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Review: Philips 7FF1AW Digital PhotoFrame

by Bob Crabtree on 10 August 2007, 09:10

Tags: 7FF1AW Digital PhotoFrame, Philips (AMS:PHIA)

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Intro

Philips logo
Day-tripper John Hill wants to enjoy some of the photos currently stuck in an electronic shoe-box (his PC's hard disk) and checks out how they look on the Philips 7FF1AW Digital PhotoFrame.

In the olden days, when some people thought APS cameras were the next big thing - or a good idea even - most of us would give our films to a photo lab and get back the negatives and a set of prints.

Some of us would then dutifully put these snaps into albums – and then never look at them again.

Other people (with a life, friends would say) just stuck their photos in shoeboxes – and then never looked at them again.

At one point I had over 40 photo albums - even though I'd exercised some discretion over what made it into them.

Then, a few years ago, I went digital and abandoned prints all together.

Completely unintentionally, I switched to the digital equivalent of a shoebox - a computer hard drive.

And I'm not alone, according to research by Philips, which shows that most people don't bother printing out their digital snaps.

Except for a few pictures dotted around the house, I rarely look at my photos. This seems like an awful waste of time and effort, not to mention trees, photographic equipment and hard-disk space.

So I have been watching the development - and falling prices - of digital photo frames with much interest, as they appear to be the display solution that my photography - digital or otherwise - has been waiting for.

Philips 7in Digital PhotoFrame
Click for larger image

These digital photo albums come in a variety of shapes and sizes and allow you to display hundreds of pictures in a permanent slideshow.

Now that they can be picked up for less than £50, I thought it was time to take a closer look and find out if such products are what I've been waiting for or just another place to store photos that I'll never look at.

For this review, I checked out the £130 Philips 7FF1 Digital PhotoFrame. This is described as a 7in model but, as you'll find out on the next page, the visible screen diagonal is a good bit less…