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General Performance
Warm-Up (9.35)
Like its cousin, the A440 printer dock, the HP Photosmart A626 comes to ready status very quickly, in only 3 seconds. Few other compact photo printers can boast such fast warm-up speeds, notably the Canon mini320, with its new Quick Start feature, and the HiTi 731PS, both warming up in just 2 seconds more than the A626.
Power Usage (7.56)
The A626 scored reasonably well in our power test, in which we measure the watts used in each of five modes: off, idle/power save, ready, printing, and self-cleaning. Where HP’s products generally lose points in this test is by still using power when turned off. None of the other manufacturers’ products do this, so we assume it has something to do with HP’s power adapters.
The printer is very competitive in other modes, using only 3 watts when idle and only 10 watts when printing. This is actually less than the Canon mini320 or the Epson PM Snap.
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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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3
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3
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8
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12
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Canon Pixma mini320
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0
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2
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3
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11
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14
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Epson PictureMate Snap
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0
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4
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4
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12
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12
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HP Photosmart A626
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3
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3
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3
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10
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10
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Canon Selphy ES1*
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0
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3
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3
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32
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n/a
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HiTi S400 Dazzle*
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0
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5
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5
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43.5
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n/a
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Canon Selphy CP730*
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0
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3
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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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4
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4
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55
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n/a
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* Dye sublimation printers
Photo Speed / Timing (4.13)
The Photosmart A626 certainly takes its sweet time, taking 85 seconds to print a 4x6-inch photo from two file sizes via computer. (We test all of our printers using two image file sizes, a 6-megabyte (mb) jpeg and a 19-mb jpeg, printed at the best quality settings.) This was one of the slowest compact photo printer speeds, faster only than the Panasonic PX20 (82 seconds, 106 sec.) and another HP compact, the Photosmart A440 printer dock (98 sec., 99 sec.).
When printing from memory cards, the A626 took even longer—88 seconds for the small file and 95 seconds for the large file. At the 5x7-inch print size, the A626 fared a little better, relative to the competition. From our test computer, the A626 took 107 and 109 seconds for small and large files, while 5x7-inch prints from memory card took 111 seconds and 120 seconds. The A626’s most recently released competitor, the Canon Pixma mini320, took a few seconds less for small files from both computer and memory card, but large files took 30 seconds longer from a PC and 10 seconds longer from memory card.
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Compact Photo Printer 4x6 Photo Print Speeds in Seconds per Print
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From Computer
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From CompactFlash
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Printer
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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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Sony PictureStation FP90*
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51
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56
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44
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54
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Epson PictureMate Snap
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43
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43
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44
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614
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Canon Selphy CP730*
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73
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75
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61
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60
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Canon Pixma mini320
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71
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75
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80
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80
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HiTi S400 Dazzle*
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74
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76
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74
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n/a
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Canon Selphy ES1*
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81
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81
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74
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n/a
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HP Photosmart A626
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85
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85
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88
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95
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Panasonic FX-PX20*
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82
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106
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108
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125
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HP Photosmart A440
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98
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99
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n/a
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n/a
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* Dye sublimation printers
Color Accuracy (2.66)
Color reproduction in printers is dependent on many factors, including the type of ink, kind of paper, color profile, and the scale with which the accuracy is measured. We base our color accuracy test scores on a known standard—the X-Rite Colorchecker chart. This chart, shown below, contains 24 squares of color that are often seen in photographs, and in fact, the chart itself is used in camera tests done by digitalcamerainfo, our sister site. A digital version of this chart was created for our labs by Bror Hultgren of Image Integration, Inc..
We print out this chart on the printers we’re testing, and then read the tristimulus, or La*b* values, with a spectrophotometer. These values are then compared with the original values used to create the chart. We then calculate an error value based on the difference between the two sets of values. The final score is based on the average error value for each printer.
The HP Photosmart A626 scored about average on this test, with an error value of 8.07. The lowest color error value we’ve seen so far in a compact photo printer was 5.04, achieved by the Epson PictureMate Snap inkjet printer. The Panasonic KX-PX20 dye sublimation printer had the highest error value of 10.01. The A626’s score was a little bit better than the A440, at 7.99 mean error, and the nearest competitor in price in the inkjet line, the Canon Pixma mini320, had a lower mean error value of 7.02.
The colors exhibiting the greatest difference on the A626 test print were blues and greens, especially cyan and bluish green. Light skin reproduced slightly better than dark skin, and grays had relatively lower error.
We ran the test again using the custom profile we created for the HP Advanced Photo Paper that we used for all of our tests. We were able to cut the error value nearly in half, to 4.21. This included much reduced error in the aforementioned blues and greens, as well as better skin tones and grays. This is not reflected in the printer’s score, but useful to know for those inclined to improve the quality of their prints.
Color Gamut (0)
We weren’t able to test the color gamut of the A626 since HP only supplied ICC profiles of the sRGB and Adobe RGB color spaces, which are not tailored to specific papers. Most manufacturers provide specific profiles created for the printer and the various papers available. This custom profiling allows the best color to be obtained for each paper, since each paper has different chromatic qualities. HP does still utilize these profiles but does not expose them to users on compact photo printers since they found that most people don't use them. The chosen colorspace is mapped as input and the amount of ink is based on this and the detected paper. If we were to test the sRGB and Adobe color space profiles, we would see a near-perfect match, meaning the full range of colors are represented for each color space. This is not what the papers or the printer are capable of, but a guideline for ink usage.
Dmax (2.96)
Dmax is a measure of the density of the darkest black that can be achieved by a printer. The ideal value is 2.50, and usually only high-end photo printers come even close to this value. Dmax is a good indicator of the richness of the resulting prints produced by a device. By this indicator, the A626, with a dmax value of 1.66, does not produce very rich prints. This was to be expected since the ink cartridge contains just three colors—cyan, magenta, and blue—lacking black. Black tones are created from a mixture of the three colors. This usually results in limited density and washed out looking shadows.
Only the Panasonic PX20 scored lower on this test, and the A626’s predecessor, the A440, scored only slightly better, with a dmax value of 1.72. Once again, the Epson PictureMate Snap was perched at the top of the group, with a dmax value of 2.44. The Canon mini320 also achieved an impressive value of 2.23. Both of these latter two printers have a separate black ink included in their integrated cartridges.
Black and White (3.00)
As we could have guessed simply from the HP A626’s dmax score, our black-and-white test prints were very poor. The lack of a strong black was evident, with the darkest tones and shadows appearing muddy and lacking details. There was also limited detail in light tones, and the whole dynamic range (tonal range) was compressed. Overall, the print had a very washed-out look. It seems that HP doesn’t expect users to print black-and-white images on compact printers, and, for the most part, they’re probably right. But as we’ve seen from the A626’s color scores, the lack of a separate black ink also affects the overall print performance.
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