HP refreshes Photosmart printer series

With TouchSmart tech

8 September 2009 13:00 GMT / By Duncan Geere

HP has announced a total refresh of its Photosmart line of printers, adding touchscreens of different varieties to everything, along with Wi-Fi and numerous other improvements.

Five models feature in the new range. From low to high they are: the C4680, the Photosmart, the Photosmart Wireless, the Photosmart Plus and the previously-reported-on Photosmart Premium. The company says these are the "easiest Photosmarts ever".

Starting at the bottom, the C4680 is an entry level all-in-one printer, with scanning and copying functionality. It can print photos, and it has a colour display with a "touchsmart" frame, meaning that buttons around the screen are touch sensitive. It has an Integrated Print Head system, and costs £80.

Next are the Photosmart and Photosmart Wireless. They've both got a compact design, a touchsmart frame around a 3.7-centimetre display, and individual color inks. The former costs £100, whereas the wireless edition adds, as you might imagine, wireless functionality, and costs £130.

The Photosmart Plus is another all-in-one, with scan and copy functionality. It's got a proper touchscreen this time, 6.1-centimetres across, Wi-Fi and the same four-ink setup as the regular Photosmart. It costs £150.

Lastly, the Photosmart Premium has the biggest screen - 8.7cm with support for Snapfish, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and ethernet networking and inbuilt duplex printing. It has a five-ink setup, and low energy usage. It costs £200.

All five of the printers will be available this or next month.

Update: HP's just dropped us word of yet another model - the HP Photosmart A646 Compact Printer - which is coming out too. It's another wireless touchscreen model, and can connect to cameras without having to have a PC attached first, thanks to inbuilt Bluetooth. It's expected to cost 149 Euros (about £130) and will appear in October.