Now with such high-resolution screens as to match the quality of a traditional photo print, today’s newest generation of digital photo frames offer a great deal of value with a wide selection of features including slideshow animations, changeable frames, wireless internet connections, and larger screens that are perfect for mounting on a wall. Here’s a look at four different brands.

Philips Digital Photo Frames

Philips offers a wide selection of frames in two basic sizes – 7” and 9” – in a number of different styles including an attractive floating acrylic and brushed aluminum. All of their frames offer high-resolution screens for their size (the claim that their screens have 88% more pixels per square inch than a 17” high-end LCD monitor) and I certainly agree that they offer a quality that is better than most of the brands on the market. Each frame can use either an AC adaptor or its own rechargeable battery. The latter is only good for less than an hour, enough to pass around amongst guests for a session when they visit. Rather disappointing, of all the frames I tested here the Philips models where the only ones that game me trouble with my picture files. It accepted some JPEG files, but rejected others as they were not formatted with a DCF structure.

Philips 7FF1M4

$250

This 7” model comes with a selection of four magnetic interchangeable coloured frames. The frames pop out with a bit of effort and snap wonderfully in place, proving a nice accent for the floating acrylic design. It comes with a metal kick stand that can change position so you can place the frame on your desk in either the portrait or landscape mode. Unfortunately, the stand doesn’t lock into place as well as the frames and keeps falling off.

With a screen resolution of 800 x 480 pixels, the frame has enough internal memory to store approximately 50 photos grabbed directly from your computer (using USB) or a wide variety of memory cards (compact flash, SD, MMC, memory stick. The slideshow comes with four different types of transition effect; fade, slide, scroll, and snake.

In addition to the rechargeable battery, there’s also a clock mode that shuts off the photostream and displays a digital time clock in its place.

Nice Touches – You can use the clock to set a specific time for the frame to turn on/off.

Disappointment – No speakers means no video or digital music playback, so no soundtracks for your slideshows. The frame has a long boot-up in part because it has to reload all of your photos all over again.

Philips 9FF2CME

$320

This 9” model comes with a metal frame and a kick stand that, unlike its younger brother, actually stays in place. With its 800 x 400 resolution screen, it can accept between 110 to 150 digital JPEG photos. The slideshow offers a large number of display options including collages, random, and sequential visual effects. In addition to these are the options to have your photos displayed in either black & white or in a sepia tone. Like its smaller sibling, this 9” model also comes with a clock mode and can be used to set on/off times. This clock mode can be used with an alarm (plus snooze) for morning wake-ups for as an event reminder. Nice Touches – The frame has a built-in sensor that automatically detects what position you have it sitting in, portrait or landscape, and automatically adjust the picture display to suit. Disappointment – Still no video or music playback.

Kodak Easyshare Frames(Recommended)

Kodak Canada’s collection comes in two models (with or without wireless internet connections) and in just three sizes; 7”, 8” and 10”. All of the frames in the series offer widescreen displays and excellent quality, by far the best on the market. Although they each come with a reserved, chocolate brown frame, they can also use interchangeable frame faceplates (sold separately) for different colours and styles. No slouch in the features department, each Kodak frame comes with an infra-red remote control and ability to play both video and music files. Combine that with the photo-realistic quality of their displays and they are the models I put my recommendation behind.

SV710 Digital Picture Frame$150

The LED screen offers a resolution of 480 × 234 and a contrast ratio of 300:1. It supports both JPEGs and EXIF photo files and although it comes with a copy of Kodak’s easy share software, you can easily drag-and-drop photos onto it through a USB cable or directly through memory cards (MMC, SD, Compact Flash, xD,or Direct Drive) without using it. Although the built-in speakers are good (not great) the video playback is strong enough to make them worth having. The frame accepts clips that are MOV, AVI, and both MPEG 1 and 4. Simple buttons on the top of the frame let you navigate through the files and mix them for the slideshow which offers a selection of wipes, door, and animated bars for transitions.

Nice Touches – Very quick on loading photos or videos. Timer to set power on/off.

Disappointments – No fancy transitions, menu interface can be tricky to navigate.

EX1011 Digitasl Picture Frame

$330

With a built-in Wi-Fi connection you can set this photo frame to remotely connect to your computer, navigate its folders (including thumbnail images), and stream a selection of photos, music, or video clips onto its 800 x 480 LED display. Even with video the quality of playback was surprisingly smooth and it looked great. Like it’s smaller sibling it can also grab files directly from a USB computer connection or through a selection of memory cards, but it offers 128 MB of internal memory and is pictbridge enabled so you can send photos directly to your printer, no computer required. While the remote works just fine, I found when it came to navigating my PC remotely (using media sharing with Windows Media Player 11) that it couldn’t handle too many file directory changes without crashing (playback was fine, just spending too much time rooting about in my PC it couldn’t handle).

Nice Touches – Zoom mode, can update clock from the internet

Disappointment – Connect to Kodak’s online gallery service, no others (like Flickr or Picasa Web).

eStarling 2.0 Wi-Fi Photo Frame

Sold online at:www.thinkgeek.com

$220 US

While the eStarling may not be able to match the screen resolution of Kodak’s or Philips’ frames, it is most certainly the tech-savviest of all. This 7” LCD frame (480 x 270) uses its built-in Wi-Fi to connect through your home network and onto the internet to grab photos either from it’s own, dedicated e-mail address (through seeframe.com) or through any number of RSS feeds including the services of photo-trading websites like Flickr, Picasa, or Webshots. This means you can perform a number of tricks. You can hand out your frame’s e-mail address to friends and family and they can e-mail new photos directly to your eStarling frame. You can set your frame to connect to Flickr and perform a search for photos that match a specific keyword such as “Canadian Idol” or “Vancouver”. This is great if you run a business as you can have it search for photos that might contain your product (Roots jacket, Starbucks coffee, etc.) and finally, you can load your frame with photos from your camera using a memory card (MMC, SD, MS, and Compact Flash) and then have the frame upload your photos to your online album for you.

If this sounds a bit complicated, the good news is this was one of the easiest gadgets I’ve ever had to set-up. It’s literally a plug-and-play experience, once you connect it to your main computer, it performs a self set-up including configuring itself for your own wireless network and establishing a connection with the seeframe online service. All you have to do is punch in a registration code.

Nice Touches – Widescreen display, Instant Messenger option allows family members to e-mail a text message to the eStarling frame.

Disappointments – No on-screen menu or settings screen. Managing the frame is done through the seeframe website and some very basic manual controls (delete, rotate picture).

Gigantor 15” Digital Photo Frame

Sold online at:www.thinkgeek.com

$250 US

Just announced last week, the Gigantor is one of the first LCD screens to break the size barrier with this 15” model in a cherry wood frame. With a 1024 x 768 resolution, the Gigantor can accept 12 Megapixel images (both JPEG and BMP) and play both MP3 and video files (MPEG 1, 2, and 4). It accepts files from 8 different sources including USB thumbdrives. Its automatic slideshow includes a number of neat transition effects and it comes with an infra-red remote control. As you’d expect for its size, it can be mounted on a wall.

Nice Touches – On-screen equalizer appears when you play music. Cherry wood is real cherry wood.

Disappointments – The picture of Godzilla you see in the promo picture at ThinkGeek is not included.