Customer Reviews

Axion AXN9100R 1.1-Inch Heart Shaped Mini Digital Picture Frame (Red)

5 star:		(23)
4 star:		(22)
3 star:		(11)
2 star:		(10)
1 star:		(38)

 

 

Bought this for my wife for her Birthday just before Xmas and she bought me (unknown to myself) one that's more than twice the price for Xmas. So I had the chance to compare. Conclusion is that it's not worth paying twice the price, you don't get any better quality. My wife is delighted with the Axion display. You should resize the pics to optimise them for the frame resolution though (640x480) since I think the problems the other users have had is that the frame probably doesn't do such a good job at downsizing. Microsoft have a utility to right click a group of files in explorer and it quickly duplicates them at the appropriate resolution. Just google for "Microsoft Powertoys" and download the image resizer from the webpage. Advantage of doing this is the files drop from around 2mB in size to more like 80kB so you can fit tons of pics on a small cheap SD card. Only downside for me is the widescreen aspect ratio of the frame. Natural aspect ratio of photographs is narrower than widescreen, so there's always unused area at the sides of the pictures. Would be OK if it played video files, but it doesn't. Not a big gripe considering how cheap the frame is though. Don't forget, you need a memory card! The frame has no memory built in.

I almost gave this 2 stars instead of 1, as it worked pretty easily out of the box and the clock feature is a good idea, but then I discovered that it has less than half the claimed resolution which seems like a flat-out false claim.

Reasons I am sending it back for a refund: This frame is not 640x480 and is not 4:3 ratio.

The size of the screen is about 8" x 4.1". Not only is that not 4:3, it is not even 16:9.

When you display standard 4:3 photos, they should have a 1.33 ratio. On this frame, they are displayed at about 6.4" x 4.1", which is a ratio of 1.56. That means the photos are squashed and it makes faces look fatter than they really are.

The pixels are quite visible, so I counted in the vertical direction. I counted 24 pixels in about 0.47", which means there are only about 210 pixels in the entire vertical direction. Not nearly the claimed 480.

I got this frame for free, so I can't complain about the price. Now that I have it, I know that I wouldn't buy it.

The remote is cheaply constructed and the battery doesn't sit well in it. To make it work I have to not only squeeze the right button, but squeeze the battery compartment to ensure a contact. Even then, it doesn't always work.

Occasionally the frame forgets that I have a USB drive in it and starts to cycle through the stock photos it came with. It took me a long time to figure out turning it off an on again doesn't fix anything, but removing the power cable and plugging it back in does.

I picked up a 2GB SD memory card for under $10 and loaded it up with photos to give to my parents. This display will also play music (.mp3 files) at the same time as displaying photos which is a good feature. Easy to use, simply copy photo images to your choice of various portable memory cards (I've used both SD and USB memory sticks) and plug it in. Playing music is just as easy just drag and drop .mp3 files to the memory stick along with the photos and it finds and plays them for you. By default when you power on the unit it only displays photos (no music) but you can navigate the on-screen menus using the buttons on the back of the frame or using the included remote control to select music & photo play.
For the price you can't beat it.
This will also display photos taken in 16x9 widescreen format although my camera doesn't have this feature it still displays standard photos just fine. I would recommend it to others. I give it 4 out of 5 because the resolution of the screen could be higher.

This frame worked for two months and then it went dead. No customer service available for this frame and they don't honor the 1 year warranty. It would be wise to spend a little extra to get quality product. Stay away from "this one"

I ordered this frame for my mother-in-law for Christmas. I chose this one because it was USB compatible and had an internal memory. First of all the so called user manual is a trifold pamphlet about a 4" by 12" rectangle that leaves alot of information out. I could find nowhere where it told me how many pictures the frame could hold (I found out by looking on the website)and the only way I can access a slide show of the pictures in the memory is to go to setup, delete files, sort, and finally I can get to a slide show (this information I discovered by trial and error, because the manual doesn't make it clear how to access the memory once the pictures are saved). Once you start this slide show its fine. The clock and calendar work fine, but I haven't tried the alarm. The only way you can play photos using the photo option on the main menu is by inserting a memory stick or card. Unfortunately the slide show keeps stopping after a few pictures, and when I try to accesss them through thumbnail mode it shows no pictures on the stick and shows a blank screen. It has even turned itself off several times when the screen goes black. I also have no idea how to load music and there is no information about this in the manual. I'm waiting for a call back from axion's customer service, but this is definitely too much inconvenience for my mother-in-law, and I'm prepared to stick it back in the box and return it.

This was inexpensive and I was leery of what I was going to get. I was pleasantly surprised. It is very stylish and easy to use right our of the box. Buy a SD card so you can load pictures, or thumbdrive or connect directly to your computer.

I don't think you need to go to a super high resolution on a picture frame. You just want something to show lots of photos. The resolution is good and it will also play music.

Ordered this item when it was on Gold Box for $40.

Pros:
1. Nice looking design - it would be nice if they offered other colors besides white.
2. Easy set-up - I didn't read the instructions.
3. Has a remote and has a good range - like, from across the room.
4. Has a calendar, clock, alarm, view pix or mp3s or both.
5. Has internal memory to download pixs (not many can be loaded, 15 pixs, and nothing stated in their instructions as to how large the internal memory is).
6. Can view in many angles.
7. Takes SD cards, even a SDHC card - I loaded a 4gb card.

Cons:
1. No instructions on how large capacity SD card you can use. I just popped in my 4gb and it worked, thank goodness.
2. Sound can't get very low - it's pretty loud (to me).
3. Can't control volume on remote.
4. No on-screen indicator if alarm is on.
5. Can't change color of clock's digital font (yellow!); would've preferred blue.
6. No alarm selections, so you get the telephone ring of pre-digital phones (ring ring). Would be nice if we could use an mp3 file.
7. Doesn't use batteries - for clock to stay current if there's a power surge or such.
8. No firmware updates, if anyone is wondering.

Regarding the pixs and music: it uses jpgs and mp3s. I put all my pixs in a folder and resized them all to 1024x768. Then put it a folder of mp3s. Copied the folder to my 4gb SDHC and it works just fine.

Zoom button: nice when you want to view an image in a bit larger format. If using pixs in slideshow, it will pause to this image til you click play. It will actually resize to 25%, 50%, 100%, 150%, and 200%.

Rotate button: for you folks who don't rotate you jpgs before copying into your SD card, you can press this button.

Registered this product on their on-line site (30 day warranty); no extended warranty available.

Even with it's shortcomings, it's definitely worth it!

So my husband bought this for me because we are both stationed in iraq and instead of having a lot of photos sitting around, he thought this would be perfect for me to set on my desk. It was a great product for about a month. It was nice because I share my desk and instead of him having to look at MY photo's, he could just put it on the "clock" mode and it was perfect. BUT.. Here comes the downer. The backlight of this product went out. It was never dropped. I made sure that it was not, it was planted very firmly onto my desk. But one day I came to work and my co-worker said that it just went out. I know it is my backlight because I can still see the photo's scroll across but they are VERY dark I can barely see it. I would return it but 1. my husband bought it and 2. I've already had it for a little over a month now and you cannot return it after so long. So I give this a rating of CRAP! because I really didn't even get to enjoy it. So now I am going to have to find another one. So just keep in mind that the backlight may go out on you...

I bought this digital frame for my mom's birthday and she loves it! It has slideshow and plays MP3 songs. The coolest thing is the clock and alarm function. My mom can now replace her alarm clock with this cool digital frame. Perfect gift for any mom!