Review: Samsung SPF-87H Digital Photo Frame

As we announced earlier, on March 18, 2010, an event called Samsung FORUM 2010 was held at the World Trade Center. The forum presented all the expected new products from the company for 2010, which were partially described in Boomburum’s review , and which we will discuss in more detail later. Right now, for example, the promised report on the new bada mobile platform is being prepared. As soon as enough material is gathered for its publication on the blog, and this is tentatively tomorrow or the day after tomorrow, we will publish all the information we have.

In the meantime, I would like to tell you about a small but pleasant souvenir that was presented to everyone invited at the end of the event, namely, about the Samsung SPF-87H digital photo frame.

Appearance

Frame dimensions: 23.6 x 15.9 x 2.3 cm
Weight: ~ 500 g
Display: 8 '' diagonal, 800 x 480 (16: 9) The

frame can be placed either vertically or horizontally: The





following connectors are located on the back, next to the leg, on the left right:

• Secure digital
• Nutrition
• USB to support flash drives
• miniUSB

Specifications:



Control buttons, also from left to right:

• On / off
• Menu
• Four Position Joystick
• Enter
• Cancel
• Slide show

All the buttons, as can be seen from the photos below, when using the menu, are signed on the screen, you get used to using them and you don’t look at the prompts the second time:



Pressing is sure, the buttons give a characteristic click.

Frame work

So, the first thing we see on the screen after connecting the frame to the computer via USB is three options for working with this connection: in storage mode (for transferring files to the internal memory of the frame), in the mini-monitor mode (about it below) and in the mode directly digital photo frames. To begin with, we will choose the last option:



After we have chosen the "Photo Frame", in the far left row we can choose the source of the photos. At the moment, only two of them are available, this is the built-in frame memory (“Frame memory”) and a USB flash drive. An external 500 Gb hard drive refused to start up by the way :) Let me remind you that you can also connect a Secure Digital memory card to the frame:



After you select a source of photos, we can choose one of the following options:



The names speak for themselves.

Settings

There are four items in the “Settings” menu: “Photo”, “Clock”, “General Conditions”, “Support”.

A photo

Dimming Options:

• No effect
• Blackout
• Veil
• Cross comb
• Mosaic
• Chess board
• Dispersed
• Appearance
• Click to enlarge
• Silk
• Transition from corners
• Wheel
• Ellipse
• Arbitrarily

Slide Show Speed:

• Fast
• Fine
• Slow

Slide show mode:

• All photos
• Photo in folder
• One photo

Slide show order:

• Usual
• Random

View mode:

• Just Photo
• Photo and Clock
• Photo and calendar
• Several species 1
• Several types 2

Ratio:

• Original size
• Auto tuning
• In width

Portrait photo mode :

• On
• Off

In this mode, it is worth stopping in more detail. Since the frame can stand both vertically and horizontally, it is obvious that this function should rotate all photos on its side (relative to the default position of the frame). But in reality this is not so - only those images that originally had a portrait orientation are rotated.

At first glance, this seems unreasonable, but in fact it is a logical decision, because when you rotate images with landscape orientation, they become too small for easy viewing. In other words, images need to be selected for one specific frame of only one orientation, if you want to get a good impression of the pictures.

Nevertheless, individual photographs can still be rotated to any degree by calling the context menu for the direct slide show.

Display photo information:

• On
• Off

Clock

Everything is clear here, there are no special options:

General terms

Quick installation
Quick setup of all basic functions using the “wizard”

Language: all major languages ​​of the world
Brightness: changes in 1% increments
On / Off auto:

• Once
• Saturday Sunday
• Monday-saturday
• Monday Friday
• Daily

In this version of localization, this means a timer for automatically turning the frame on and off, a repeat is possible.

Launch mode:

• Last mode
• Home (main menu)
• Slide show

Screen saver:

• Slide show
• Clock

Copy to frame memory:

• Original size
• Resized

This means whether the photos will be displayed in the original size or whether they will automatically scale in accordance with the size of the frame screen.

Activate connection: brings up a menu with a choice of the operation mode of the frame: “Storage”, “Mini Monitor”, “Photo Frame”.

Support

Software
Update Updating is carried out from a USB stick (it is possible that with Secure Digital, there was no such standard card at hand, and it’s not so important). At the moment, firmware version 10006.0 is available.

Reset
Manual
Mini- guide on how to select the required storage medium in the menu and set the appropriate display mode.

