About two months ago, I purchased an digital picture frame that I highly recommend to anyone who wants to see their digital photos easily without resorting to printing them out. My frame is a Philips 7FF1AW/05, as shown below.

I'd seen electronic photo frames before, but they were always so absurdly priced. I made the jump because PC World in the UK was running a special offer, £99 (about $180).

I know, I know -- that's still pretty expensive, but it was far better than the typical $300 to $500 prices I recall seeing for such devices in the past.

It's a brilliant piece of kit -- ie, a great gadget, since it's so easy to use. It comes with a CD and USB connectivity, but I've never plugged into my computer. No need. This is because you can slot a memory card into the back of it, and the frame starts showing pictures off the card. Compact Flash, Memory Stick, MMC or SD all work.

Currently, I've got a 512 MB SD card shoved into it with about 140 pictures, and there's plenty of room left if I want to add more. Once the card's in, you set the frame to do a slideshow display, and away you go. The software's all contained in the frame, and it's very smart and easy to use.

For example, you can control the frequency of how often photos change (less than five seconds? 10-15 seconds? 5 minutes? these are just some of the options). You have a choice of effects used for changing pictures (fade, slide, scroll, random and more). Pictures can be shown randomly or in sequential order.

My frame is oriented horizontally, but you can shift it to be vertical, if you want -- both using the software to rotate the pictures automatically and the stand that will prop it up correctly.

The picture quality is wonderful. Honestly, your digital photos look like they've been printed out. That's the best thing about this -- finally, all those digital pictures are easily on display on something other than your computer, your laptop or your TV (if you're like me and burn photo CDs).

I had trouble finding the right spot for the frame. At first, I wanted it on a bookcase or somewhere in the house where it could be seen when walking by. But the frame's a bit too small for that. While it's pitched as being 7 inches, that's a diagonal measurement. The picture size is roughly 3x5.

In the end, I placed it on my desk, where it keeps me happy through the day. I switch it off manually at night, but there's also an auto-off feature you can use, so it will turn itself on and off during a set period. At first, I could never get this to work, but on a recent trip, it finally starting working OK for some reason.

A trip? That's right -- I take this puppy on trips with me. It's perfect to set up on a table next to my bed in a hotel room, and then I've got my family with me, at least in digital form. It's extremely light and portable.

The only downside to this is my power transformer for the frame has a UK plug. It's 110-220, so I don't need a step-down transformer. But I do have to carry an adaptor to make the UK plug fit into a US outlet.

Of course, I could just depend on the battery. Unplug the frame, and it will keep going for apparently about an hour on its internal battery. It also has internal storage, so you can copy photos (about 50 I think) into the frame and not use a memory card at all.

Overall, it's just got me wishing for more. Why can't a regular LCD monitor have these type of smarts built in? Then I'd hang a 17" LCD panel on the wall and see photos in giant glory!

Out of curiosity, I did a quick spin to get a feel for other digital picture frames that are out there. Here are some I spotted:

Meritline 5.6 Inch. Smaller than my frame, but it will also play MP3 files from internal speakers. It's also fairly cheap at $150. But for only $25 more, you can get the 8 inch version or there's a 7 inch widescreen. Of course, no idea if the picture quality is any good. Engadget has a very short review here.

Pacific Digital MV800. Link is to the 8" version, which currently runs you $230. Like the Meritline, it will do sound and pictures. It also has a wood surround, as opposed to my Philips which has a clear plastic one (which I don't mind, but others might it plasticky). Resolution is 640x480, while my frame is 720x480 -- so I might have slightly better quality images (or perhaps just slightly more display space. I'm not really up on screen resolutions as they apply to digital frames!). Pacific Digital has a number of other frames too, as listed here, including one that gets pictures through your wireless network. CNET has a review of one of the frames here.

Displaying Pictures in Digital Picture Frames from ShortCourses is a really nice tutorial and guide to digital picture frames, listing a variety of models and things to consider when buying. Amazon has a nice selection that you'll find here, as does Target over here.

Back to my frame. There's a wood-like version out now, CNET does a review of it here, as does Engadget here with lots of photos. And yes, it does sell in the US for those who don't want to hassle with a UK plug. You can even get them in Home Depots, it seems. Over in the UK, PC World's taken them back up to £130. Finally, here's a nice video that shows how it works, including some of the display effects.

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