HP Photosmart A616

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We've never gotten tired of making fun of HP's portable Photosmart printers since the introduction of the 475, 385 and 335 inkboxes. It seems the company's latest Photosmart A616 just got a little "smarter" by masquerading as a radio (an observation made by colleagues), and it's awfully cute to boot. To set the record straight, we haven't heard of any printers that tout FM radio capabilities--at least not just yet.

Design
The A616 measures 255 x 116 x 130mm and weighs 1.59kg with the ink cartridge installed. To put that into perspective, the printer is not any much bigger than an A4-sized paper folded into half.

This photo factory bears the same design traits as the previous portable Photosmart printers but its gentle curves appeal more to the fairer sex and not to those who are conscious of carrying something that looks like a radio.

Not to worry, though. Looking cute is not the only trick up the A616's sleeve. Lift up the carry handle and you'll be able to bring this printer to a beach party if you have the optional internal battery pack (purchased separately).

What we didn't quite fancy was the loud "tiak" when you open the front lid which doubles as the holding tray for your printouts--an action which pops up the 2.4-inch color LCD and opens up the rear paper input slot concurrently. In addition, although you can adjust the screen for viewing at different angles (between 0 and 60 degrees), the cylindrical mechanism creates a racket like a frog. If you don't like the one-pull-three-uses mechanism, you can also lift the monitor or the input slot manually, except that those with larger digits might find it harder to do the latter.

Features
The top control panel houses all the necessary keys to operate the printer. There are dedicated buttons to go into the menus, delete pictures, correct photos and change layouts. There's also a zoom rocker, a four-way keypad with an embedded Ok button, and indicator lights for battery life status and error alerts. Even though the buttons are a little plasticky, we found them responsive during use.

You can print a variety of different-sized photos (JPEG and TIFF), from the usual 4 x 6-inch prints to larger 5 x 7-inch pictures. In addition, there are options to print your passport-sized snaps, CD tattoos, stickers and panoramic shots. Menu navigation is straightforward; perhaps the only thing that can frustrate users is with the selection of every setting, the system brings you out to the default screen. This could mean having the additional step of going into the menu page to make more selections.

Simple editing functions should please most common users. You can rotate, add frames and color effects to your pictures. You can also print one photo per page, or two, and up to a maximum of four if you really want to save your purse.

Connectivity-wise, this photo machine comes with a built-in memory carder that accepts xD-Picture Card, CompactFlash, Secure Digital, MultiMediaCard, Memory Stick and Memory Stick Duo. There's also a PictBridge port for you to print directly from your digital camera and flash drives. With an optional Bluetooth Print adapter, you can also send your images via Bluetooth to the printer.

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