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| Sunday, December 2, 2007 |
HP Photosmart A626 Compact Photo Printer Review |
I was very excited when I was selected to review the HP Photosmart A626 Compact Photo Printer. This printer was so popular, that PBN had to randomly pick reviewers. My experience with printing at home is using either my HP Photosmart 7960 or Kodak Easy Share. Honestly, while I love taking pictures and even uploading pictures, I'm terrible about actually printing them. One of my friends always includes a current picture of her child in thank you notes. If someone gives her child an outfit as a gift, she'll take a picture of her child in the outfit and enclose it in the thank you card. I love that idea! I'm great about taking the photo; it's just printing it that's the problem.
When I got this new printer, my first concern was that it looked so professional - would professional mean complicated? The answer is no. As soon as I pulled it out of the box, my husband commented that it was "cute". It really is. It's small, compact and somehow dare I say it, almost pretty looking. It comes with a manual as well as a piece of paper with very easy to read step by step instructions on how to install and set up the printer. There are even good photos. These are not like obscure directions for putting together kids toys; these directions are very easy to follow.
Likewise, the printer itself is easy to use. I am usually good about reading the directions before using a new product, but this printer is so easy to navigate, I did not bother using the manual to print directly from my memory card. I only referenced the manual to try to print from my computer. The printer itself comes with an introductory set of paper and ink cartridge.
The printer has a lot of features and functions. My second favorite is the stylus that can be stored differently depending on whether the printer is traveling or sitting on your desk. In the former configuration, the stylus is securely locked into place. In the latter configuration, it is pointed up and easy to reach.
My favorite feature is the touch screen. Yes, really and truly it's a touch screen printer. There are only five main buttons so you don't feel overwhelmed. Basically you choose your photo and then you select the options. If you want the options, there are a lot of them! You can choose the standard options of cropping, rotating and getting rid of red-eye. For cropping, you actually use your finger to drag the borders of the photo. You can also choose to adds frames (and they have a decent selection), writing using your stylus, greetings, or clip art. When adding greetings, you can choose the font, color, and placement of the greeting with a touch of your finger. Other options include black and white or sepia printing or making a photo "slimming." The options were all easy to use, although unfortunately the anti-red eye function did not always work.
If you have (or purchase) a USB cord, the printer can connect to your computer giving you additional options. For example, HP sent me the materials to be able to put together a 5"x7" and 8.5" x 11" HP Photobooks. Once you install the software that comes with the printer onto your computer, it allows you to select from a list of album types (travel, parties, etc.). Then you pick your desired page size and add in your pictures and text. I selected a travel album that had a template with cute travel-related designs on the pages. I then made a small album for my son with pictures from our recent Disney World trip. Once I picked the pictures, the computer built an initial version of the album for me, placing one photo on some pages and multiple photos on others. I found it easy to play around with the photos. However, when I reviewed the albums before printing, I had a hard time reading what I had written. My album did end up with a typo. Also, some of the text that I thought I had added did not actually print. On the other hand, the results were pretty good given how little time I spent figuring out the process. I suspect both of these problems are just learning curve issues.
Once the pages are printed, I found the book itself very easy to put together. I bent the cover of the album back and slid the pages into the book. The "fold" is not permanent, so I can add more pages later if I choose (or reprint the page with the typo). I'm planning on making a larger album about our Disney trip for all of us.
If you check out Snapshot Chronicles, they are offering a 20% discount up through Dec. 31, 2007 using the code AC8595.
The printer also can do more than basic photos and photo albums. It can create panoramic prints photo stickers, passport photos and CD/DVD tattoos. Each of these requires special paper, so I didn't test them, but the process appeared to be as straightforward as creating a photo album. You can also "share" your photos via the internet with other people. However, you can only share your original photos; you cannot share the photos that you have edited (or at least I could not figure out how to share edited photos). You will thus have to take my word for it that the slimming effect worked, since I can't show the before and after.
Despite a couple of small challenges that I described, I was impressed by the breadth of functions, ease of use, and quality of output. This printer is a nifty device that can do a lot without requiring much up-front learning. |
posted by Alex Elliot @ 10:17 PM
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| Name: | Alex Elliot |
| Home: | MA, United States |
| About Me: | Professional Mom of two cats, a dog, an ant farm, and oh yeah...two boys: a 4 year old and a 1 year old. Also found in my house is my husband who is known on this blog as The Big Giraffe. |
| See my complete profile |
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It IS cute, isn't it? For a piece of hardware (that wasn't made by Apple), it has great design aesthetics.
Thanks for the awesome review!