Customer Reviews

Samsung SPF-85H 8-Inch Digital Photo Frame UbiSync USB Mini-PC Monitor w/1GB Internal Memory (Black)

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I searched websites trying to find an easy to use photo frame with 4:3 ratio and good resolution. I found this one at a store and thought I'd try it out. I was worried it would be difficult to set up given that I have a Mac computer. This wasn't the case at all. I hooked it up to the computer with the USB cable, highlighted the photos I wanted on the frame and drug them to the frame's icon on my desktop. So easy.
The only thing I didn't like (and it could just be my camera, 5 megapixel) is that the pictures that are vertical were not as clear as the horizontal pictures. Overall, I think it is a good frame and easy to use.

The 8" versions are the only ones with a 4:3 aspect ratio. This is the ideal and native ratio for 99+% of digital cameras. Only very few take photos in 16:9 widescreen, and taking the time to convert and crop your 4:3 photos into 16:9 would no doubt be tedious. Generally the 16:9 models are more expensive but LESS expensive for manufacturers to make because may other consumer electronic devices require 7-10" widescreen/16:9 LCDs while not many use 4:3 anymore. Don't be fooled by the 16:9 unless you know for sure you need it!

The resolution is a very sharp 800x600, and the contrast ratio is a very respectable 400:1. I researched several different brands and models before finding this great frame. It has a nice smooth exterior case that doesn't look cheap, isn't too flimsy and isn't too thick.

The images are nice and sharp, and like I said before, the native 4:3 resolution is a plus. It has 1GB of memory built-in, which is enough for plenty of pictures, but it is also expandable via a multitude of flash card slots. SD is extremely cheap, and Amazon sells a 16GB one for about $25-30 (probably way more than most need :))

File transfers are easy, and like another reviewer said, the frame works equally well on Windows and Mac machines. I'm not sure about Linux, but I'm sure it wouldn't be too hard.

My ideal frame would be thinner, higher resolution and contrast ratio, and larger diagonal screen size for less money... but that is not likely to happen for another few years. However, at the price, this is one of the best, if not the best, digital photo frame you can buy

This is a very decent digital photo frame, but it has its quirks.

The manual is inadequate. It tells you only how to connect the power and basic control, and that's it. The rest is on CD, which has a terrible setup program (doesn't work too well on Vista). The software is not very good. I thought the program froze on me when I try to install it. You're better off using a SD memory to port your photos into the frame rather than use the USB transfer.

Hardware, fortunately, is better. The LCD screen is very sharp and not one of those frames with lots of black grids. There are lots of options to choose. The light-up control on the right side of the frame (a la newer HP notebook design) sometimes can be a little over-reacting, however.

When I got the frame, I thought my frame was dead on arrival.... But it turned out I had to plug the power cord in a little more and wait a little bit for the photo frame to turn on. The manual does not mention this. The power button is somewhat well hidden (it blends in with the design, which is nice looking). You may have to press and hold it for 3-second before you'd see the light-up button to turn on.

There is a brightness control. The difference is very subtle, but noticeable. It has a built-in clock, which you can turn it on, but it's hideously huge and can block away about 1/3 of the photo. I do like the scheduled on-off thing, as I do put it in my bedroom, so I can program it to shut off right around I went to bed and auto turned on around the time I wake up.

The frame not only can resize your pictures' physical dimention (i.e., resolution) to better fit the screen for you, but it also resize the file size. The frame comes with 1 GB of internal memory, which I think is very generous.

One can choose from a dozen transition modes, three slideshow speed and shuffle modes. The last is very nice as you can organize your photos in folder and shuffle pictures in particular folder or randomize all photos in memory. This allows adequate control over how you want to playback your photos.

Pro:

1. Excellent price
2. Sharp, detailed image
3. Schedule on/off
4. 4:3 aspect ratio
5. Beautiful frame design
6. Lots of features

Con:

1. Awful documentation
2. Quality issue
3. Over-reactive control
4. Clock feature is inconsiderate

This is a review of the Samsung SPF-85H (non-wireless version). Before I get started please be aware that there are many Samsung frames selectable from Amazon, but the reviews seems to be grouped together in one big pot.
Now onto the review:
For a digital picture frame the SPF-85H has very nice fit and finish. The frame exterior is not flat black. There are decorations textured into the frame. The power button is a little hard to find (if you don't know where it is) as it's on the back of the frame on the bottom left corner. The button is black so it tends to blend in. The controls on the frame are all touch sensitive. You touch the frame (not the screen) on the right side and they light up allowing you to make changes. After a number of seconds the buttons go dark and are like they were never there.

The screen quality (I think) is very nice for a digital photo frame. This is my first 800x600 frame and I can definitely tell the difference. I had no dead pixels which was also a good thing.

The menu system on the frame isn't bad. You can either go into the pictures menu, view the clock/calendar, or change settings.

The pictures menu allows you to view photos from:
1. The frame memory
2. Attached USB thumb drive
or 3. Inserted SD card.

There does not appear to be a way to set the slideshow properties are far as order/random play.

One of the settings of note is the ability to have the frame automatically turn on AND/OR off at a specific time of day. This is nice if you want the frame to always turn off after you go to bed so you don't have to remember to turn it off. Along those same lines you can have it automatically turn on whenever you want. You don't have to have both on and off settings enabled.