Product Information

Mini Monitor Mode

In this mode, the frame can work as an ordinary second monitor. To do this, you need to install the program Frame manager. Personally, I tried this function on Windows 7, and I noticed only one drawback - when you turn off the device, the application that was displayed on the second desktop does not return to the first. Most likely, this problem is related to the operating system than to the software of the device itself, but I can’t say 100%.

Storage Mode

In this mode, the frame is defined on the computer as removable media (in the photo frame mode, a new device is not added), and you can work with it like with a regular flash drive. Photos can be divided into folders, in the menu, as described above, it is possible to play images only from a specific directory.

A special point: while the procedure for safely disconnecting the device has not been completed on the computer, the frame will not react in any way to button presses. In general, this is an ordinary situation.

Clock

In this mode, the clock and calendar are displayed. The calendar and the clock periodically change places. In this mode, the frame works and while displaying the calendar and photos, the time moves up the frame. I didn’t take photos, because they have no practical value - it turns out too finely.



The photo below shows a guide to the selected image storage location. There were no problems with Russian file and folder names. Question marks indicate an unsupported file data format:

Equipment

• Frame itself
• USB cable with optional power connector
• Power Supply
• Warranty card, instructions

Other characteristics

Contrast: 500: 1
Brightness (cd / m2): 200
Internal memory: 1 GB
Supported formats: JPEG
Power consumption (W): 5,2

Impressions and summing up

Initially, the frame makes an excellent impression: a stylish case, convenient operation, an excellent screen made using LED technology (it was described in previous articles. In short, the LCD panel is illuminated not by lamps, but by LEDs located around the perimeter of the device), in general - A great gift to anyone who has photos :)

But in a closer acquaintance, details are found that darken the first impression. The first thing that struck me personally was a somewhat localization curve, as a result of which individual menu items may not be understandable to inexperienced users (they were written about above). Also, the calendar has not yet been translated.
The second point is unnecessary, in my opinion, playback options. A clock on top of the image prevents the frame from performing its main task, and two additional views made with playing out the image of the photo from Polaroid seem like just a fun option that does not carry a semantic load. Although, it is possible that they will find their user.

After downloading a large number of photos, it turned out that the 16: 9 form factor is not the most common at the moment among my photos and images :) On the other hand, there’s nothing to grieve for - the diagonal screen is 8 inches, and therefore such a form the factor should be judged as an additional opportunity to watch widescreen images rather than the inability to expand your collection of images “full screen”, if I may say so.

Describing the image quality in detail is probably not worth it, since it is more likely to see once than hear a hundred times. The photos below also do not convey all the joy of viewing your favorite pictures and images.

The timer, which at first glance seems like an unnecessary trifle (after all, the frame does not know how to play sounds, and therefore cannot be an alarm clock), in the process of using the device it turns out to be very useful - if you put the frame in the bedroom, it will shine quite strongly at night, even when set to 50% brightness.

The size of the internal storage personally suits me completely, especially since photos can be cropped to suitable sizes especially for this use and thereby reduce the memory consumption by photos at times.

A couple of minor minuses - the buttons need to be developed, since immediately after buying the device they go pretty tight, and the device menu cannot be called the fastest in the world. Apparently, the size of the photos affects me, as I said above.

As it became clear from the above, the frame does not know how to play video and sound. Whether it is a virtue or a disadvantage is up to you.

In general, the frame made an excellent impression. All the shortcomings are small, and the photo frame does not belong to the main function. Moreover, developers are also aware of them, who will soon promise to rectify the situation for the better.

As far as I know, at the moment the frame is available in two colors: black and red (as in my photos) and just black.

Minuses

• Not the fastest menu
• Тугие по началу кнопки управления
• Мелкие недочеты в локализации меню
• Лишние варианты воспроизведения изображений

Плюсы

• Превосходное качество изображения
• Удобное в использовании меню
• Поддержка русского языка в именах файлов и папок
• Работа как от электрической сети так и от USB
• Большой экран, с возможностью проигрывания изображений с отношением сторон 16:9
• Возможность работы в режиме монитора (на данный момент, судя по отзывам, не работает в 64-битных ОС)
• Умеренная цена

Well, just a few pictures. The quality of the photographs, of course, leaves much to be desired; in real life, the images look simply amazing, with sufficient resolution. If someone suddenly wants to get the source images they like - knock on the inbox, throw them off.





























PS: Already by tradition, I apologize not for very professional photographs and my face, sometimes flickering in reflection :)