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Reviews

HP Photosmart A526

Max. B&W dpi: 1200-by-1200 • Max. Color dpi: 4800-by-1200 • Tray Capacity, pages: 20 • Price When Reviewed: $100
HP Photosmart A526 (Front)
HP Photosmart A526 (Front)
85.9 Very Good
Last updated
October 26, 2007
Test Center Reviewed by
Melissa Riofrio, PC World
Pros
  • Inexpensive
  • Natural-looking color palette
Cons
  • Slow
  • Spartan controls
  • Pricing:Very Inexpensive: $100 (9/1/2007)
  • Performance:Fair: 69
  • Features:Superior: 91
  • Design:Very Good: 85
Find out how these four scores, and their relative weights, combine to produce the PC World Rating.

Pricing Very Inexpensive: $100

Very Inexpensive: $100
Standard-Capacity Color Cartridge - $35

Performance Fair: 69

Fair: 69
Color Photo Printing (Glossy Paper, Best Settings)
Tested Glossy Photo Speed (ppm) 0.7 
Skin Tones/Portrait (secs) 86.07 
Sports Action Shot (secs) 87.59 
Landscape (secs) 87.01 
Color Photo Quality Very Good 
Grayscale Printing (Glossy Paper, Best Settings)
Tested Glossy Grayscale Photo Speed (ppm) 0.7 
4 by 6 Grayscale Photo (secs) 83.57 
Grayscale Glossy Output Quality Very Good 

Features Superior: 91

Superior: 91
Memory (in MB)
RAM Installed 32 
Maximum Amount of RAM 32 
Dimensions
Dimensions 8.9 x 8.8 x 5.4 
Weight (pounds) 2.7 
Resolutions
Max. B&W dpi 1200-by-1200 
Max. Color dpi 4800-by-1200 
Language & Emulation
Printer Emulation Type PCL 
PCL Emulation PCL3 
Interfaces
Parallel Port No 
Serial Port No 
USB 1.1 Yes 
USB 2.0 Yes 
Ethernet No 
Media Card Readers CompactFlash, Memory Stick, SD Card, xD-Picture Card 
PictBridge Yes 
Other Interfaces Bluetooth optional ($39.99 HP bt450 adapter) 
Drivers
Macintosh Yes 
Windows 98 No 
Windows NT No 
Windows 2000 No 
Windows XP Yes 
Linux No 
Power
Maximum Power Draw (watts) 14.46 
Standby Power Draw (watts) 8.67 
Multifunction Printer Specs
Fax Memory (pages) 0 
Paper Handling
Number of Input Trays, Standard 1 
Number of Input Trays, Maximum 1 
Tray Capacity, pages 20 
Maximum Sheets With Optional Paper Trays 20 
Manual Feed Slot No 
Maximum Paper Size 4 by 6 inches 
Output Tray Capacity 20 
Auto Duplexer No 
Warranty & Support
Labor Warranty (years) One 
Parts Warranty (years) One 
Weekday Support Hours 24 
Saturday Support Hours 8 
Sunday Support Hours 8 
Toll-Free Support Yes 
Cost of Operation Inside of Warranty
Cost per Page, Color 0.29 
Vendor-Supplied Data (in Pages)
Monthly Duty Cycle 0 
Bundled Items
Included Hardware power supply, usb cable 
Included Software hp photosmart software 
Reliability & Service
Summary of results for all of brand's products in this category More bad news for HP: below-average grades for out-of-box problems and significant problems with its printers. Readers aren’t thrilled with HP’s phone support either. 
Reliability of brand's products in this category
Reports of products arriving with problems Worse than Average 
Reports of products with any significant problems Worse than Average 
Reports of problems that render a product unusable Average 
Buyers' rating of products ease-of-use Average 
Overall satisfaction with reliability of brand's products in category Average 
Service & Support Quality
Time spent holding for phone support Average 
Overall quality of vendor's phone support Worse than Average 
Reports of problems unresolved after contacting service Average 
Overall quality of service Average 

Design Very Good: 85

Very Good: 85
About the Test Center

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