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More…The $180 (as of 11/3/2006) HP Photosmart A616 is the latest in HP's line of portable snapshot printers. It's a little longer and heavier than the 375 and 475 models we've reviewed in the past, but it has the same distinctive "mini-boom box" look with a fold-up handle. Two optional power accessories, an $80 rechargeable internal battery and a $40 vehicle power adapter, make the unit easy to take on the road.
HP Photosmart A616
Pricing
$149.99 From 1 Vendor Get Best Prices »
- Spec Navigator
- Core Components
- Media Handling
- Display
- Network
- Connectivity
- Platform Support
- Dimensions
- General Features
- Green
- Included Software
- Resolutions
- Scanning
Media Handling
| Manual Feed Slot | No |
| Maximum Number of Input Trays | 1 |
| Maximum paper size, height | 6.0 inches |
| Maximum Sheets With All Paper Trays | 1 |
| Output Tray Capacity | 20 |
| Standard Number of Input Trays | 1 |
| Maximum paper size, width | 4 inches |
| Standard input sheet capacity | 1 |
| Duplex printing | No |
3
2 User Reviews Add your own »
$149.99
From 1 Vendor
Get Best Prices »
- Lab Tested
- How We Test Printers »
Pros
Also produces 5-by-7-inch shots
Easily portable
Cons
Slow printing
Inconsistent quality
Bottom Line
This Photosmart is easy to use, but it prints quite slowly and delivers so-so quality in skin tones.
HP Photosmart A616
Photosmart A616 Review, by Paul Jasper November 20, 2006
A top-mounted 2.4-inch color LCD flips up and clearly displays the attractive menus. Unfortunately, the many buttons surrounding it can be overwhelming as you go through the various options for previewing, editing, and laying out your photos. You can apply effects and border styles in addition to the common red-eye removal, cropping, and auto-fix functions.
The front panel folds down to act as an output tray, revealing four media slots that accept all the major memory card formats. You can print directly from a card in a media slot, or straight from your camera using PictBridge. You can also print images from a USB flash drive or use HP's optional Bluetooth adapter ($60) to print wirelessly from compatible camera phones or PDAs. The included HP Photosmart Express and HP Photosmart Essential software package handles image manipulation on your PC, helps to organize your images, and lets you share photos with family and friends through HP's Snapfish Web site.
The rear panel tilts back to serve as an input tray that holds up to 20 4-by-6-inch sheets. The A616 can also print 5-by-7-inch photos and 4-by-12-inch panoramas.
The A616 uses three inks (no black) that come in a combined cartridge. You get one cartridge good for 55 prints in the box with the printer, but no paper. Your cheapest option for buying more supplies is a 120-sheet ink-and-paper bundle from HP for $35, which comes to 29 cents per print.
For our testing we used HP Advanced Photo Paper, which is thin and glossy like photo lab paper. Some HP paper is marked on the back so that HP printers can automatically detect the paper type. Unfortunately, the marks showed through to the printed side on our lighter prints.
Overall the A616 produced attractive prints, but each of our samples showed different flaws. We noticed overly bronzed skin tones, murky shadows, dull colors, and grainy dithering, depending on the subject. Print speeds were a little disappointing too: black-and-white images emerged at a sluggish 0.6 pages per minute, while color prints averaged an even slower 0.5 ppm.
In two informal moisture tests, we looked for defects after sprinkling water on week-old (and therefore dry) snapshot prints. Then we dunked them in water for 30 seconds and wiped them dry. The A616's prints didn't show any obvious ill effects after either test.
Paul Jasper
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PCWorld Lab Results
- Rating Breakdown
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57
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93
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86
- See Complete Lab Results »
Performance Comparison with Similar Printers
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74
82
82
Performance
| Color Photo Quality | Fair |
| Grayscale Glossy Output Quality | Good |
| Landscape (secs) | 112.54 |
| Skin Tones/Portrait (secs) | 104.64 |
| Tested Glossy Grayscale Photo Speed (ppm) | 0.6 |
| Tested Glossy Photo Speed (ppm) | 0.5 |
Photo Printing
| Sports action shot (seconds) | 110.34 |
Grayscale Printing
| 4 by 6 grayscale photo (seconds) | 106.29 |
User Reviews
Review Now! Already own it? Tell us What You Think
User Reviews From Around the Web
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Reviewed by:
Strengths: great prints
Weaknesses: it doesn't fit in the carrying case
Overall: I recently bought this printer for home use. I have 3 boys so we take tons of pictures. It's very easy to use and the pictures come out great. It's nice because you can take it with you if you buy the battery. And ink is cheap too-$20. Just don't buy the case--it won't fit.
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Reviewed by: tja57
Strengths: Compact, easy to use, prints both 4 x 6 and 5 x 7 photos, high quality prints
Weaknesses: Small display, settings must be changed for different papers
Overall: This photo printer is perfect for my wife who doesn't like to spend any time learning how to use things. She was printing pictures almost immediately. The controls are easy to use and the menu selections are simple. You just install the ink cartridge, print a test page and you are ready to print pictures directly from your memory card. The quality of the pictures is excellent. They look like they were printed by a photo lab. A 4 x 6 photo prints in about 2 minutes. The display is nice, but small. If you have a couple of photos that are similar, it is difficult to tell which is which. HP sells a few different types of photo paper. Make sure that printer settings are correct for the type of paper you are using (I didn't realize this at first and the picture quality was disappointing until I corrected this). I highly recommend this photo printer for anyone looking for a compact, easy to use printer.
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