Except for a select few, most people have jobs that imply moving around, meeting customers or visiting various locations for work purposes. This type of professional needs to make the best of the portability that technology offers, whether it’s in the case of a computer in the form of a laptop, a portable digital camera or, why not, even portable mobile photo printers.




Say we’re talking about a real estate agent who needs to show a house to a potential customer. It’s very obvious how useful it might prove to have a digital camera around to take a snapshot of the property for the customer, then print it out instantly and offer it so that the customer may remember and consider the exact property he/she saw without having to wonder what it looked like.

Since nowadays everyone’s struggling to please the customer and face the competition it’s needless to say that there are a lot of portable mobile photo printers to be found on the market. Hewlett Packard sits comfortably in front of the line of the printer manufacturer and is widely known for offering high quality and reliable printers for every type of user and every type of pocket.

For traveling professionals as well as home users who would love to pair up a portable printer to their digital camera, HP is currently offering the A646 portable printer. For a mid-price of $150 the HP A646 offers quite a few nice features. The top point of this printer is the versatility it offers. First off most portable printers limit you to the 4 by 6 inch format.

The A646 supports three sizes of media : 4 by 6 inch, 4 by 12 inch (panoramic) and 5 by 7 inch. You also have several options when it comes to devices you can print from. A PictBridge port ensures direct printing from any compatible digital camera while a memory card slots on the front of the printer support Memory Stick, SD and xD picture cards. As always, you can also print straight from PC and the setup of the printer is relatively easy and convenient.

For people who are concerned about the environment, HP has designed this printer’s case to include 30 percent recycled plastic. The carrying case is also eco-friendly and was built fully out of recycled plastic bottles in an attempt to keep our planet just a slight bit greener. A 3.45 color LCD surrounded by control buttons lets the user conveniently navigate through menus when a PC isn’t used. Several photo enhancements are also offered.

They aren’t necessarily top of the line photo manipulation tools but do prove to be fun and useful. The HP A646 doesn’t shine so much when it comes to speed. At normal setting it will print a photo in around a minute. This isn’t slow but it’s far from impressive.

The overall quality of the pictures is appropriate and colors as well as details and sharpness are spot on. After praising the HP A646 for a large part of this article, the two things that might keep you from buying it are high ink costs (close to 50 cents per print) as well as the lack of an optional battery pack. Without a battery much of this device’s portability is eliminated.

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