Home > Consumer Reviews > Linx 8" High Resolution Digital Photo Frame

Don't be put off by all the complaints about the manual. Sure it's pretty useless but it is only for a photo frame. You can pretty much work out what buttons to press by trial and error in 15 mins. I bought this one for resolution, battery option and video playback and was not disappointed. For these features at £20 more than one at PC World without any of these is £20 well spent.

Plus points : Good resolution - compared against a 480/400 x 234 then the difference is stark. Those ones are fine as a Xmas present for your gran. Divx playback works a treat. Battery option for me was a must. Ignore the person who expects the battery to last for days or gives you the impression that the battery will run down in the time it takes to pass it around the room. Lasts long enough to free you from being 2m from a power socket in normal usage. Remote control is actually a plus - didn't make this a buying criterium but actually very handy. Preview mode good where it displays 10 thumbnails (bit slowly) and even more useful a sort of directory browser which shows the filename and a thumbnail - handy when you need to make a note of the filename so that you can order a print later.

Negatives: User interface a bit quirky and the manual will not help you. There will be things where you think "it doesn't work". In fact it does - you have not set it up right. For example to get a slide show to work needs a setting of one of the Browse settings from One to Auto. Displaying in "full screen" rather than "normal" avoids the black bars (which are about 0.8cm either side) but removes the facility to rotate images and also then expands the top half of a portrait mode photo to full frame cropping the bottom half of the photo. Zoom seems to work well but suspends a slide show and even if you zoom back out to 100% you need to manually advance to kickstart the slideshow. Imagine if you don't use it regularly you will forget what buttons to push.

Other: you get audio out and video out (with leads) and MP3 playback (not particularly useful in my mind but each to their own). They have even given EQ settings and reverb settings (e.g. hall) for the audio - which is quite good enough for video playback but not exactly going to get you to chuck out your iPod. Loads of control over video settings - brightness, contrast, hue, saturation. Looked fine to me on default settings.

Like most products, this photo-frame has good points and bad points.

The good points:-
- Sharp clear picture
- Looks good
- Good build quality
- The battery allows you to pass the frame around, just like you would pass printed photos
- The remote control works well
- Will take SD card and USB
- It can output to the TV
- Can play videos and Sound
- The manual's translation gives you some good laughs

The bad points:-
- It's only 7.25 inches across the diagonal, bit cheeky to call it 8 inch
- The manual is difficult to understand
- Does not auto start
- Does not do a clean transition, it first blanks the screen then loads next photo
- Limited video formats

Overall I'm pleased with the product

Addition 1-10-07
Thought I would clarify a couple of questions asked by reviewers.
The USB connector does not connect to a PC; it is there to play from a USB Flash drive. If you can't get the frame to play from the USB, try removing the SD card first.

I was looking for a digital photo frame that is easy to use for an elderly relative who has no technical knowledge or ability. My main requirements were that it should start directly into a slide show and the pictures should be shown in random order.

Unfortunately this frame does not start directly in "slideshow" mode when first powered up but requires a single "enter" button push to start it off. If the frame is then turned off with the remote (actually only turning off the LCD display) then it will resume the slideshow when next powered up.

The random picture selection is available on this frame but I have noticed that pictures are often repeated just 2 or 3 pictures after it was last seen. I have 500 pictures on the card and this repeat happens more frequently than I would expect from chance alone. I suspect the random algorithm could be improved, perhaps by shuffling all the pictures, showing them all, then reshuffling etc.

One criticism is the maximum time that it stays on one picture is only 3 minutes. I would have preferred the option for longer, say at least 1 hour before changing to the next. That way it would be weeks before pictures are repeated if a few hundred pictures are stored. If bored with the current picture one can always move to the next with the remote control.

The remote control receiver is on the side of the frame, behind the front surround. Assuming one normally uses the remote control in front of the frame it needs a surface behind the frame to reflect the remote IR beam back to the receiver. In some situations I found the remote control will just not work as the remote beam from the control is not finding the receiver. Most other frames have a small hole in the front surround for a forward facing IR receiver.

