The HP Photosmart A626 is a compendious picture printer that features a special 4.8 - in touch - screen display and stylus to make impression pic well-situated than ever . Equipped with a pocket-size carrying handle , the attractive , boom box - shaped A626 is design for you to carry along on trips or special occasions . The A626 ’s user interface is nonrational and innovative , but like the tumid , more expensive version of this printer — the Photosmart A826 ( ) — the A626 ’s photographic print tone suffers from dull - looking dark prints . The A626 utilise a tri - color ink organization , which include cyan , Battle of Magenta , and yellow ; this means that blacks areprocessed , or a combining of those three colors , as opposed to a rightful black ink . As a result , test prints with the A626 lacked astuteness and shadow detail ; the timbre of black - and - white photos was particularly subscript . But if you ’re a scrapbooker or shutterbug looking for a agile , easy mode to immortalize your memories in print , the A626 should n’t let down .
Weighing slightly more than three pound , the A626 is a pushover to take out and set up . After plugging in the power cord , installing an ink magazine , load up some newspaper , and inserting a memory placard , you ’ll be ready to print . The A626 supports all the major retentivity cards — CompactFlash Type I and II , Memory Stick , Memory Stick Duo , Secure Digital / MultiMediaCard / Secure MultiMediaCard and xD - Picture Card — so you should n’t be left out .
Unlike most compact photograph printers , the A626 has an input tray that can be adjusted to print on various theme sizes — up to 4 - by-12 - inch prospect . Our Top Product in the compact photo pressman category , the Epson PictureMate Zoom PM 290 ( ) , produced star print , but can only print 4 - by-6 - inch photos . You ’ll probably print stock 4 - by-6 - in photos most often , but you might occasionally desire to publish larger or scenic photos . If that ’s the case , you ’ll revalue the tractability offered by the A626 .
Though the A626 supports various paper size of it , the input tray electrical capacity is surprisingly small , hold a maximum of 20 sheets . The stimulation tray is approachable by prying assailable a cover on the back of the printing machine , leaving very niggling space to load newspaper publisher . The A626 ’s design could be improved to offer both easier access to its input tray as well as greater paper capacity .
The A626 ’s metier is its innovative , user - favorable interface . While using this printing machine , I never had to confab the substance abuser manual of arms . Even when it ran out of ink or paper , the printing machine ’s bright screen displayed instructions on how to recharge the media . The A626 also makes it straightforward to apply more in advance edits to your photos , such as effects , clip nontextual matter , and cropping .
In terms of mark tone , the A626 leave something to be desired . The A626 ’s photo appear more or less flat and obtuse ; under brightness , you ’ll see that blue color look a little blotted . I got the good results when print brighter picture on HP Premium Plus Photo newspaper . Still , despite the printer ’s issue with dark-skinned print , if you ’re not nitpicky , the A626 ’s exposure look pleasing .
In my testing , the A626 turned in average resolution for print speed , taking 1 instant and 38 seconds to print a single 4 - by-6 - in photo at best lineament . This is n’t a painfully long time to wait for a photo to print , but the Epson PictureMate Zoom print photos much faster , taking 42 second to perform the same test .
jury tests
plate = Superior , Very Good , Good , Fair , Poor
timed trials
exfoliation = Minutes : Seconds
How we tested : We printed all test data file from a SanDisk CompactFlash card inserted in the printer . We recorded the metre it took to print a 4 - by-6 - inch photo and the fourth dimension it took to print five 4 - by-6 - column inch picture . A board of experts examined samples of the pressman ’s output to rate its print quality as Superior , Very safe , Good , Fair , or Poor in compare to the output of past succinct photo printing machine we ’ve tested.—Macworld science laboratory examination by Brian Chen
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Macworld’s buying advice
Attractive , easy - to - use , and innovational , the A626 should make a good travel partner for scrapbookers and hobbyists . The ability to print up to 4 - by-12 - inch panoramas is a very utile option , but the A626 ’s small paper mental ability is a strange , confutative limitation . The printing machine ’s weakness lies in its middling ability to impress dark-skinned or black - and - white photos . But if you ’re not the nitpicky type and you ’re await for a user - friendly , fun printer to make for to parties and events , the A626 is a good choice .
[ Brian Chen is an adjunct editor program atMacworld . ]
