11in Digital Photo Frame

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• Expert Rating

  3.75 / 5

• User Rating

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• Price

  $ 399.00 (AUD)

James Hutchinson Good Gear Guide 08/05/08 Follow @pcworldau

Pros

• Good quality panel, impressive built-in speakers

Cons

• Disappointing format support

Bottom Line

Echologic's 11in Digital Photo Frame has a great quality screen and simple interface which make for a great experience overall. The only flaw is its lack of format support.

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Echologic has bypassed the plastic frame common to most of its competitors, opting instead for a real wood frame with a red cherry finish. This design is appealing and will suit most situations around the home. A cream border on the inside of the frame adds to this design, but it can make the LCD display seem smaller than it actually is. Nevertheless, the design is relatively impressive, and 11 inches is a suitable size for proper photo viewing at a reasonable distance.

Echologic has provided support for most major media cards, including XD, CompactFlash, MemoryStick, MMC and SD cards, as well as a USB port for flash drives and digital cameras. We were pleased to note that there are individual slots for most types of card, as universal card slots can sometimes be awkward to use. A second USB port allows the frame to connect to a computer, acting as a multi-card reader. Unfortunately, we found format support inadequate. Formats were limited to JPEG for photos, MP3s for audio and AVI Motion JPEG for video. This choice of formats will suit many users, but a lack of wider photo and video format support may detract from the frame's appeal to the tech savvy.

The frame's menu interface is functional, if a little ugly. The photo frame automatically displays the photos or videos of any available input device, and so the menu isn't always necessary. Nevertheless, the menu does provide the user with simple access to relevant media and their relative settings and options. The file browser may be redundant in most cases, but it is still welcome. Colour and brightness settings can be accessed from within a slideshow, and are easily adjustable using the supplied remote control.

Unlike most photo frames on the market, we were quite impressed by the frame's LCD panel. With an impressive resolution of 800x480 pixels, the display was great for viewing photos. Colour reproduction was accurate, with only some instances of slightly exaggerated flesh tones. Some pixelation did occur in high quality shots, but quality was generally acceptable. Unfortunately, the panel's 15:9 aspect ratio caused some cropping of landscape shots; there wasn't an option to change this besides rotating the picture. Nevertheless, portrait shots were fine, with no evidence of stretching to compensate for the widescreen panel. Due to a dedicated built-in graphics processor, the frame is quite fast in comparison to its competitors, though there was still some lag when transitioning between photos.

The frame's built-in speakers were of a surprisingly high quality. Rated at 1.5W each, the two built-in speakers managed to provide an acceptable amount of mid-range for their size. While they don't match up to dedicated speakers, their ability to play music at a decent volume with a listenable quality gives this frame an advantage compared to its competitors.