Philips 5.6-Inch Analog Digital Photo Frame

This review is for the 6FF3FP(B or W):

How purchased: Online for $30; elsewhere

Purpose: Gift for elderly parents and grandparents; setup needed to be super easy with the thought I'd attach a memory card, ship it to parents. I needed to know that they could plug in and use with no, I repeat NO USE OR NEED FOR A MENU. I am in my 40's; my mom and grandmother are in 70 and late 90s....they are as non-technical as you can get. Therefore pixels, size, were not nearly important as being literally "plug and play". My experience with many of these things as they do require some input. A second consideration as will it hold those settings with the power off. Trust me you don't want to talk your elderly grandparents how to deal with a time of 12:00 for perpetuity....you remember your VHS recorders that flashed 12:00 after every power outage.....you don't want that!

SD Transfer & Photo Prep Process for MAC USERS: Since I was formatting for a mac, remember the 5.6" model does not offer direct connection to a PC or Mac, I had to format the photos on the mac (used iPhoto). I had to reformat the SD card a few times to nail that down....trick is to format your memory card using MS-DOS Format or MDF..can do this on the mac through Disk Utility in the Utilities folder of Applications. Then create a folder in iPhoto....drag photos from various events into your newly created folder. Then you have to process the photos for export and much smaller file size. Lots of ways to do that but as many have said, trick is to save as .jpg files limiting size to the width or height...You can use export command or even email/share the photos and then drag them over from the email you will never send....you will want to use the "small" file size if composing the email on a mac. Drag the photos to the root of the SD card.

Photo Quality Performance: I would have to say the quality sort of blew me away with the brightness of the little screen....brighter than the panels of two years ago. From across the room you can see the image...not clearly mind you but also not so dark that it blends in. I was really struck by the brightness and colorful almost "popping" light of the unit. And mind you this is with photos scaled back to like 320 x 240. I thought the pictures would suck..but they did not. Again I am not looking for miracles, not for $30.

Slideshow Simplicity: I made sure I turned off the clock, ,kept the transition to random and set the sort order to sequential for 5 seconds. I powered off for about 10 minutes to see if the settings would "hold"..they did. So you plug in, turn the power on....(the one button you do have to push; the button to the EAST of the menu circle.) On power on, you look at a picture of the menu and then it goes away and slideshow starts in about 10 seconds or so...fine.

So all in all I was very pleasantly surprised and found myself looking at the $120 Sony 7" I have sitting on my desk in box and still unopened wondering....geez for $30......this is a deal. Normally I want to have the biggest and baddest but from what I can tell the technology of these photo frames is still not there......menus are getting better, wireless is still buggy, Mac compatibility is weak, and display devices are still not using organic LED's...which are stunning compared to all LCD image devices. That being said this 5.6" uses only 3 watts so your electric bills will not go through the roof.

I give it a buy if you are aware of it's shortcomings.

This newer model is no comparison to the one I bought in May 2008. The picture quality is terrible and it can't store any pictures because it has no internal memory. I guess I got suckered into buying it because it was described as the "newer model". Newer doesn't always mean better. It's going back so much for my parent's Christmas gift.

Buy Philips 5.6-Inch Analog Digital Photo Frame Now

I had the 8 inch LCD frame in the same series and it broke due to power issues in just 6 months....when i called the Philips customer service, each rep that i spoke to routed me to another saying this is not the division which handles this model....in fact the division which handles digital frames also did not handle this series....They would pass my call on even before knowing the issues with my device...And to top it all the rep was rude....

Bottom line....Not a product worth buying both because of quality and Philips itself not ready to take the responsibility.....

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This is my second digital picture frame from Philips. The first one I got as a gift and enjoy it every day. I bought a 2nd one to give to my mom for her birthday-will load it with pictures of all her favorite things. She doesn't have a computer so she cannot view digital pics that the family takes online so this is perfect for her. It is really easy to use and the picture is clear and crisp. I love all the features-it is a great little digital picture frame and would recommend Philips to everyone.

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The photo quality on this photo frame is terrible. I purchased this photo frame as a gift and was too embarresed by the picture quality to give it to my grandmother. It distorts every photo image and turns peoples eyes and lips very dark. Even worse is the high cost of the item. I ordered a 7" frame with a much higher resolution for a lower price and was amazed by the quality. Now I am left with this photo frame sitting in my house with no idea what to do with it. :-( don't buy this item.