Smartparts SPX12 Digital Picture Frame Review
Smartparts Inc., is the front runner in the rapidly running market place of digital photo frames. Smartparts picture frames are affordable and user-friendly as they do not require a PC connection. Only few features make a digital photo frame stand alone from the wide sea of digital photo frames. Some of such ways are design, wireless web access and options to change the frame to suit your décor.
The SyncPix software:
Smartparts has used the SyncPix software in Smartparts SPX12 Digital Photo Frame that has adopted a user friendly approach. This software which is pre-installed in the frame, stores the images from the USB flash drive or a camera’s memory card, shrinks them and stores them in the photo frame, and all this happens without even pressing a button.
Sluggish presentation options:
SyncPix also includes some slide shows and presentation options, which unfortunately does not work as good as the transfer function. Smartparts SPX12 Digital Picture Frame’s major advantages can be said as its smart looks and the motion sensor technology which that puts the LCD screen to sleep when there is no one around to view the images.
Attractive look:
The frame is very good looking. The LCD display screen in 12 inches which is surrounded by an ultra thin white mat and a real-wood frame. The frame can be easily removed by removing the thumbscrews in the back. They do not provide alternative frames. The top of the frame has directional key pads and menu button for navigating through settings and images.
View modes and multimedia:
At the Smartparts SPX12 Picture frame’s back centre, there is a rotating disk with which you can wall mount your disk horizontally or vertically. The stand which is included can be used to toggle between the portrait and landscape modes. For the playback of MP3’s and audio from JPEG video clips, Smartparts SPX12 Digital Picture Frame has two speakers at its back.
Memory:
Smartparts SPX12 LCD Digital Picture Frame has two memory card slots, one for CF cards (Compact Flash Cards) and the other for all varieties of memory sticks such as MMC, SD, xD etc. This card slot is present down the right side and the power switch is present next to the slots. It also has a mini USB port for connecting the digital photo frame directly to your PC and a full size USB port in order to use with thumb drives. Below these is the power cord jack.
The remote control:
Below the screen, there are sensors for detecting motion and remote control commands, and are packed inside the mat. The remote control that is provided with the digital picture frame is too small and uncomfortable to use, rather, the integrated controls can be used which are more responsive. The volume can be adjusted only with the remote control and the frame does not have in it the option in the menu to control the volume.
Functioning:
When you insert a card loaded with JPEG images, a choice appears on the screen for copying the images to the frame or to view them directly off the memory card. In case your choice is to copy the images, you can choose the list of images that you want to copy and also the folder in which the images are to be stored. The folder options include family, birthday, holiday, vacation, sports and general. If you make no choice after inserting the card, the SyncPix software comes into action by copying and optimising all the images and stores them in the general folder. When the import process is going on, there is a very handy count-down box indicating you certain information like the elapsed time, time remaining to complete the transfer and the amount of space left in the digital photo frame’s 256MB of internal memory. The screen allows you to have a preview of the images being stored and the folder in which they are stored. Once the transfer is completed, the images will be displayed to you in an orderly fashion. However, the manual transferring of images is also possible, but this skips the optimisation process for storing the images on the frame. You can avoid this either by using USB flash drive while not using the memory card or just decrease the resolution before you drag them to your digital frame. Smartparts SPX12 Digital Photo frame has a small basic windows only application to use with the USB connection.
Main features:
The main features of Smartparts SPX12 12.1″ Digital picture Frame includes automatic picture transfer, motion sensor for auto on/off, albums for organising pictures, music and video, playing pictures and video on the same slide window, auto picture rotation, 256MB internal memory, and acceptance of all popular memory cards.
Display:
The display is very good as the digital photo frame comes with saturated colours and appropriate brightness. The SyncPix allows you to have a lot of interesting settings such as, setting the speed at which the images are shown from a minimum of 3 seconds to a maximum of 30 seconds, number of slides on the screen at a time from one to four or a mix, volume level for the speakers, the slide show order which can be selected either as the order as they are in the album or in a random way. SPX12 also gives options for you to make a selection from the nine transition effects that are available or random or even none. The interface can not be said as entirely logical, yet is very simple to use.
Time consuming transfers:
One of the major drawbacks of this Smartparts photo frame is that, the unit consumes a lot of time during the transfer process. It takes around two minutes per image while transferring from a CF card and around seven minutes per image when the images are loaded in SD card. As you can listen to audio tracks while the photo is moving, it is rather evident that the processor is not able to handle it as the images seem to crawl and refuse to listen to the remote control commands except for the volume controls. The small speakers perform more than expected as they sound very good.
Warranty:
Smartparts SPX12 comes with ninety days warranty which is very less when compared to its competitors who provide around six months warranty.
Smartparts SPX12 12.1 inch Digital Photo Picture Frame is very attractive with its good looks, perfect display and SyncPix software but its sluggishness during transfer and audio playback is disappointing. In spite of these few performance issues, SPX12 is still a very effective and user friendly.
Smartparts SPX12 Digital Photo/Picture Frame - Specifications
| Manufacturer | Smartparts |
| Model Name | SPX12 |
| Display type | Colour LCD screen (12.1”) |
| Display form factor | Built-in |
| Resolution | 800 x 600 |
| Internal flash memory | 256MB |
| Flash memory cards supported | MultiMediaCard Memory Stick CompactFlash Card SD Memory Card XD-Picture Card |
| Display modes | Multiple display modes |
| Remote control | Yes |
| Wall Mountable | Yes |
| Auto Picture Rotation | Yes |
| Key features | Digital audio player Digital video player Memory card reader Digital photo viewer |
| Warranty | 90 days |
January 31st, 2009 at 12:23 pm
I wanted to buy a good picture frame and this I find it very good one. The warranty period is not satisfied. But happy with audio , video mode. I am happy with the digital quality and the photos are just in in eyes. Happy.