HP A646 Compact Photo Printer Review

Depth of Blacks

Sample Scan Comparisons

The HP Photosmart A646 impresses in depth of blacks with a DMax measure of 2.88, which is impressive for any printer, more so a compact. This score is important, as the deeper the blacks are, the wider the contrast ratio of your pictures will be, making it easier for the printer to re-create moments exactly as you remember them. More on how we test depth of blacks.

Detail

Perhaps it's a function of trying to cram everything a printer needs into a tiny package, but the detail performance of the HP Photosmart A646 is average at best.

Considering its performance in other areas, it's hard to complain, but you may notice a bit of detail loss in high-contrast patterns or gradients. Below are some scans to illustrate what we mean.

Notice how the ends of thin lines and sharp edges get lost in the print, making the picture suffer a loss of dilineation between black areas and white. Because of this, small details like the white hairs on the dog's forehead get completely crushed into the surrounding darker colors.