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Pros
- Touch screen with generally well-designed menus.
- Prints 5-by-7s, 4-by-6s, and panoramas up to 4 by 12 inches.
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Cons
- Speed is acceptable but slow.
- Messages on the printer LCD and the approach to printing from a computer can be confusing.
HP Photosmart A646 Compact Printer Specs
| Claimed lifetime for photos - dark storage: | 200 years |
| Claimed lifetime for photos - exposed: | 15 years |
| Claimed lifetime for photos - framed behind glass: | 50 years |
| Color or Monochrome: | 1-pass color |
| Connection Type: | USB |
| Cost Per Page (Color): | 33.6 cents |
| Cost Per Page (Mono): | 33.6 cents |
| Direct Printing from Cameras: | Yes (via cable) |
| Direct Printing from Media Slots: | Memory Stick |
| Direct Printing from Media Slots: | Memory Stick Duo |
| Direct Printing from Media Slots: | Memory Stick Pro |
| Direct Printing from Media Slots: | Memory Stick Pro Duo |
| Direct Printing from Media Slots: | MiniSD Card |
| Direct Printing from Media Slots: | MultiMedia Card |
| Direct Printing from Media Slots: | Secure Digital |
| Direct Printing from Media Slots: | xD-Picture Card |
| Ink Jet Type: | Dedicated Photo |
| Input Capacity (printer input only): | 20 sheets |
| LCD Preview Screen: | Yes |
| Maximum Standard Paper Size: | 5" x 7" |
| Network-Ready: | No |
| Number of Cartridges: | 1 |
| Number of Ink Colors: | 3 |
| Photos - HIGH -QUALITY SETTINGS - Adobe Photoshop 7 - Average output time per print: 4" x 6" prints : | 1:37 (min:sec) |
| Print Duplexing: | No |
| Printer Category: | Ink Jet |
| Tech Support: | http://welcome.hp.com/country/us/en/support.html 1 (800) 474-6836 One-year warranty 24/7 |
| Type: | Printer Only |
| Water/smudge proof or resistant: | Yes |
HP has a good track record with its compact photo printers, so I was expecting that this year's model, the HP Photosmart A646 Compact Printer ($149.99 direct), would probably stand out as a winner. The reality, unfortunately, doesn't quite live up to expectations. Although similar to last year's Editors' Choice
As with the A636, the A646 is a little bigger than most small-format printers, because it's designed to print 5-by-7 photos as well as the more usual 4- by 6-inch format. In addition, it can handle 4- by 12-inch panoramas. Even so, it's highly portable at 5.3 by 9.9 by 4.6 inches (HWD) and only 2.4 pounds. One nice touch is that it offers both a built-in handle that pivots out of the way when you're not using it, and a soft carrying case to help protect the printer on the go. Unlike the model it replaces, the A646 does not include a battery option.
The eco-friendly packaging is basically a bag in a box—or more precisely, a soft carrying case in a cardboard sleeve. The sleeve is hardly any larger than a typical six-pack cardboard carrier, is fully recyclable, and except for a few thin sheets of plastic on the printer itself is the only packing material that comes with the printer. Also worth mention is that HP says the soft carrying case is made from recycled plastic water bottles.
HP has clearly made a commendable effort to make the printer eco-friendly. Unfortunately, the A646 just misses earning the PCMag GreenTech Approved seal, qualifying on all criteria except the percentage of the printer itself that's recyclable (the A646 is 73 percent recyclable by weight).
Setup
Setting up the A646 is easy—simply plug it in, turn it on, and follow the instructions on its screen to install the print cartridge and load paper. You then get the option, also on the printer's screen, of trying to print a photo from a cell phone by Bluetooth. It's a nice touch, because it makes the Bluetooth feature highly visible. (So does the Bluetooth option on the main screen, but more on that in a moment.)
Whether you try printing with Bluetooth or not, the A646 is ready at this point to print from PictBridge cameras, memory cards, USB memory keys, and, of course, Bluetooth connections. Adding a computer to the list involves little more than connecting a USB cable. The print driver and installation routine are stored in the printer itself, so once you plug in the cable, you only have to tell Windows it's okay to run the setup program, click Start, and accept the license agreement.
I installed the printer on a system running Windows Vista, but according to HP, there are also onboard drivers for Windows XP and Mac OS X v10.4 and 10.5. In addition, HP says you can download drivers from its website for Vista 64-bit, Windows 7, and Mac OS X 10.6.
