Claire DF20082

The Claire DF20082 is a digital photo frame with a difference - it's actually pretty good. We have reviewed a good number of photo frames in the past and the thing that most seem to have in common is poor image quality and a lack of features. The Claire has a large 8.2in screen which displays images well and also comes with 128MB of internal storage. While 128MB is meagre by today's standards, the storage space is expandable via a memory card slot which supports SD, MMC, XD and Sony Memory Sticks. It also has the ability to play MP3 files, either during a slide show, or via the alarm clock feature.

The on-screen menu is accessible via the provided remote control and is very simple to use. The options aren't numerous so it's not hard to figure out how to scroll through each photo individually or set it up to display all the images via a slideshow. To play music at the same time as the slideshow, an MP3 file needs to be selected first before the slideshow is set into motion. While some may well enjoy an accompaniment to their photo collection, we found it to be more of a novelty than a serious feature. That being said, the speakers are actually quite good and the sound they produce, while not mind blowing, is clear and free of distortion.

Up close, there is a small amount of pixelation on screen but it isn't a major problem the overt pixelation we have seen in other photo frames. The colour reproduction is excellent and we found no problems with the brightness. However, in some cases, we noticeable contrast stepping in areas of subtle colour change. The effect was most noticeable in shades of blue when fading to white, as seen in our test photos of various skylines. This may annoy some users, while others may not notice it at all. Either way, it should be taken into consideration.

Transferring photos to the internal memory will require a PC as there is no function to copy from a memory card but connecting to a PC is relatively easy. The frame connects via USB to a PC where it is found in Windows as a removable storage drive. The card reader is also found as a drive as well so if you plug your memory card in, you can drag and drop photos either to your PC hard drive or to the internal storage. High resolution images from the camera can be rather large and considering the limited 128MB storage, you will need to be very selective as to what you store on the unit, especially if you plan to store music files as well.

While the style of the DF20082 isn't particularly unique, it certainly looks attractive. The white bezel is surrounded by a large clear plastic border, which makes the device a little bigger than it needs to be.

While it isn't perfect, we quite liked the Claire digital photo frame. Some effort could be made to improve the contrast stepping, the size of the device and the limited memory, but compared to most of the other frames we have reviewed, this product is a good choice.