After we wrote about HP launching the HP Photosmart A618 back in august, trustedreviews made a review of this printer and here are some of their impressions.

HP’s standalone photo printers have been a big success for the company, but it’s not that easy to think of ways to improve them. The length of the printer, which still looks something like a small, black and grey toaster, is the giveaway. It has to be that bit longer because it can now produce 18 x 13cm (7 x 5-inch) prints, as well as the 15 x 10cm ones its predecessors could handle.

We’ve come to expect good quality from HP photo prints and in general we weren’t disappointed here. Colours came out natural and both bright and pastels shades are well reproduced. Graduated tints aren’t quite as smooth as we’ve seen before, however, and despite the automatic lighting correction, some shadow detail was lost. We also noted differences between colours reproduced on the LCD display and those printed.

The conclusion is that the main advantages of this printer over its predecessors are the larger 18 x 13cm prints it can produce and the fully integrated Bluetooth support; you need no plug in dongle, here. While both features are useful additions, we’re not over-impressed by the combination of Vivera inks and HP’s advanced photo paper. The ink may dry quickly, but there seems little improvement in colour quality.