Review: HP Photosmart 245 Photo Printer

The HP Photosmart 245 is a really neat little printer and produces high quality photos from either your PC/Mac or directly from a memory card. However, it is limited to 4 x 6-inch copies, which limits its usefulness.

Description

It's always nice when you can save space with a small printer -- and because it only prints 4 x 6-inch photos, the HP Photosmart 245 is one heck of a space saver. Only 9.1 x 4.4 x 5.1 inches and weighing in at 2.9 pounds, the Photosmart 245 will fit in next to your regular printer, in a small corner of your desk, or on the passenger seat of your car.

The device is a rounded, silver-gray block, looking a little like a futuristic toaster. The front holds the input and output slots; there are also several separate slots for a variety of memory cards, including CompactFlash Type I and II cards, SmartMedia, Secure Digital/MultiMedia Cards, Memory Sticks and xD-Picture Cards. Power and USB ports are in the back of the device.

All the really interesting stuff, however, is on top. A 1.8-inch LCD lets you preview your photos before printing -- as a result, you can pop in a memory card, examine your photos, and then print them out without having to deal with a PC or Mac at all. The image on the LCD is bright and clear; I had no trouble at all identifying a series of photos (even without my reading glasses).

On the left side of the LCD is the power button, a Save button (that saves any changes to the photos you have made back to the memory card), and a Menu button (which, of course, brings up a menu of features on the LCD). To the right is a large Print button, and a tiny Cancel button. Below the display area a Zoom toggle (up to 5x the original size) and Copies toggle (you can make up to 99 copies, although the input tray only holds 26 sheets). A cursor toggle with a large button labeled OK in the center allows you to make choices from the onscreen menu.

Installation

If you plan to just use the Photosmart 245 to print directly from your memory media, then installation is incredibly simple. You just plug in the power cable, insert the included ink cartridge (which snaps into a cradle behind the right front panel), and turn it on. The device will go through an initial calibration, and then will be ready to rock.

You do have to be careful not to place the printer too close to anything in back. Unlike most desktop printers, where paper must go through a curved path, the Photosmart USB pulls each sheet straight through from the input tray in front. The paper is shot through a slot in the back of the device, then is slowly brought forward again during the print process. I managed to place the printer's power cord too close to that slot, and the result was that the next sheet of paper went through slightly crooked.

If you want to use the Photosmart 245 with your PC or Mac, then you will have to install the driver, along with several supporting HP applications. With one glitch (a single, fairly unimportant .DLL file went missing), the installation went smoothly.

Performance

The quality of the images when printed on photo paper was quite good. Colors were bright and clean, with good saturation -- I was very pleased with the results. Interestingly, the Photosmart 245 uses only a three-color ink cartridge -- cyan, magenta, and yellow -- which means that blacks are a combination of the three. This is not an issue with color photos, but if you want to print back-and-white photos, it is recommended that you purchase a separate HP Photo Gray cartridge.

The speed of the printer is good, if not lightening fast. The input and output trays each hold 26 sheets of 7 milliliter photo paper. As mentioned before, the only size this printer accommodates are 4x6-inch photos, which limits it use considerably for anyone who might want to produce larger prints.

One interesting drawback is that, although the Photosmart 245 is very small and light -- perfect for realtors, salespeople, and others who may need to produce quality photos at a moment's notice -- it doesn't run on batteries, which would make it much more convenient for such a mobile printer.