HP 7" LCD Digital Photo Frame ( DF780A2 ) - Black Review

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(More customer reviews)Before considering this product please be informed that there are 3 variants of DF780 7" Digital frame - A2, A3 and A4. As of 1/1/2009 Amazon sells a DF780A2, Buy.com sells a DF780A3 and Bestbuy sells a DF780A4. I tried finding out the difference between the three but could not. The specifications for all the three seem the same, and manual is common too. So for now I am writing this review for DF780A2 even though I own a DF780A4.
I spent three good months in identifying the best digital photo frame that fits my budget but still do not compromise on quality and features. Finally I bought this one as a gift for my parents during the Thanksgiving sale for 89.99 from bestbuy.
Following are typically the features that the digital photo frames these days boast of:
1. Screen resolution
2. MP3 Capability
3. Video Capability
4. Calendar/Clock/Alarm
5. Touch Screen
6. Wireless Photo transfer capability
7. Types of External Memory cards supported (SD/SDHC/MMC/Memory stick etc....)
8. Internal memory capacity.
9. Ease of setup and operations.
10. Picture display options ( Sequential, Random order, Multiple pictures at a time etc.. )
11. Remote control operation
12. International voltage considerations (110-240v)
13. International Support.
I personally did not want a touch screen because I would keep my digital photo frame in a show case and would not have to keep touching it. (If i require to operate it, I would prefer a remote control instead of dirtying it). I do not need to upload photos wireless because I did not think its difficult to plug a digital frame to my computer and then drag and drop the photos from my computer hard disk to the frame.
After looking at the numerous options available in the market, I shortlisted three based on my requirements. First I went and bought a Sony 7 Inch digital photo frame in Circuit City on a very good deal.. I must say I was happy with the screen resolution that Sony offered and the looks but I got only 256MB internal memory and it would display only pictures. I returned it and then bought this HP 7" digital frame. I must say I am happy with this frame; its worth every penny that I spent.
Pros:
1. 512 MB internal memory - Believe me its a huge amount of memory. Please do not compare it against the memory offered by external cards in the range of 4GB, 8GB etc.. The reason is that Digital photo frame have a fixed screen size and a fixed resolution and hence having any picture that has better resolution than the resolution offered by the photo frame, its anyway of no use. Hence when you optimize all the photos to a resolution offered by this digital photoframe, you can save around 1000 pictures without a need for additional memory.
2. Support for MP3 - Attach a cheap SD card ( u get a 2GB for 7-8 dollars) and load them with MP3 files and play as u are watching the pictures.
3. Support for Videos - It supports all your videos files in Avi/MPEG format ( May be other formats that I am not aware of yet) ...
4. Good looks. (But if this is your most important requirement, consider Sony DPF-D70-it has the most elegant look in my opinion)
5. Easy set up.
6. Voltage range of operation: 110V to 240V -> Very useful if you plan to gift to someone in Europe or Asia as the voltage range is universal
7. Remote Control - Everything can be controlled with it.

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