To help get their name out into the world of netbooks Samsung has come up with a clever hack. They have a way to connect a digital photo frame to a computer so it can be used as a second monitor. Combine it with a netbook and you have the smaller version of those fancy dual-monitor desktop stations that professionals like to use. With your Windows desktop spread across two screens, you can better arrange your applications and, the idea is, enjoy better productivity.

 

Samsung Digital Photo Frame SPF-107H

The new series of frames consist of an 8” model with 800 x 400 resolution and a 10” model with 1024 x 600 resolution. Both designs include an attractive black frame around an LCD display, 1 GB of internal memory, and software that will display your photos in a slick clock, calendar, and multi-view modes, the latter pasting multiple photos against your choice of background.

Its software embedded into the frame that allows it to act as a Mini-Monitor through a USB cable with any Windows-powered PC. You simply download and install Samsung’s Frame Manager application from their website onto your PC and then connect the two. From there you can switch the frame between Mini-Monitor and Mass Storage settings, a mode that treats the frame as normal so you can load picture files onto it.

There is, of course, a hitch. Samsung’s frames will only support still photos and digital music, no video. Specifically they are designed to play JPEG and MP3 files only. Not only do they compare poorly against most photo frames that support a wide number of file formats, but it means the frames make for very poor monitors.

Yes you can extend your desktop to the frame, even maximize program windows perfectly, but your mouse cursor will stutter and drag across the screen when you try to use it. Applications that use motion and animations perform poorly and video of any kind stutters and skips.

In addition to Samsung’s own netbook, I tested the frame out with netbooks from HP and LG plus a high-end Toshiba notebook, and despite more powerful processors and better graphics cards, the frame still stuttered and struggled to display motion.

Most people I know who use a Dual-Monitor set-up use their second monitor for movies and software to monitor changes in networks. Some professionals like to spread their video or music-editing software across the two displays. With its limited use towards static images, Samsung’s Mini-Monitor feature is useless.

You could use it to give a slideshow presentation while travelling perhaps, but you hardly need to connect a computer to the photo frame to do that.

Samsung N120

The N120 is a friendly netbook geared towards the home consumer. It has a simple design and a nice, white matte finish with two metal hinges for accent. It has a thick frame around the 10.1” LED display to support the built-in 1.3 Megapixel webcam and a 2.1 channel sound system.

With three USB ports, an Ethernet jack, monitor-out port, and both headphone and microphone jacks, it’s fairly well equipped. Instead of the usual all-in-one media card readers we see in netbooks it has just an SD/MMC memory card slot and missing in my opinion is a physical off-switch for the Wi-Fi connection, instead you’ll need to power on the system to make the change in Windows, a pain if you’re about to board an airplane.

The keyboard is harsh. Old plastic keys that feel sharp when you run your fingers across them, shallow spring action, it’s not the ideal choice. Samsung relies heavily on function keys to manage various settings, even going so far as to add some new ones. With function keys you can check battery life, enter sleep mode, turn off the display or Wi-Fi and even switch between “Silent”, “Normal”, and “Speed” modes, each changing the netbook’s performance between low-noise and low power to maximum power consumption with system resources directed towards the currently active program.

Having to ability to change system performance might be worthwhile, but the N120 isn’t exactly a powerhouse. Although it has a 1.6 GHz Intel Atom Processor, there’s only 1GB of system memory and that, combined with an integrated Intel graphics card with shared memory would explain the N120’s rather sluggish performance. Right out of the box. Streaming video, such as Youtube and Vimeo videos tend to stutter and Google Earth doesn’t zoom in as fast as it does on other netbooks in this price range.

The one feature I expected to be impressed by, the 2.1 channel sound system with SRS TruSurround and SRS WOW XT sound effects, is a massive let down. Although the speakers take up considerable room in the netbook’s design, the volume level is quite low, even with headphones connected. This makes it difficult to watch movies or even listen to music, even with the volume set to maximum.

Battery life is the N120’s best feature, perhaps boosted by the netbook’s low performance. Compared to all of the netbooks I have tested using my standard process of turning off all the power saving modes, turning on the Wi-Fi, and playing music on a loop, the N120 performed the best, delivering more than six hours of battery life on a compact 6-cell battery pack. While the idea of using a digital photo frame as a second netbook monitor is neat, I still haven’t found a practical use for it. Unless the frame is powered by a battery, it’s really a trick that stays at your desk.

In either case, whether packaged together or sold separately, neither the SPF-107H photo frame or the N120 netbook ($500) deliver enough performance quality to earn my recommendation.