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HP Photosmart A646 Compact Photo Printer (CC001A#B1H) | 
 enlarge | Brand: Hewlett-Packard
Category: CE
List Price: $183.32
Buy New: $75.00
You Save: $108.32 (59%)
New (37) Used (3) Refurbished (1) from $39.99
Rating:  21 reviews
Format: CD
Color: Black
Media: Electronics
Autographed: No
Memorabilia: No
Number Of Items: 95
Batteries Included: No
Operating System: Apple MacOS X 10.5
System Memory: 64
Modem: None
Shipping Weight (lbs): 3.4
Dimensions (in): 4.6 x 9.9 x 5.3
Warranty: 1 year warranty
MPN: CC001A#B1H
Model: CC001A#B1H
UPC: 807027540270
EAN: 0807027540270
ASIN: B002G1YNXQ
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Features:
| • | Built-in printing from camera enabled cellphone via Bluetooth | | • | HP Original 110 Ink Cartridge compatibility |
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Product Description
What can you do with our Photosmart A646 Compact Photo Printer? Personalize and print lab-quality photos using an extra-large HP TouchSmart screen (3.45"), and print snapshots from a Bluetooth-enabled phone. You can even run a slide show right on the screen, no PC needed.
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 21
 fast + compact, good quality prints October 21, 2009
Omar Siddique (Ellicott City, MD USA)
21 out of 21 found this review helpful
The short: small, fast, minimalist, producing great looking prints.
The whole package is minimalist, compact, and designed to be simple to use: The printer arrives packaged eco-friendly in a reusable tote (made from recycled materials) that's actually nice enough to reuse. There's no driver CD, and minimal setup directions. The ink cartridge is all-in-one. The printer needs only an inch or so clearance behind, and a few inches in front (for the paper guide and output). There's a tuck-away stylus to interact with the touch screen, and a fold-down carry handle.
On powerup, the printer displays a simplified version of the paper quick setup directions, and instructs the user to print a calibration page.
When attached via USB to my WindowsXP system, the printer has an unusual design in which is appears to Windows as a CD drive, from which I did the typical driver installation, after which Windows saw the unit as a printer, not a CD drive. Unfortunately, this base Windows software installation didn't seem to offer an interface to the custom modes available from the touchscreen (eg: passport photo, greeting card, etc).
I've owned other photo printers, including Canon's small dye-sub printer: Canon SELPHY CP510 Compact Photo Printer , and this HP beats all of them in speed, print quality, and color reproduction. For color, primary colors are rich and vibrant, though neutrals (such as earth-tones) and pastels are slightly washed out. Blacks are solid and jet-black. I tested some complicated, textured, outdoor scenes and was very pleased with the results (one sample was a mix of sky, desert dust-storm, and people). The same complicated print took 1m43s at "best" and 43s at "fast normal". Interestingly, the quality difference between the two prints was modest. The "best" print was a little more rich and nuanced in detail, but at 5x7, "fast" seems adequate for most things I'd print.
I tried a couple of the speciality modes, and the printer did "the right thing" in printing passport photos, correctly scaling and sizing them (no more figuring out the DPI to resolution ration to get the exact 2x2 required for passports!). Greeting cards came out well also, though the small number of available designs are limiting.
While I like the printer a lot, I did have some quibbles:
* The inbuilt initial setup is a bit simplistic, and led me to at first not taking the tape off the contacts of my print cartridge (I don't usually use inkjet printers so didn't realize). Interrupting the setup before it was finished resulted in having to go through the setup process again. There's such a thing as "too simplified".
* To use the touchscreen-based modes on the printer I had to put the images on a memory card (presumably a bluetooth-enabled phone would have worked too). I realize many people leave their old photos "on their cameras", but I take a lot of photos, and all my archiving and sorting is done on computers, so the on-card-only design makes the custom modes much less useful to me.
* It would be nice to be able to create custom greeting card designs.
* For some reason the sticky protective cover on my model's LCD wouldn't come off without a lot of prodding and scraping, leaving a mar on the touchscreen. The screen itself has a non-obvious locking mechanism in its popped-up position that has to be pressed in the opposite direction from what I expected. I could see the screen getting broken in a multi-user household
My prints were all on HP "Advanced Photo Paper". Most vendors formulate their inks to match their paper, so the combination typically yields the best results.
