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General Performance
Warm-Up Time (9.35)
The HP A440 took the least amount of time of any printer we tested to warm up and be ready to print, taking only 3 seconds. This is less than half the time it took the Sony DPP-F90 (7 seconds) and one-eleventh the time of the Kodak ES 5300’s 33 seconds.
Power Usage (9.20)
According to HP’s specs, when a camera is docked on the powered-down printer, it uses 6.2 watts. When the printer is idle, it uses 8.1 watts. When it is actively printing, it uses 14.4 watts. It uses even more power when charging the attached digital camera’s batteries.
Our power usage tests showed a slightly different story. As with most printers we tested the HP A440 did not draw any measurable amount of power when off. Our other tests actually showed the printer using less wattage than the published specs. In ready mode, the dock drew 3 watts of power. This is the same as the Canon CP730 and slightly less than the Sony DPP-F90’s 4 watts of power use when ready to print.
When printing the HP A440 drew a very efficient 8 watts of power. This is less than the efficient Epson PM240, and significantly less than the Canon CP730 and Sony DPP-F90, both of which drew between 50 and 60 watts of power when printing. Self-cleaning mode used the most power, between 9 and 15 watts, with an average of 12. This is the same average (12 watts) as the Epson PM240, but with less variance in the amount of power used.
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Power Usage (watts)
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Off
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Idle
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Ready
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Printing
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Self-Cleaning
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HP Photosmart A440
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0
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n/a
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3
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8
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12
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Epson PictureMate Snap
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0
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n/a
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4
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12
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12
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Canon Selphy CP730
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0
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n/a
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3
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56
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n/a
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Sony PictureStation FP90
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0
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n/a
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4
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55
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n/a
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Speed/Timing (3.36)
Printing speeds were very slow on this little inkjet, the slowest times of all four compact photo printers currently being tested in our lab. We test photo print speeds by printing a 5.7-megabyte file and a 19-megabyte file from both the computer and from media cards. In this case, we attempted to print directly from the camera, but our stock images could not be loaded onto the camera's memory card. Therefore, the speeds scores are based on print time from the computer only. In this case, the HP A440 could only print 0.60 pages per minute (ppm), as compared with the Epson Snap, which printed at 1.4 ppm.
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Photo Print Speeds in Pages per Minute
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From Computer
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From CompactFlash
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Small file
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Large file
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Small file
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Large file
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Epson PictureMate Snap
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1.40
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1.40
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1.36
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0.10
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Sony PictureStation FP90
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1.18
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1.06
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1.36
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1.12
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Canon Selphy CP730
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0.83
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0.81
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0.98
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1.00
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HP Photosmart A440
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0.61
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0.60
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n/a
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n/a
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Color Accuracy (2.70)
For every printer we review, we measure color accuracy by printing out an electronic version of the GretagMacbeth color chart, measuring the colors and tones with an Eye-One spectrophotometer, and comparing them to the chart's original La*b* values .
The HP A440 was a bit of a disappointment in terms of color accuracy, measuring a 7.98 mean color error. Most of the hues produced by the HP A440 strayed from the ideal and leaned towards oversaturation in the cooler tones. While this is not entirely unexpected on a compact printer, the HP A440 was near the bottom of the printers we have tested thus far in terms of accuracy. Its rendering of blues, greens, and oranges showed significant color shifts, with the blues losing red and adding more green, while the green values contained less green tonality and more blue than the original colors. Further, the Orange Yellow and "skin tone" patches looked a bit undersaturated and unimpressive. Overall, the HP440’s colors are not as accurate as we had hoped though its reproduction should be acceptable to some consumers looking to print snapshots.
Color Gamut (2.81)
This test looks at how much of the standard Adobe RGB color space a printer can accurately reproduce. Printers that can render colors that cover more of the Adobe RGB color space will ultimately output images with a greater range of colors and look more attractive to the eye. On the graph above, the solid color is the color space that the printer can cover, while the grid represents the entire Adobe RGB color space. The closer the two, the more colors the printer can represent and the higher the score.
The HP A440 performaned poorly in this test, managing to cover only 43 percent of the total color space. It lagged behind most every other compact photo printer that we have tested, save the Canon Selphy CP730. Better quality letter- and wide-format photo printers score in 50th and 60th percentile, meaning that these printers, such as the Canon Pixma Pro 9000 and the Epson Stylus Photo R2400, can reproduce a wider range of colors, which could mean more realistic or more vibrant photos.
Dmax (3.38)
This test measures the density of the blackest black a printer can produce, a very important factor in image quality. Dmax is a strong indication of the tonal range a printer can produce. The blacker the black, the more potential tones between it and the white of the paper. We evaluated Dmax by measuring the ratio of reflected light off of the print using our EyeOne Pro spectrophotometer. Most printers top out at a Dmax of 2.50. The tests on the A440 were printed with HP Advanced glossy paper and Ilford Galerie smooth glossy paper, because glossy paper yields the darkest possible blacks. The prints were also created with the corresponding HP stock color profiles as well as custom profiles we created for each paper.
The HP A440 had the best Dmax value, 1.72, when using the third party Ilford Galerie paper and the HP stock color profile. This is a poor performance, especially for printing on glossy paper. The other compact inkjet printer, the Epson PM240, trounced it with a Dmax of 2.43. The A440's poor Dmax value indictaes that the printer has a very limited tonal range, and this may lead to problems with finer tonal gradations, such as are found in facial tones.
Black and White (3.00)
The black-and-white printing capabilities of the A440 surely reflected the poor Dmax score discussed above. Tonal range was clearly compressed, with highlights appearing blown out and blacks showing as muddy, with little differentiation. This is clearly not a printer for producing quality black-and-white prints, but we would expect most users to be more interested in printing quick color snapshots anyway. However, the poor tonal range is a concern, given the better compact photo printer options on the market, such as the Epson PM240.
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