The specified screen size is 720 x 480 pixels but when I make the pictures that ratio (actually I use 1440 x 960 as the screen has a 2x zoom facility) then the aspect ratio is not correct and a circle is squashed down by about 5% to an oval. Not much perhaps but I notice that people are slightly short and fat. As the screen is only small the resolution is adequate to give sharp looking pictures but in computer terms it's only VGA.

The screen sometimes flickers when turned on but this does go away after a few minutes.

Colorimetry is reasonably good but detail near to peak white is crushed and lost if the screen contrast is set to normal i.e. 0. I found reducing contrast to -6 revealed the lost details. Similarly black detail can be lost if the brightness is not increased but this depends on levels of ambient lighting.

The memory card slot is easily accessible, unlike a Jobo display I tried where the slot was so close to the front surround it was very difficult to pull the card out.

There is no internal memory. This would have been useful to pre-program a large number of stock pictures into the frame which could then be supplemented with pictures from a card.

If I mix MPEG movies with JPG slides it will not show the movies when running through a slideshow. This would have been a nice feature. It is possible to show movie clips if selected via menus but this is far too complicated for my elderly relative so I have had to limit myself to JPGs only. A great pity.

In conclusion this is the best screen I could find for my application, and better value than many, but I'm still looking for something better. Perhaps I will have to wait for the next generation.

I have been looking at Photoframes again this year after buying them for folks last year for Chistmas. I looked at many different models and makes in the shops and online and looked through a lot of various reviews etc to find what was going to make the Xmas shortlist this year. Although there seem to be some big brands getting away with charging the earth for not a lot, the Linx frame that i bought myself still seems to be the best actual picture reproduction ive seen on a digital frame.

Sure the manual isn't the greatest but what can be expected - some of the Engrish translations might even cheer up your Christmas day !- Dont be put off by complaints about the manual - the frame is simple and intuitive to work out.

Compatability is also good on this model working with the majority of playback formats ive tried for Video, and MP3 is a nice addition too with the speakers.

Most importantly i would say is the battery option - why does anyone create a photoframe wihtout it? ITS a MUST!! At Christmas you can actually pass this model around (for upto about 1hr45mins on my usage) between friends and family without all standing at the mantlepiece going through a whole slideshow!

This frame also comes with interchangeable frames should you need them - if you buy for yourself you will know what you prefer , but its a nice addition when giving as a present - just incase your not sure if they would prefer black/white/silver or pink? You can feel safe youve got most bases covered!

All in all probably the best quality picture reproduction ive seen on a frame to date (maybe to do with the Digital panel being used in this model and not on many others in the market), and the all important battery have to make this one of the best options this year,especially for the price Amazon are currently selling this for.

Recommended - 5 Stars

It's very rarely I write a review, but having just received my Linx frame I feel compelled. I have read a number of the recent reviews and I felt I needed to put my 2 pennies worth in!, here goes:

Positive

Great quality screen, crystal clear and really does the pictures justice, I wanted something that could display my 10 mega pixel images correctly and it does the job.
Controls - fairly self-explanatory although the manual is a bit clunky, I spoke to the Linx tech support and they were great (George), emailed some tips and sat with me on the phone while I went through the features.
Battery - this is a must and all though I had it down as a wish, without it the product would have been a bit pointless as the first 2 people that saw it wanted to pick it up and play with it which you couldn't do without a battery.
Sound and Video- wasn't sure about this feature but its great and worth having.
Build quality - very sturdy and not like the ones I have seen in boots, but then they are cheaper and it shows.

4 different frames is a must!!

Negative

Not much to say, yes the manual is a little tricky, but with the tech support not an issue.

Overall a great product and I would recommend, don't get suckered into the cheap and cheerful as a waste of time and money.