Smart Parts (SPDPF84) Digital Picture Frame

Pros: Prompt shipment (Circuit City). Wood frame looks nice. Simple instructions. Nice picture. Good customer support.
Cons: Price. Some functions can only be performed using the tiny remote. Slightly distorted picture.

[Final word: It says a lot about a company when they go the extra mile to turn an upset customer into a happy one. Not only did Smartparts replace the two defective items... they actually sent me the latest version of their product (with the built in ...

Pros: Size, price. Ease of setup and use.
Cons: Less than intuitive controls, easy-to-lose remote.

After a disastrous experience with a Philips digital frame that I couldn't get to work, I was very pleasantly surprised by this "no name" alternative. It was ridiculously easy to set up. Unlike the Philips, which requires another device to load photos on the cards, the SmartParts frame connects directly and intuitively to your computer by way of a cable, permitting rapid additions and changes to the photo display. It also reportedly plays MP3 files, although I haven't tried this feature and probably won't use it.
Although I'm very happy with this frame, I have several minor complaints. First, its unintuitive controls are randomly scattered between the unit itself and a silly remote, which will be easy to misplace. Second, it loses its settings when it is turned off, requiring a moment or two of setup every time you plug it in. And, third, there was no "random" selection for the slide show -- it starts at the beginning and plows through to the end. I was only able to simulate a shuffle by adding random characters to the front of each image filename before saving the files to the chip.