Philips SPF4008/12 8 inch LCD Digital Photo Frame

A. Skudder

at 7:17 pm

I have had some experience with electronic photo frames in the past, mostly with keeping my wife’s one updated with new photos. This compares very well on picture and build quality, but falls down on usability and features, lacking some things that cheaper frames have.

If picture quality is your overall priority then the Phillips frames are excellent, and this one is fine in use if you are going to leave it running a slideshow. If you are going to want to show guests specific photos or keep changing what is displayed this might turn out to be a bit fiddly.

The main good and bad points I found are:

Good:

- Picture quality. Very bright and clear with good colour reproduction

- The RadiantColor feature. Sounded a bit gimmicky but is very effective. On other frames I have found the black bars so annoying I have cropped photos to the dimensions of the frame, which I have not found necessary on this one.

- Auto-detecting of orientation. Turn the frame on its side and pictures are rotated accordingly. Works very well.

- Internal storage. The frame has 512MB of memory which it says is enough for 500 photos. If photos are saved at 800×600 and are therefore well below 1MB each it should hold many more. (I have only loaded a few hundred so I am assuming there is not an arbitrary limit of 500)

- Build quality. This feels very sturdy, particularly the stand which locks onto the back and works whether the frame is in landscape or portrait orientation.

Bad:

- No remote control. All the controls are on the back of the frame, which is a bit tricky. I got used to them quickly enough but it is still more trouble than using a remote, especially if the frame is wall-mounted.

- Portrait orientation. A couple of niggles with this. As I said, the stand is very good for portrait orientation and the auto-detection of orientation works very well but if you use this frame as a portrait frame the Phillips logo is then sideways and looks strange. Also, there is no hole for wall-mounting the frame ‘upright’.

- Menus. While easy to get the hang of, the menus are quite limited. They do not wrap around so to go to the last photo in a list you have to scroll all the way down. Also there does not seem to be a ‘select all’ function: just a ‘select all seen’ function which is not quite the same.

The Collage feature is good in theory, but in reality it looks poor unless you spend a lot of time setting it up. The problem is that the collage layouts are a mixture of landscape and portrait sections. If you have mostly landscape pictures they will get cropped arbitrarily for those sections. To make the most of it you will have to include lots of portrait pictures as well, in different folders, and assign those folders to the different sections of the collage – something I have not had the patience for.

Sound is poor, but would you really expect hi-fi from a photo frame? Be aware that only MP3 music files will play – if you have all your music in AAC or WMA format you will have to convert or re-rip it to use as background music. Similarly the only video format supported is .avi

Sounds like a lot to complain about, but because of the brilliant picture quality I am still very happy with this for my requirements. For me it is the lack of a remote control that is the biggest drawback – that would make such a difference to it.
Rating: 4 / 5

M. Hall

at 10:53 pm

The Philips SPF4008 is a really high quality digital photo frame. I have always been amazed by the idea and I am glad to see how far they have come in recent years. It seems a great invention to have a dynamic picture displayed either on a cabinet or on the wall, as apposed to staring at the same picture for x amount of years. They can also be incredibly fun, as you walk past them you catch a glimpse of that embarassing photo of you asleep on a bus, mouth wide open and make up tarnished, or the lighter ones like a family picture at the beach which bring back instant memories.

Philips have done an excellent job here, and I would like to concentrate my review on a few areas. I should point out however that this item isn’t perfect and what I consider to be pitfalls of this item will appear at the end.

What’s in the box – We get the SPF4008 itself, a UK and euro mains adapter (oddly these are two completely seperate adapters, not the type where you can just snap the end off and replace it), a plastic black stand, a Quick Start Guide printly seperately in a dozen different languages, and a CD containing the full user manual in PDF format.

Build quality and aesthetics – The PhotoFrame is incredibly sturdy for it’s size, and using the included stand (which is easy to fit to the rear of the frame), I have no worries of it toppling. The glossy front is well made and was protected well upon purchase. The front of the thing looks absolutely georgeous, and I’m glad Philips didn’t go over the top with the styling. It is plain, but rightly so and contains only the Philips logo in the bottom left corner. Only a black version is available, perhaps it would have been better for Philips to produce different coloured version to suit different room styles, but personally I like the classic black look.

