Wouldn't that be even more impressive if the image could change on an hourly or daily basis and was backlit and vivid like a small screen as opposed the traditional 6 x 4 photo. That's where the Aigo digital photo frame comes in offering a 6.5" LCD screen combined with 32mb of onboard memory which can be expanded by plugging in a SD/MMC/MS/XD memory card.

The unit seems sturdy enough although it does flex a bit in the hand but then you aren't meant to walk around the office with it. It comes with several inserts meaning you can change the frame surrounds (silver / black) which can help depending on the type of images you want to display. In order to get images onto the Aigo photo frame you can use the USB 1.1 mini jack and connect to a windows PC which sees the frame as a mass storage device and therefore allows you to push images to the 32mb onboard memory.

Then using the simplistic on screen menu system you are able to browse images and add them to either a static play list or a rotating one, of course you can also add a memory card into the slots on the side of the unit either the CF slot or the SD /MMC slot. A card is seem by the frame and you can browse the contents for direct display or for copying to the internal memory. When choosing images there is a very limited amount of editing i.e. you can choose to zoom in (up to 3 levels) and adjust the brightness before stacking them into the playback order.

A rather twee feature is the ability to play background music in the form of MP3 files through the small speaker in the rear of the digital photo frame. Sadly this is next to useless as it is a tiny weedy speaker that then faces the wrong way and combined with a very limited amount of music would lead to you hearing the same track very frequently. Also missing from this cheaper frame when compared to the Philips item is a clock, sounds simple we know but without a clock you cannot set it to power down when not in use or to adjust brightness by time of day.

Image quality is good for the JPEG only device with surprisingly high resolution from the limited panel, it seemed to cope well with 5 mega pixel images with Aigo claiming they can handle up to 12. The backlight is fairly strong but was defeated by direct sunlight as have been every frame we have seen to date.

At this stage it is difficult to say if the digital photo frame is a serious bit of kit or a gimmick for Geek websites, however it certainly draws a crowd and when this model the Aigo A30 costs under £70 it is almost disposable money and an ideal gift. So if you have images trapped in a digital camera and want to show off this could be a good gadget choice.

Published - 06/03/2007

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