HP Photosmart A716 Portable Photo Printer

The A716 is a true portable photo lab.

This is everything... the PhotoSmart A716 Portable Photo Printer, AC adapter, remote, some photo papers, and of course, the concealed tri-color cartridge.

Controls atop the A716

Everything extended

From left, USB flash drive socket, XD, Memory Stick, CompactFlash and Secure Digital slots

There's little doubt that the PhotoSmart A716 Photo Printer was built with portability in mind. An optional battery pack allows you to use it anywhere you go cordlessly. To conserve battery power, the printer automatically turns itself off after a couple minutes of non-use. Battery life is decent as well; I printed about 40 photos and used half the battery life. For those who don't wish to use it on the go, you can simply plug it into the wall with the included AC adapter or into the car cigarette lighter with the optional DC adapter.

Unlike larger printers, this one only uses one print cartridge with three colors. Some of the larger photo printers use separate cartridges for black, cyan, magenta, and yellow. And a few from other manufacturers such as Epson even add two additional cartridges for light cyan and light magenta to further improve color reproduction. For the sake of size HP went with one single cartridge for the A716.

HP 5ml 110 Tri-color ink cartridge

PC Free Photo Editing
To facilitate photo editing without a computer, on the top of the printer there is a 2.5 inch LCD display. With the small size of the display actually seeing what you are working with is understandably difficult. The image displayed on the screen is so small that it really hard to see any detail. I found that most often, I ended up printing the image to see if it looked correct and then going back and editing some more if needed.

2.5" LCD, too small for photo editing

Internal Storage & Wireless Printing
If you are a shutterbug, in addition to printing your photos while on the go the PhotoSmart A716 also allows you to store them thanks to an internal 4GB hard drive. That means depending on the resolution you're taking your photos in you could store up to 4000 photos without using a PC. That means you may also have more of your photos with you on the go and you take more photos with a camera without running out of memory.

When you combine the built-in hard drive, with the card reader that has the ability to read most every memory card format on the market you may never run out of storage space again. When your memory card for your camera fills up, you simply insert your media card or plug your PictBridge enabled cameras in directly to the printer and transfer the photos to the internal hard drive. As a big bonus, you can also burn the photos into CD or DVD directly to an external USB burner of your choice.

If your camera, PDA, or portable phone has is Bluetooth enabled, you can also print wirelessly with an optional Bluetooth wireless printer adapter. The PhotoSmart A716 can also be directly connected to your PC via the USB port if you so desire. And really the only reason you would need to connect the printer to your PC would be to do more in-depth photo editing then you can accomplish on the printer itself.

Ink Life & Photo Quality
This printer also uses HP's new Vivera inks that resist smudging and fading. HP claims that they can resist fading for twice as long as traditionally processed photos, up to 73 years to be exact. I can attest that the ink resists smudging well, as the second the photos come out of the printer you can pick them up and they do not smudge in the least.

Another interesting feature HP put in the printer was the ability to connect to a TV to display a slideshow. That will allow you to view the photos that you have saved to the internal hard drive or memory card, without having to labor with the small LCD built into the printer. HP even included a small wireless remote control to allow you to control the slide show and choose which photos you want to print remotely as well.

The photos printed on the A716 Portable Photo Printer look great. Skin tones are reproduced accurately, colors are bright and vivid, and blacks and grays are dark, while still allowing you to see detail. The photo quality is as good as anything you would have printed in the photo lab. The printer is capable of printing only three sizes of photos 4 x 6 inch, 5 x 7 inch, and panorama. If you need to print larger photos you will want to go with a different printer. Print resolution is up to 4800 x 1200 optimized dpi, when using HP Premium Plus Photo Paper and 1200 x 1200 dpi input.

Cost of Ownership & Print Speed
Now that we've talked about all the good points of the PhotoSmart A716, we'll talk about the bad points. The most notable bad point is the cost of ownership. The cost of each photo printed on the A716 is around a whopping $.60 when you take into account the ink and paper. The ink cartridge alone will run you $19.99, and the recommended Premium Plus Paper is $14.99 for 60 sheets. HP says the cartridge is good for about 55 4 x 6 photos, however, I suspect your mileage may vary. The MSRP for the printer itself is $249.99, not counting the price of the battery. The battery sells for $79.99 and you can even get a DC car adapter as well for additional $39.99.

The battery pack installed inside the A716

Final Thoughts on the PhotoSmart A716
Looking back my time with HP A716 Portable Photo Printer in enjoyed using the printer. However, if you don't absolutely have to have portability, you can get better printers for about the same money. However, if you take lots of pictures, and like to be able to print them on the go or if you just want extra storage space the A716 is a great option. I was a bit surprised at the big discrepancies between the print times that HP quoted and the print times I recorded in testing. That's not just little variance, but very significant. I am also a bit bothered by the high cost of ownership of the A716, it certainly not cheap to use or buy if you want all the options. However, at the end of the day the finished product you get from the printer is excellent and if quality photos are all you're looking for, the A716 may just be for you.