Sense and Simplicity - that’s the tag line Philips uses to describe their line of digital photo frames. After testing the white frame 7" model (7FF1CM1), we have to agree that Philips lives up to their tag line. Philips has both 7" and 9" photo frames and each size is available in either modern or wood finish. Though some of the modern SKUs have interchangeable frames, our evaluation unit only had a white frame.

Rather than loading up their photo frame with lots of features, Philips concentrated on simplicity, ease of use and, importantly, image quality. Unlike the rest of the products in this roundup, the Philips PhotoFrame only displays still images - it doesn’t play music or video. It’s the most expensive frame in the roundup, but its high-definition 720 X 480 display provides incredibly sharp images.

Product Tour

Front view of the Philips PhotoFrame

The front of the PhotoFrame has a very clean, handsome look. In fact, with the white frame, we initially thought the design looked very much like a Mac product. The screen, though called 7," actually measures about 6.5" diagonally. You’ll note that the screen is not in the 16:9 format found on the other four frames in this roundup - it’s actually a 3:2 format that more closely matches what you shoot with your camera. The PhotoFrame also does not include a remote control. The menu system is simple and intuitive enough that you don’t really need a remote control.

Rear view of the Philips PhotoFrame

There are six buttons on the rear of the PhotoFrame that allow complete control of the frame. A heavy (7 oz.) detachable stand allows you to orient the frame either vertically or horizontally. The power connector, memory slots and mini USB connector are located just above the "Philips" name in the photo above. Philips thoughtfully included a Kensington-compatible security slot so that you can secure the frame if you’re going to place it in a public place.

Hands On

Philips developed a very simple user interface. A series of icons appears across the top row of the screen. These icons are located directly in front of the corresponding buttons on the rear of the frame. The PhotoFrame has three modes: Browse, Slideshow and Thumbnail. In browse mode, you can preview each image in full. The screen will show you the image size, date taken and image number on your memory card. Thumbnail mode displays eight images (two rows of four). The slideshow mode runs the slide show of all images on your memory card using the transition options (delay and effect) you’ve selected. The PhotoFrame supports a wide range of time delays from < 5 seconds to 24 hours. Other setup functions include setting the brightness level to use between 6:00 PM and 6:00 AM and configuring the auto on/off timer, brightness control, language settings and frame status.

The Philips PhotoFrame includes a limited amount of internal memory for permanent storage of your favourite pictures. It’s simple to select images on your memory card to copy. During the copying process, the PhotoFrame resizes your images to 720X480 so that 50-70 images will fit in the 12MB of internal memory. You can only rotate, delete or select for inclusion in the slideshow images stored in internal memory. I only wish that Philips had included more internal memory for storage of more images. The PhotoFrame only uses the internal memory when no memory cards are inserted. When you insert a card, the frame detects the insertion and automatically scans the card for images.

The Philips PhotoFrame was a pleasure to use. In slideshow mode, it properly recognized and displayed images that had been shot vertically and rotated with a photo-editing program. Some of the other frames in this roundup just assumed that the long dimension of the image should be displayed horizontally (if that was the configured orientation) regardless of how the file was saved. Though you pay a hefty price for the Philips PhotoFrame, the ease of use and displayed image quality may justify the price.