Sagem AGFAPHOTO AF5070M

Sagem's latest AGFAPHOTO AF5070M digital photo frame aims to provide a sleek, feature-packed solution for storing and sharing photos. While it does have quite a stylish design, the end result is a product that is let down by a below-average display and skimpy internal memory.

The AF5070M houses a large 7in LCD, but it has a poor resolution of just 483x234 pixels. Images appear over saturated and lack detail, and a poor viewing angle also means that crowding around the frame to view photos from different angles is a hit and miss affair. The frame looks decent from distance, but as soon as you get close, the poor detail comes to light. Although the screen is bright, sharpness is lacking and colour reproduction is poor. With no settings available to tweak the display (such as brightness, contrast etc.) these problems aren't really avoidable.

The AF5070M only has 128MB of internal memory, so you won't be able to store many images on the actual unit. Thankfully, images can be displayed from an external memory card, or USB key, in either 4:3 or 16:9 ratios. The unit supports Compact Flash (CF), Secure Digital (SD), MultiMedia Card (MMC), Memory Stick (MS), Memory Stick Pro (MS Pro) and xD cards. Once loaded, supported JPEG images can be zoomed and rotated, and viewed in a slideshow together with music files. The external speaker, whilst not outstanding by any means, is good enough to listen to slideshow music. Load times are decent, but menu speeds are slow; using the remote was a frustrating experience as each key press takes a second or two to register, and the same occurs when using the buttons on the actual unit itself.

In slideshow mode, all the AF5070M's features can be operated using the supplied remote control and the buttons on the top of the frame. Both could be implemented better; the remote buttons require a firm press to operate, and the buttons on the unit itself are flat and stubborn. Ease of use is high though; operation is fairly straightforward and the main menu icons are a nice touch. A couple of enticing features are the standard mini-USB port on the side, which allows for a connection to a PC to be made, for uploading images; it also has clock, calendar and alarm functions.

Design wise, the AF5070M is quite attractive. It comes with two interchangeable frames; one gloss black and the other brushed aluminium. Both frames are stylish and should blend with most decors. Further, the gloss white finish on the rear contrasts nicely with both interchangeable frames. Our only complaint about the design is the wall mounting option - there are no screws or instructions on how to achieve this, and even if you do manage to hang it on your wall, the power cord will be dangling from the base.