Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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98 of 99 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent Screen quality and battery life, 15 Dec 2007
This is my Third digital photo frame since last Christmas and I can confidentally say that VARNAM has exceeded all the others in the hardware & software specifications as well as performance.
I had three in the past (one subsequently returned). My requirement was for a digital photo frame with a built-in battery and internal memory.
Early this year I bought a Philips digital photo frame, then a Linx digital photo frame (which I returned) and then Varnam.
As I have seen the positive and negative sides of all the three, I thought it will be better if I compare all the three in the review for making it useful for other potential buyers.
Screensize & Resolution - Actual Picture quality
Philips 9FF2M4 my first frame - When I purchased this philips digital photo frame, I assumed based on the model number that it is a 9 inch screen but it is actually 8 inches. Resolution of the screen is 640x480.
The screen quality is good as long as you don't compare it with the others
Linx - It is advertised as 8 inch with an awkward screen resolution of 720x480, I assume that it is using a display used for American Television standards. The screen quality is good so are the pictures, but the pictures appear only in the middle area of the screen (640x480) with black borders surrounding the sides. If I insert the memory card from my camera all the pictures appear only in the middle of the screen surrounded by black border.
Varnam - Screen size is 8 inches with a resolution of 800x480. Images are displayed in full screen with out distortion. The frame automatically adjusts the pictures to fit the full screen. The screen size and picture quality definitely stands out when you place the three displays next to each other. Varnam screen also has high brightness and contrast definetly real life pictures.
Internal Memory
Philips - It can hold roughly 100-110 images and the frame automatically compresses the images to hold in its memory
Linx - It has internal memory but I was disappointed with the frame due to its display and fidely controls, I returned it with out checking the actual memory size, but I assume it is 128MB
Varnam - It has a 128MB built-in
Battery operation
This was my main criteria when choosing these frames.
Philips - was able to stretch operation between 1hr and slightly more than 1hr
Linx - battery lasted for 1.5hrs
Varnam - I was able to watch a full length DivX movie with the battery, it lasted for atleast 120minutes, manufacturer states it lasts for 1.5 hrs
Remote control
Philips - NO
Linx - Yes
VARNAM - Yes
Memory card support
Philips - Like a quality product it supports all types of memory cards. Has a USB device port for connecting to the PC
Linx - Does not support CF (Compact flash) and xD card types. It has a USB host port for USB memory stick, I couldn't use it to connect to a computer.
Varnam - Supports all types of memory cards. It has 2 types of USB ports, one for USB memory stick and another for connecting with the computer, this USB port is USB2 and file transfers are really quick.
Supported File Types
Philips - Only Photos, doesn't support music or video.
Linx - Supports Photo, Music and Video but display aspect ratio distorts images unless they are in native resolution
Varnam - Supports Photo, Music and Video
Ease of use
Philips - Plug and play - easy to use, you can program the unit to switch on and off at a given time of the day
Linx - Fidgety remote control with unhelpful onscreen menu. Remote control sensor is hidden on the sides. So your remote doesn't always work unless you are close to the frame
Varnam - Neatly laid out menu icons makes it easier to use. Also with its touch sensitive controls, it is easy to handle the menu seeing it . Supports auto on and off at a given time of the day like Philips.
Aesthetic appearence - All the three digital photo frames are aethetically appealing.
Reasons to buy
Philips - High Quality Finish
Linx - Cheap
Varnam - Stylish Touch sensitive front panel,high quality finish, Very good picture quality, Auto on and off at preset time of the day
Reasons NOT TO BUY
Linx - There is plenty to list here, but mainly distorted image, small display size (image is shown only in middle area of the screen), poor user interface, not easy to operate if you are giving it to your grand parents, badly written user manual
Philips - High Price for a limited features - you can get all the quality and features in VARNAM for a much lower price
VARNAM - It has more plus points compared with Linx and Philips and you cannot ignore it unless you dislike the black colour of the frame
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21 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Varnum 8" Digital Picture Frame, 21 Dec 2007
OK I ordered this on the Wednesday before Xmas and within 24 hours it was at my door! Great service!
It's a gift for my parents-in-law, so I took it out to check it over and charge its internal battery up today.
First of all I thought that the screen was scratched but on triple-checking it is a piece of protective plastic that is so well stuck on that the first two times I looked I thought it was the actual unprotected screen. Doh!
The display is very good and the remote and on-screen buttons pretty intuitive.
It had a decent internal battery and resizes photos automatically and very well.
The sound can go much louder than I expected though obviously its not got much bass.
Still the ability to unplug it and pass it around puts it streets ahead of most of the competition.
I only have one gripe.
Whilst it claims to play any avi file (at least the manual doesn't lay down min. or max. sizes or frame rates etc), this doesn't seem to be true.
The little avi movies recorded (and mixed in with my photos) by my casio exilim and my father-in-law's fuji do not play.
The bond movie clip on the Varnum as a sample also appears to be an avi and plays fine.
A call to customer service has not been returned yet (to be fair it was only 2 hours ago and it is two shopping days before Xmas), but I have managed to find a work around - just use an avi to DivX converter. Once you have converted your avis to DivX they all play fine (I had to try a couple of converters before I found one that liked my little avi movies).
So all in all a great product but it loses one star for the pain of having to convert some avis before you can watch them.
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21 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Order out of multimedia Chaos, 14 Dec 2007
As someone with thousands of photos lying around in various places and various media cards I found this digital photo frame perfect for my needs. It takes all types of cards I've, a Sony MemoryStick Pro from my T200, XD/MMC from my phones and a CF card I've had from eons ago. Its got USB slot to transfer pics from my PC.
Built-in battery to get me out of the cable mess and built-in memory to hold decent amount of pics. LCD quality is superb with good contrast. Panel is elegant and touch sensitive. Plays videos in lots of formats, so I can watch them in bed.
Pictures are displayed in perfect aspect, unlike the streching/shrinking my friends frame does (picture aspect is one of those subtle things people forget to consider while bying a digital photo frame..me thinks).
The manual is bit short but the onscreen menu is well organised. All-in-all really pleased with it and finally I found order out of choas! Now, where did I keep the remote? ;)
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