Aside from the minor quibbles, I'm very pleased with this photo printer. Highly recommended.
Love this printer!! January 8, 2010
A. Melgoza (Whiting, IN United States)
15 out of 15 found this review helpful
I am a photographer so finding a compact printer to take with me is something I need to have at hand. I have the Canon Selphy 510 which takes the ink ribbon and the postcard paper (4x6).
I told myself I would never buy an HP printer since they were never that great. I took the chance and got this one since I had a gift card and figured it was worth investing in it. I wanted a compact printer that prints up to 5x7 and HP was the only one available that did that. When I first printed from it, I didn't like the way the colors printed. It felt like they bled in too much and there was no separation on the colors. However I was printing from my camera to the printer via usb pictbridge. So I did the one thing I should have done in the first place. I went to the colorspace on the printer screen and changed the colorspace to Adobe RGB. The colorspace on my camera was Adobe RGB and when 2 different colorspaces are set you are bond to get colors that don't look good or match what you see on your screen. So by changing the colorspace on the printer (its automatically set to auto) I was able to solve my color problem. Mostly all cameras are set on Adobe RGB. To change the colorspace on your printer go to the wrench icon, next go to PREFERENCES, scroll down until you get to colorspace and select Adobe RGB.
Your images should now print much much better and closer to what you see on your screen. Mine came out even better after changing the colorspace.
Also I have read the other reviews the bad ones too and realize that many people don't seem to do enough research on the printer before they even buy it. I haven't tried the bluetooth yet and wouldn't bother since phone cameras are not so great in the first place and you can't expect the printer to print high quality images from a phone. Its rather annoying when people complain that their phone pictures didn't come out great like the printer would magically fix the crappy camera phone quality. PLEASE!! If you want to print pictures from your phone I recommend the Polaroid PoGo printer for $50 you can get prints at 2x3 which is wallet size and it does print okay. Not 100% excellent but good enough to make you happy to have that little printer.
I love the fact that it takes larger than 4x6 paper, the touch screen rocks and the fact that it came with its own bag is sweet.
Also I recommend buying the ink by itself and getting the paper on sale. People don't seem to realize that they can get the paper on sale for much cheaper than what it costs. I bought a box of 5x7 50 pack for less than $8 and a box of 4x6 for under $10. If you buy things for less you do save more on ink and prints.
The only cons I have with this printer is that it does print a bit slower than I would like for a 5x7. However the print quality is set to best so I would believe that is why it prints slow. If it was set to normal or even fast normal I'm sure the speed would be much faster. I also don't like the fact that it doesn't take compact flash cards but it does accept pictbridge.
All in all I was glad that I like the printer. Also I am still using the ink that came with it. I have already printed 5 5x7 size prints and still have ink to spare, although I am sure I will run out quickly since I am printing larger sizes. It says it can print up to 15 4x6s on the ink that came with it which everyone should know is how all printers are. I also think that they based it on normal printing not BEST printing quality.
*Read the whole specifications about the printer before you buy so you know what it is saying. I hear too many people complaining how the printer doesn't have this or that, well you should have read what it comes with before you buy it! Its called research. That's why I got this because I liked what it said and was worth a shot buying.
Hp Photosmart A646 October 1, 2009
Ms_Ladi
Nice printer. At first a bit worried over the no black ink cartridge, but prints are fine for what it does. After using a Canon version, I have to say the bells and whistles (wi-fi from camera) are much better than the Canon 780 Printer.
Again, cost is a detail here...needs to be decreased.
Photo Printer June 16, 2010
John J. Paparello (Maryland)
Only used this item for a short period of time, so far so good. It copies as well as if you had them processed at a copy center. The fun part is that you can add captions or add borders to dress up the photos. So far nothing bad to say.
Wonderful to do business with July 8, 2010
Patient DogMa
Over and above all I expected. The product was perfect but the seller was more than helpful and considerate. I will make sure when I need other products, I will visit them first.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 21
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