As I mentioned last week, the Parent Bloggers Network recently sent me an HP Photosmart 626 Printer and two cloth bound photo books to review. Here are my thoughts.
Printer Setup
The printer was super easy to set up. It's designed to work directly with your memory card. Just pop it in and then edit or print your photos. If you want to print photos from your computer, you must purchase a USB cable separately.
For a printer that's designed to help you create a photo memory book, I didn't find this very practical. If you're making a photo book of your most recent vacation I can see how all of your pictures could still be on your memory card. But if you're making a photo book of your children's first year of life (as I was) and that child is now 4.5 years old, you're going to need the USB cable to get those photos off of your computer.
I can see how working directly from the memory card would be really helpful for a technophobe since you don't have to worry about compatability issues. Personally, I want my printer to come with a USB cable.
Printer Touch Screen Functionality
The PhotoSmart 626 works with a touch screen that pops up out of the computer. You can navigate your photos using the included stylus or your finger. I found both work equally well. The touch screen makes it simple to crop photos, remove red-eye, and adjust photo brightness. I found the results to be similar to the basic photo editing software that's included with most printers.
If your camera records video, you can even use the touch screen to play the video, although without sound.
My one gripe with the touch screen is that I'd prefer to view the pictures on the large screen of my computer to determine how they're going to look before I print them.
Printing
The prints from this printer are similar in quality to my Canon i560 and my Dell Photo AIO 922 printer. The major improvement is how easy it is to print borderless photos of different sizes. However, you also can't print any photos larger than 5x7.
The HP printer also includes a very cool feature called Get Creative. Use it to draw on photos with stylus, add frames, special effects, clip art, and captions. This is a great feature for anyone who fancies him/herself a scrapbooker and will come in handy when I finally get around to creating those photo books.
Troubleshooting
As I tested this printer I never found cause to refer to the troubleshooting and support section of the user's guide, but I read it anyway and found it to be very simple to understand, which can't be said about many tech products these days.
Discounts
The Parent Bloggers network asked me to mention that you should check Sunday circulars for specials on the printer itself. For 20% off the Photo Books at the HP Home & Office Store, use COUPON CODE: AC8595.
Just when you thought you'd never find the perfect small form factor notebook for less than $1,000, HP comes to the table with the all new 2133 Mini-Note. This ultra mobile subnotebook features an impressive 8.9-inch screen, a remarkably large keyboard, a full-sized notebook hard drive, and plenty of impressive specs. Is this the perfect road warrior machine? Let's take a closer look and find out.
Posted by: Used Refurbished Laptops | April 08, 2009 at 05:26 AM
Ein Kompliment für diese tolle Seite.
Eigentlich bin ich durch Zufall darauf gestoßen und dachte mir,
einen netten Eintrag und viele Grüße zu hinterlassen.
_____ \\\!!!///____
______( ô ô )_____
___ooO-(_)-Ooo___
Vielleicht schauen sie mal auf meiner Homepage vorbei!
Posted by: Urlaub in Germeny Auf Sylt | December 13, 2009 at 08:27 AM
Hallo Leute,
eine wirklich gelungene Homepage!!! Weiter so. Viele Grüße vom Schönberger Strand an der Ostsee.
_____ \\\!!!///____
______( ô ô )_____
___ooO-(_)-Ooo___
Posted by: Birgit aus Schönberg | January 20, 2010 at 12:47 PM