HP has a range of photo printers, but nothing that looks or works like the Photosmart A826. It's bigger than a typical dedicated photo printer; about the size of a fashion rucksack.

This is a design feature, as it's built around two key aspects of the machine: a 177mm touch-screen and a totally enclosed paper feed tray. Paper is loaded through a small hatch in the top of the retro-styled printer and up to 100 sheets can be left in it between print jobs, without gathering dust.

The touch-screen is an innovation for dedicated photo printers and not only enables the selection of image thumbnails to print, but also makes it easy to annotate, caption or doodle over an image, with the supplied stylus. Simple selections can also be made with a fingertip.

As well as being able to touch the screen to make selections, there are six touch buttons down the sides of the screen, dedicated to particular functions. This leaves most of the screen available for displaying photos of any of the major memory card types: a set of card slots is revealed when you fold down the output tray from the front of the case.

At the back of the machine is a socket for low voltage input. HP still sticks to its external block power supply regime, which is untidy and unnecessary, as there must be plenty of room inside the case of this printer. There's also a USB socket for connection to a PC or Mac, though this is halfway up the back panel and would be better at the bottom.

HP supplies its Photosmart Essentials software, which is fine for organising photos and making simple edits, but you can also instigate edits, such as red-eye removal, direct from the front panel. Firmware in the printer includes a selection of frames, speech bubbles and other 'furniture' you can add to prints. The frames are rather uninspired and appear aimed at business rather than home use.

If you buy consumables in one of HP's Photo Value Packs, which consists of a three-colour ink cartridge and 120 sheets of Advanced Photo Paper, 15 x 10cm (6 x 4-inch) prints come out at just under 15p each, which is quite reasonable. Print quality is up to HP's high standards, with good detail and smooth colour variation. A print in normal mode takes under a minute, which is better than average.

The Photosmart A826 is a great little printer, particularly if you're interested in standalone photo printing. The ability to handle 18 x 13cm prints as well as 15 x 10cm is handy, but not nearly as handy as the touch-screen for selection and mark-up. Print quality is fine and costs are very reasonable. It would be good to see the asking price for the printer drop by £30, though.