The Philips 7FF1 Digital Picture Frame: Welcome to Your Future
Written: Aug 27 '06 (Updated Sep 08 '06)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: High-resolution LCD display, painless set-up, many slideshow options, many photo transfer options
Cons: Price, small internal memory, only two frame colors, no options for wall-mounting
The Bottom Line: Leave a comment.
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| symbiosis's Full Review: Philips 7" Digital Photo Frame - Photo Viewer - 7F... |
LCD Technology
First, I would like to provide some information on LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) technology. At this point, most of us are at least somewhat familiar with LCD screens. LCD is the dominant type of screen for modern flat-panel computer monitors. Flat-panel LCD computer monitors are now widespread in the business world, and increasingly common for home use. LCD televisions are now starting to become popular. Prices are going down, and quality is going up. LCD televisions with screen sizes of up to 37 inches are now widely available.
But for the purposes of this review, it is the small LCD screens that are more relevant. 6-10 inch LCD screens have now become inexpensive enough that they are showing up in a wide variety of products. These products include portable DVD players, tiny flat-screen TVs, and now Digital Picture Frames!
So, you might be able to tell already that I am really excited about the idea of digital picture frames. I first thought that they would be a good idea about 3 years ago. At the time, I searched the internet, and only found one model. It had a screen that was about 3 inches diagonal, held maybe 10 small digital pictures, and sold for around $600. Jump back into the present, and I will present to you...
The Philips 7FF1 Digital Picture Frame
With the skyrocketing popularity of digital photography and the improving quality and decreasing price of smaller LCD screens, the era of the digital picture frame is dawning. This entry by Philips is one of the major competitors for this emerging market.
You Only Get One Chance to Make a First Impression
At first glance, the design of the 7FF1 says, "iPod." The LCD screen is surrounded by a square border of white plastic, which is in turn surrounded by a rounded, clear plastic border. The 7FF1 would clearly be at home on a computer desk, surrounded by an iPod and an iMac. But while obviously modern in design, the styling is still neutral enough to be inoffensive in most living rooms.
The frame arrives in slickly designed box, which shows that Philips is paying attention to appearances. Inside, there is sufficient packaging to allow the 7FF1 to survive some shipping abuse. Inside the box, you will find a male-to-female USB adapter for hookup of a digital camera, an USB cable to connect to a computer, an AC adapter, and a rather heavy metal stand. The stand is removable, and can be adjusted so that the frame will stand either horizontally or vertically. Just make sure that you turn the stand clockwise until it locks into place before trying to use the stand in the vertical position.
This is a Set-Up
Most devices with rechargeable batteries need to be fully charged before the first use. The quick start guide and the user manual (only available on CD-ROM) for the 7FF1 do not say anything about this, nor do they state how long the frame should be charged. Instead, they simply direct you to plug the unit into a power outlet before initial setup. I distrust this, and did not want to reduce the life of the battery, so I let it charge for about 4 hours before starting the setup.
The unit turns on with a simple sliding on/off switch on the back. Powering the unit up is quick; it only takes about three seconds to start reading the pictures from memory, and will generally start displaying pictures in less than 10 seconds. There are six buttons on the back of the unit that are used to during setup and to change various options. I found the set-up to be pretty intuitive, and the quick start guide is handy, although it is lacking in detail. The user manual is more detailed, but still has a lot of the same information found in the quick start guide.
Do You Get the Picture?
After basic set-up, which took me about 10 minutes, it is time to load some photos into the picture frame. This can be accomplished in an impressive number of ways. First, you could hook up your digital camera directly to the frame. However, not all digital cameras will support direct playback. My three-year-old Canon A75 did not work with the direct connection.
The second method for transferring photos is to remove the memory card from your camera, and plug it directly into the 7FF1. The frame has slots for CompactFlash, SD, Memory Stick, and MMC memory cards. In my case, I have a high-speed SanDisk Ultra memory card. The frame recognizes the card quickly, in most cases reading the pictures in less than 10 seconds. The picture can then be either downloaded into the camera's internal memory, or displayed from the memory card. The internal memory is 14MB (about 12MB is available for pictures), which is good for around 50-80 reasonably sized images. However, even a modest 512 MB CompactFlash memory card could hold thousands of pictures. Thus, the amount of pictures that you can display is nearly endless if used with an attached memory card. As far as I can tell, when a memory card is inserted, the frame will display pictures from the memory card, but will not display any pictures from the internal memory.
The final method for transferring photos is via direct connection from your computer. Philips seems to discourage this, as they do not even cover this method in the quick start guide. If you are like me, and have been a member of the digital revolution since the days of the Commodore 64, you are likely to have a number of digital photos stored on your computer. I found the process of transferring photos into the frame (which shows up as a mass storage device when connected to a Windows XP computer) to be fairly easy. The frame does take 30-60 seconds to convert the photos after they have been transferred into the device.