Touch-Screen Convenience
The A646's touch screen is one of its more notable features. Using a touch screen is much more intuitive than using separate buttons along with onscreen menus, and it helps even more that the screen is an ample 3.75 inches diagonally for the full-color display area and 4.75 inches if you include the left and right margins with control icons. Each control icon shows only when it's relevant to the menu or task at hand. Together, the icons work along with a generally well designed set of menus, with options to let you view, print, and edit photos on a memory card or USB key (to crop them or adjust brightness, for example) as well as view the photos as a slideshow.
As I've already mentioned, one of the main menu options is for Bluetooth connections, which helps make connecting and printing from, say, a cell phone a lot easier than it would be if you had to dig through the menu system to find the command. Simply tap the Bluetooth option, tell your phone to search as well, wait for the phone to find the printer, and then give the print command from your phone.
In my tests, unfortunately, the printer consistently told me that it couldn't find the cell phone, a message that suggests that it's not ready to print. I discovered by accident that if I ignored the message, I could print anyway. There's simply no good reason for the printer screen not to tell you to check your phone to see if it found the printer—which is the essential requirement that will let you print—instead of showing a No Device Found message.
Output Quality and Speed
The A646's output in my tests easily qualified as true photo quality on every photo, although it's closer to what you'd expect from your local drugstore than from a professional lab or the very best, much more expensive, inkjets. Colors were a little punchy in some cases, but no more so than some people prefer. I also saw a tendency for the printer to lose detail based on shading in dark areas, but the problem showed up in only two or three photos in our 25-photo test suite.
The photos were also reasonably water- and scratch-resistant in my tests, and HP promises a long life, at 200 years for photos kept in dark storage, as in an album; more than 50 years for photos behind glass, as in a frame; and more than 15 years for photos exposed to air.
Print speed was in the unimpressive but tolerable range, which makes the A646 much slower than the Editors' Choice
The cost per 4-by-6 photo for the A646 is 33.6 cents, based on HP's print packs with enough ink and paper for 140 photos, at $46.99 (direct). That makes it one of the more expensive photo printers to run. The cost for a 4-by-6 photo for the Charm, in contrast, is 25.3 cents. (HP doesn't quote a cost for 5-by-7-inch photos, and there's no print pack for 5-by-7s.)
Too Smart by Half
In addition to the misleading error message for Bluetooth printing that I already mentioned, I ran into two problems printing from a computer in my tests. Both grow out of HP's attempt to automate some features, but both are potentially more bothersome than helpful. The appropriate phrase is: too smart by half.
Using its default settings when printing 5-by-7-inch photos from Photoshop, with the images defined as 5-by-7 inches, the A646 driver took a 4-by-6-inch section from the center of the image and expanded it to fill the 5-by-7-inch page. This is simply bizarre behavior that I have never seen in any other printer. Setting the driver for 5-by-7-inch paper, rather than the default Automatic setting, solves the problem, but shouldn't be necessary. HP says this issue crops up only with some programs, and the company is investigating the problem further.
The second issue, which is more bothersome, grows out of the automated software installation feature. Every time I turned the A646 off and then on again, it gave an incorrect message on its own screen saying that I needed to double-click an icon that didn't exist on my computer, and Vista asked whether I wanted to run the Setup program. Once I learned to ignore the message on the printer's LCD and let the setup program run, everything worked without problems. But I went down several dead ends before I learned to ignore the message.
HP points out that the printer includes an option to let you turn off automatic software installation. However, the option is buried in the menus where it's not immediately obvious. A better choice would be to make it a first-level menu option, and for the setup program itself to automatically turn the feature off after the first time it installs the software.
One last issue that demands mention is that the printer doesn't read CompactFlash cards, just SD, XD, and various Memory Stick formats. I'll grant that CompactFlash cards are less ubiquitous in cameras than they once were, but they're still fairly common. If your camera uses CompactFlash cards, count that as a strike against the A646.
On the plus side, finally, HP's standard 1-year warranty includes HP picking up the shipping cost in both directions for repair or replacement during the warranty period.
Whatever the A646's shortcomings, it still offers reasonably high-quality output, acceptable (if pokey) speed, and the ability to print from multiple sources (as long as you don't need it to print from CompactFlash cards). If all you want is 4-by-6-inch output, be sure to look at the PictureMate Charm. If you want to print photos at 5-by-7 inches, however, or take advantage of panorama printing at 4-by-12 inches, the A646 may well be your printer of choice, idiosyncrasies and all.
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