Connections, controls and ports – What’s nice about this design is that all the gubbins are hidden round the back to avoid disorting the sleek, sexy look maintained at the front. At the rear of the frame, we have a hook for wall pointing, a 4 way navigation dial with a select button, a Mode button and a Setup button. I should point out that bizzarely Philips haven’t named these buttons logically as I have, but have instead decided to denote them with a small, confusing hard to understand graphic which at least for me doesn’t relate to what the button actually does. Strange. Therefore, it was through trial and error that I figured out how to operate the PhotoFrame. Also round the back is the power connector, a USB port for connecting to a PC (I believe a USB A to B lead would suffice, as one isn’t included) and a memory card slot that accepts these following formats – Secure Digital (SD), Secure Digital (SDHC), Multimedia Card, xD card, Memory Stick, Memory Stick Pro, Memory Stick Duo, Memory Stick Pro Duo, on the right hand side of the item is a USB port for connecting a Pen drive/usb stick for viewing multimedia content. This brings me to one of my negatives, if you have a big USB device it is going to pertrude from the side and spoil the look slightly. Luckily, the Philips has 512MB of internal memory, so therefore you don’t need to worry about putting your favoruite pics onto any card/stick.

Using the PhotoFrame – ….is incredibly easy! When you first place an SD card into the machine, as I did, your pictures are already there full screen in Slideshow mode and the picture will move on after 10 seconds by default. If you are happy with these settings, you can leave the PhotoFrame be, but if not you can enter the setup menu and customize just about anything! The Philips has three main modes – SlideShow mode, Browse mode and Clock/Calendar. The browse mode allows you to navigate manually through your media using the 4 way navigation buttons on the rear. The Clock/Calendar mode allows you to see the time, date, and a small slideshow of your images on the right hand side, as well as allowing you to set reminders.

Green credentials – The Philips PhotoFrame is incredibly eco-friendly which is always something that is good to see and sets it apart from it’s competitors. The Philips has low power consumption to start with, but handily you can also set it to turn on and off automatically at set times. This saves you having to reach down to a plug to switch it off completely, or removing it from the wall to reach the power button on the rear.

Image quality – Again, this is simply superb with fantastic sharpness and colours. I shall be taking some images to upload here shortly.

Now for the small, tiny negatives – I really, really, wish this had a remote. It would just make use even easier, and would be a welcome addition. Even a optional accessory at a cost remote would be a welcome addition. Also, I wish the USB port was at the back, so that there is no issue with sticking out sticks! Also, a USB cable should have been included. What would also be awesome would be a Line Out/ Headphone Jack as the built in speaker isn’t up to much and the music player is actually quite decent, shame it can’t be exploited more.

In conclusion, the Philips SPF4008 is an excellent item and represents outstanding value for money. It has some neat green features, fantastic image quality, can play back Video and Music and has a neat interface. It looks fantastic too. Highly recommended digital photo frame.

Rating: 4 / 5

R. G. Williams

at 11:29 pm

This is a wonderful digital photo frame, you just can’t keep your eyes off the screen – bright colours, large size and a superb way of looking at great memories. Supporting photos with up to 20Megapixels and JPEG formats up to 10 MB, it’s no wonder why the the resolution is superb.

Set up is easy by either uploading shots via a stick or by commecting to USB port straight tot he computer. Display options include Landscape, Portrait photo auto orientation. there are also various Playback modes like full screen browse, slideshow. With full thumbnail browsing the photoframe offers maximum convenience and flexibility.

The frame allows you to do some basic editing like copy, delete, rotate, zoom and crop. It also has an album management function that allows you to create, delete, edit, rename the album. There are also varous effects in slideshow mode like Random, Sequential, Transition effect, Collage (multiple pictures). Finally the Setup function offers clock display and event reminder with snooze

The storage media is built-in memory capacity: 512 MB (for 500 HD photos)

USB: USB flash drive Memory Card Types: Secure Digital (SD), Secure Digital (SDHC), Multimedia Card, xD card, Memory Stick, Memory Stick Pro, Memory Stick Duo (via adapter), MS Pro Duo (via adapter)

Great product and a suoperb way to create an engaging way to show your greatest shots.
Rating: 5 / 5