The 7FF1 has a 7-inch (measured diagonally) display screen. The screen is about 3.75 inches high x 5.5 inches wide when oriented horizontally. I think this a nice size, as it roughly equates to a 4x6 inch photo. The resolution of the screen is 720x480 pixels. After some experimentation, I found that I had the best luck with pictures that were around 200KB in size. At this size, the pictures are close to the quality that you would expect from a good digital print. The colors are accurate, and there is a reasonable amount of detail. Pictures can be viewed from up to 5-6 feet away. The 7FF1 also has a viewing angle of up to 170 degrees, which means that you will not have to stand right in front of the display to look at the pictures. The brightness is adjustable on a scale of 1-5. I found that in most rooms, a brightness setting of 4-5 was necessary.
What are My Options?
You can choose to view one picture at a time, or can watch alternating photos in a slide show. The slide show has varying features, including several different effects to change between photos. You can also choose how frequently the frame changes photos, which is adjustable from approximately every 5 seconds all the way up to once per day. I personally like the 1 minute or 5 minute option.
The 7FF1 also has an internal clock, and can be set to turn on and off at specific times. After you set this option, you must leave the power switch on the back in the on position. Once it reaches the pre-set off time, it will power down automatically, then power back up at the pre-set on time. I have mine set to turn on at 6:30 PM, and turn off at 11:00 PM. So far, the timer has worked great. I do wish that you could set different on/off times for weekdays vs. weekends though.
According to Philips, the LCD screen's effective lifetime (until it reaches only 50% of original brightness) should be around 20,000 hours. At the rate that I am using it (4.5 hours/day), it should last around 12 years. I would be ecstatic if it lasted that long. Twelve years from now, these will probably be as inexpensive as a cheap portable CD player is now. Even if left on constantly, the 7FF1 would last over two years if Philips' longevity claim is accurate.
Every Silver Lining is Attached to a Dark Cloud
Up until now, I have been raving about this device like a teenager that just received their first cell phone or automobile. So what are the negatives, or what could be improved? Well, the design will not please everyone. I like it, but I am sure some people would prefer a more traditional look. Philips does offer the same frame in a wood grain appearance. I expect that they will be available in a wider variety of styles and colors relatively soon.
I also wish that the internal memory was larger. Memory is fairly cheap these days, and it would not have cost much more to include 128-512MB of internal memory. This is something that will probably improve dramatically in later generation models. If you choose to add a memory card, this will not be a major issue.
The price is going to seem a bit high for most people right now. But if you go back about 7 years, most people thought that DVD players and digital cameras were too expensive. As the technology continues to mature, and manufacturing processes improve, I think the price will drop significantly in the next few years. Anybody who purchases one today will help fund the improvements of tomorrow.
The rechargeable battery only lasts about 45-50 minutes. So the frame will have to be plugged into an outlet most of the time. However, due to the efficient nature of LCD display, this digital frame only uses about 12W of electricity, about the same as a 60-watt equivalent fluorescent bulb.
Finally, there does not seem to be any mounting accommodations on the back for mounting to a wall. That would be a nice feature for people who do not like a lot of clutter on their furniture. However, since this frame could do the work of hundreds of normal frames, this is probably a pretty minor gripe.
Who Would Want One of these Things, Anyway?
So who is the Philips 7FF1 digital picture frame for? Well, obviously it will delight early adopter techno-dorks like me. Even the slightly more normal folks who own a digital camera and a computer would enjoy one of these frames. But one potentially huge market for this product is parents and grandparents. Even if they do not own a computer, and think the internet is the work of the devil, they could still enjoy this digital frame. I am actually seriously considering these as Christmas presents once the price comes down a bit more. All I would have to do is load it up with pictures, set the display options, and plug it in at my parent's house. I think that my parents would really enjoy seeing 50 different pictures from a single frame. Just think of the possibilities for older people with many grandchildren. The 7FF1 can also be used to quickly review digital pictures from a memory card in a fairly high-resolution format. This has a lot of practical applications for serious amateur/semi-pro/professional photographers. I know one professional photographer who might be using it for this purpose even as I am writing this review.
Overall
I think the Philips 7FF1 digital picture frame is ridiculously awesome. This would make a great gift for technophiles, digital photographers, and parents or grandparents. With the continuing success of the digital camera, the age of the digital picture frame has arrived.
I received this product from Hass MS&L for the purpose of providing a fair and honest review on Epinions.com.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
symbiosis
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