New York, NY -- Reviewed in late 2009 by PC World, the A646 is one of HP’s latest offerings in their dedicated photo printer line. One of the first things that will jump out is its 3.45” touch screen LCD. The touch sensitive controls are located immediately next to the screen to the left and right. You can directly from your digital camera via a PictBridge port or insert your memory card into one of the two media slots for Memory Stick, SD Card, and xD-Picture Card. The unit also offers built-in Bluetooth support which is good, especially considering it comes with no USB cable.
It is similar in print speed to the Canon Selphy CP790, producing a 4” x 6” print in about one minute. One nice feature when attaching this to your PC or Mac is that the drivers come as part of the firmware instead of an installation CD. Windows 7 drivers are available for download from HP’s site, but the Mac drivers were not found. The A646 ships with a 15-print ink cartridge. When you go to replenish your supply of paper and ink, the real value is in the combo packs; a 140 sheet combo pack retails for $47, roughly 32 cents a print. The ink by itself is expensive with a 50-print cartridge costing $24, about 48 cents a print. Installing the cartridges can be awkward, so be sure and read the instructions.
One nice feature of the A646 that sets it apart from it’s competition is that it can print on multiple sizes of paper. In addition to the standard 4” x 6”, it can also print panoramic shots (4” x 12”), or 5” x 7” pictures. For being a portable printer, one disadvantage is that it does not have a battery pack, so you have to be near an outlet at all times. The PC World reviewer also noted that the flesh tones when printing tended to be more orange than you may want. Overall, despite the potentially high ink costs and color issues, the HP A646 is still a useful printer that many will enjoy.
