In most ways, the HP Photosmart A626 Compact Photo Printer ($179.99 direct) is only a small step up from last year's crop of dedicated photo printers from HP. But give HP credit for trying new things, because the A626 offers something new and different: a 4.8-inch touch screen that turns the A626 into a kind of mini-photo kiosk and makes it unique among small-format, portable, dedicated photo printers.

The A626 directly replaces the A616 and effectively replaces the Editors' Choice HP Photosmart A716 as the new top of the compact photo printer line for HP, but with little change in the core features. Specifically, it offers output quality similar to that of both of those printers, at somewhat faster speed, along with the same ability to print standard-format photos at up to 5 by 7 inches (something few small-format, dedicated photo printers offer), as well as panoramas up to 4 by 12 inches.

The A626 eliminates some of the A716's features, notably an internal hard drive to let you store photos in the printer and a video-output port to let you view them on a TV. HP says that most potential buyers simply weren't interested in those capabilities. But leaving out those features goes hand in hand with a $70 saving in price, which I count as a major improvement in itself.

The A626 actually offers the same touch-screen features as the HP Photosmart A826 Home Photo Center, a larger printer with a much larger touch screen. But unlike the A826, which is too large to carry with you (at least on a regular basis), the A626 is fully portable. It's 5.2 by 9.9 by 4.6 inches (HWD), weighs only 3.2 pounds, and comes with a built-in handle. HP even offers an optional battery ($49.99 direct) so you can print photos when away from a power outlet. HP says the battery weighs roughly 8 ounces and can print 75 4-by-6 photos on a full charge.

As with most small-format photo printers, setting up the A626 is almost trivial. Simply plug in the power cord, install the one ink cartridge, load paper, and print. If you want to connect to a computer, you can also run the automated installation program and plug in a USB cable.

The A626 can also print from a PictBridge camera, but the more interesting choice is to print directly from a memory card or USB key, because both take advantage of the touch screen. The screen has a central full-color display area, at 3.5 inches, bordered on each side by a strip of control icons for tasks like scrolling through the photos and giving the print command.

Except for size, the touch-screen menus are identical to the menus in the HP A826, and just as easy to use. Plug a memory card or USB key into the front of the printer, and the A626 will show the images on screen in thumbnail format. You can scroll though the thumbnails to pick which photos to print, or touch a photo to see it at full size, and then scroll through the full-size photos to pick which ones to print.

You can also crop, remove red-eye, or adjust brightness on photos, as well as add a frame, add clip art stored in the printer, draw on the image, and more. The printer comes with a stylus for more reliable control than using your fingers. When you're not using it, you can snap the stylus securely in place in a slot on top of the printer.

According to HP, the print mechanisms in the A626 and A826 are identical expect for a slightly different paper feed, so it's not surprising that the two printers offer identical output quality and similar performance. The different paper feeds affect overall print time, but only slightly.

Photo quality wasn't a match for the best (read: more expensive) photo printers, but it was as good as you'd expect from your local drugstore or camera shop. Some colors in some photos were too punchy—unrealistically green grass, for example—but some people prefer punchy color. As important as photo quality is the photos' durability. HP claims a lifetime of more than 200 years for photos kept in dark storage, as in an album; more than 50 years for photos behind glass, as in a frame; and more than 10 years for photos exposed to air.

The photos are also water- and scratch-resistant. I saw water stains from drops of water left to dry. But I also held a photo underwater, rubbed it, and left it to dry with no visible effect. And after shuffling the photos to look through them, sliding them over each other any number of times, I didn't see any surface scratching. You can pass the photos around for people to look at, and be confident that they'll come back unscathed.

Print speed is less than impressive, but more than acceptable, and—as already mentioned—faster than that of HP's last generation of small format photo printers. I timed the A626 at an average 1 minute 28 seconds on our standard 4-by-6 test photos printed from a computer. The full range for printing—from a computer, CompactFlash card, USB key, and Canon PowerShot S60 camera—was 1:14 to 1:55. Times for 5-by-7 photos ranged from 1:50 to 2:16. Not surprisingly, the times were a close match to the A826's times. As another point of comparison, the similarly priced Sony Picture Station DPP-FP90—one of the fastest dedicated photo printers I've tested—averaged just 50 seconds for our standard test photos.

The cost for a 4-by-6 print is 29.2 cents, based on print packs with enough ink and paper for 120 photos, at $34.99 (direct). That's more expensive than with some printers, but within the 25 to 30 cent range that most printers fall in. (There's no equivalent pack for 5-by-7s, and HP doesn't quote a cost for that size.)

The printer would obviously be even more attractive with a lower cost per photo. Still, the balance between price per photo, initial price, speed, output quality, and touch-screen convenience is enough to make the HP Photosmart A626 a winner. More than that, it's enough to let it replace the A716 as the new high-end Editors' Choice for dedicated, consumer-oriented photo printers.

Check out the HP Photosmart A626 Compact Photo Printer's test scores.

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