Though I don't quite understand the appeal, if you do you might like it. It does an okay job. It just seems like you'd be better off looking at a model that's a bit faster and can represent black as black and not as gray. Additionally, this printer can only read a few types of flash memory. It supports SD/SDHC/XD and Memory Stick, at minimum, but where's the CompactFlash? That rules out a large number of DSLR owners whose cameras still use CompactFlash either out of old age or necessity.
The point I'm trying to make here is I don't see the appeal of a portable printer with no battery to begin with, but due to the poor image quality, general sluggishness all-around and the lack of meaningful features I just can't see a reason to buy the A646. If you get a really good deal on it or someone gives you one as a gift it might be fun, but I'd put your hard-earned money elsewhere if you're looking at purchasing this at retail price.
Summary:
+ Neat user interface
+ Some mildly helpful photo correction features, and some fun ones too
+ Small size and pleasant design
+ Comes with a free bag
= Bluetooth printing, which is really only useful to people who have compatible devices
- Needs to be plugged in to operate
- Slow user interface and slow printing
- Lower than average image quality, mostly due to the absence of truly black ink
- No WiFi (and no Internet-connected features)
- Doesn't support CompactFlash and a number of other popular media formats
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This review is from: HP Photosmart A646 Compact Photo Printer (CC001A#B1H) (Electronics)
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This printer is ideal for printing on the go. You can take it to events, parties, reunions and take pictures and print on the spot and share pictures. It comes with a very cute and sturdy carry bag which has space for the cord and an extra cartridge just for that purpose. It uses an all in one cartridge and setting it up is as convenient as plugging it in, snapping in the cartridge and then putting in the photo paper (it comes with a few sample sheets).
This printer makes digital capture to paper prints process super easy by allowing you to print directly through bluetooth from your Blackberry or camera phone. (Note:iPhone does NOT allow blue tooth compatibility with external devices like this printer and the HP site urged users to write to Apple to allow syncing with this printer through Bluetooth.) You can also print by plugging in your SD card or other media card, or just plug in your camera with the USB cord and print. There were no issues printing with either method. The touchscreen controls guide you through the processes and make it super easy with friendly instructions. You really don't need a manual to use this printer.
It prints very decent quality prints given its size, better than some full size printers I have used previously. However, the prints were slightly below par compared to those printed on full size printers specifically designed for photo printing - for example, my Canon Pixma full size photo printer or Epson Artisan 800(6 ink color) printer. The speed of printing is also a little slower than printing wirelessly over an Epson Workforce 600 printer, which I also use. The all-in-one ink cartridge is great as it allows the printer to be compact, but as expected if you run out of any one color you will have to replace the entire cartridge wasting ink (and money) in the process.
This printer is designed for mobile printing, I would not recommend it if you're not going to use it outside your home or on-the-go as you can find much better photo printers in the same price range. But it is just perfect for toting around in its little bag to events or even trips where you may want to share pictures instantly with friends and family.
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This review is from: HP Photosmart A646 Compact Photo Printer (CC001A#B1H) (Electronics)
I bought a few HP printers years back. Switched to Canon for the next 4 because they are more consumer friendly in the matter of ink cartridges. My wife bought this HP Photosmart A646 today. Read the fine print, buyer. The included ink cartridge is "introductory". We got about 12 prints out of it, not counting of course the failed ink first print and the finals that discolor. Buy a cartrdige too when you buy this printer.
I was bluntly reminded of HP's arrogance. It costs them next to NOTHING to include a normal cartridge v.s. an "introductory" one with the new printer purchased. And its a given they will appreciate good profits on the cartridges we will be buying for it in the future. It never ceases to amaze me that a corporation that is stingy, gouging and manipulative believes I would overlook such an attitude when readying to purchase my next laptop, or other computing gear. The fact is, my near term next purchase - a netbook - will NOT be an HP because of such now recalled HP arrogance. Their behavioral choice - my choice with my money.
After 12 prints the printer seems fine for my wife - ease of use and output, although she had trouble getting it to see devices via its bluetooth - more trouble than for the devices she was pairing to it. We'll see how it goes longer term.
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