The HP Photosmart A826 will be in U.S. stores this weekend, but already, two media types have had a test drive of the new printer which can double as a picture frame, and they have posted their reviews online.
Both writers applaud HP’s good intentions with the A826 and both praised the printer’s good performance of its main job of printing. But there are a few niggles in the other departments.
USA Today’s Ed Baig, who describes the A826 design as penguin-like, says this home kiosk printer can indeed produce good-looking snapshots, but its quite expensive. He also found that loading paper was quite cumbersome and the ink capacity is not all that great.
Over at the Wall Street Journal, Kate Boehret says the printer’s large 7-inch screen is a welcome touch, you don’t have to squint to preview your photos. But while you can indeed use the touch screen to write some doodles on your photo, they only looked good on screen. When printed, she said, the doodles turned pixilated and detracted from the photo. Red eye correction did not work out that well too.
In all, the HP Photosmart A826 appears to be on the right track in designing a home photo kiosk that can have double duty as a photo frame display, but it needs a few more tweaks.