There is no remote contol for this frame and that's one reason I had to take a star off. In this day and age almost everything has a remote control and although most people would just end up losing them, they are still nice to have.

The frame only displays photos, so no movies. This is a bit of a disadvantage compared to most frames these days. Another reason therefore for the loss of a star.

One quite interesting, if not geek attractive feature, is the ability to use the frame as an extension of your WINDOWS (sorry Mac) desktop. Effectively you can connect the frame via USB to your computer and then a menu system on the frame asks if you want to use the frame as attached storage (for adding/removing photos) or as a screen. This is made possible via the frame manager software that comes with the frame. This is cool because now you can move a browser of your choice over to the frame and then play a video or online slideshow (ex: flickr.com). You can conceivably throw something like skype onto it and chat with someone in that screen while using your entire main monitor for everything else.
The only negative here of course is you have to keep it connected via USB and the USB port is on the side of the screen. It would have been nicer if the port was on the back.

Importing photos onto the frame can be done in 1 of 3 ways.
1. Via USB cable to your PC/MAC you can drag photos on the frame.
2. Via USB thumb drive you can copy pictures or just play a slide-show right from the thumb drive. This effectively expands your total picture storage above the quite large built-in 1GB.
3. Via SD card. As in #2 you can either play a slide show right from the card or you can copy to the frame.

Both 2 and 3 require no interaction with a computer, so the frame doesn't really have to ever touch a computer again if you don't want it to.

All in all, even though this frame lacks some of the standard features of other frames (movies, etc) the ability to use it as an actual LCD screen can be seen as quite a nice benny to some folks that would be keeping their frame in their computer room anyway.

I just got this photo frame yesterday, and am extremely pleased with the purchase. The picture quality is great with the 800x600 resolution, the touch interface is intuitive (controls light up on the right side of the frame), and the frame itself is visually appealing.

The fact that you can download pictures into multiple folders onto the internal drive is a cool feature, and you then have the choice to play all the pictures in a folder, or all the pictures in the photo frame (across all folders). The frame always forces you to run a slide show, but if you want to only display one picture then you can limit your slide show to one picture(which will refresh over and over again). The ability to upload pics via USB flash or a USB connection to your computer was also convenient, and the 1GB internal memory is WAY more than enough - the photo frame must convert my large images to 800x600 images and 300MB worth of pictures on my PC (114 photos) are only taking up 40MB worth of space on the digital frame's internal memory. So 1GB internal memory should be good for about 2500 photos, far more than I ever intend to have in the frame!

The quibble: when you download larger photos into the photo frame and it does its conversion, the conversion software is a little buggy. Every time I copied my set of approximately 120 photos onto the frame about 4 or 5 of the photos would get corrupted (meaning the top half of the photo is 2 inches to the left of the bottom half or something similar happening). Scrolling through to find a particular picture isn't very fast; the internal memory store seems pretty slow, so it took a while to find and delete the corrupted pictures and then re-upload them. The good news is that if you upload a single picture at a time to replace corrupted images, they seem to convert just fine. So it's a somewhat random issue, and if you're aware of it and the fact that just deleting the individual picture and re-uploading it by itself is the best way to go, you'll be fine. (because if you try to delete all pictures and reload all of them in one shot, you'll probably have problems with a few different pictures)

So all in all, now that I understand this one quirk and how to deal with it, I'm really happy with this purchase.

If you intend to purchase this for its USB secondary mini-monitor functionality, just turn around and walk away (figuratively). It's absolutely wretched. The drivers brought my PC to its knees in XP and didn't even work in Vista 64-bit. When it did work, which was rare, it was extremely slow and the picture quality was only middling. I love the concept, but Samsung's execution is atrocious and their customer support has been utterly brain-dead. Just don't even bother.

My latest display electronics have been Samsung - 24" wide screen monitor (using right now) and 52" LCD TV. I knew what I was looking for and getting with this item - I work in computers and had done my research. This frame met my expectations - the price was decent for the resolution, sleek look, good size, and pretty easy to use. The controls are on the front panel, but stay hidden until activated. Uploading images was a snap, though you're always better off manually cropping/fixing your own images - the frames can do it, but you'll save space and not end up with extra background or skewed photos if you do it yourself. There are programs out there to optimize images in batches.

1 GB was a lot of storage (especially after my optimization). I tested this item as a mini-monitor for fun (my dad won't use it for this). and it was so-so. I think the refresh capabilities are lacking in this arena. I was easy to hook up and use as such, but any 'activity' on the mini-screen was somewhat sluggish. Overall good product, good price!

This is for SPF-85H.

The picture quality is excellent. It is wonderful to have a slide show of >1, 000 family pictures taken over years! It brought back many wonderful memories.

I was able to set it up in a few minutes.

Highly recommend.

Let me start by saying that the Samsung (SPF-85H 8-inch model) digital frame is very attractive with a discreet circular design on the frame, and buttons that light up and activate when you touch the bezel, otherwise they are invisible. The stand on the back is highly adjustable and has a rubber base to keep the frame from shifting. The screen is not widescreen, which is nice, and has an 800x600 resolution, also nice.

With all that said, the frame only worked for a couple of minutes before it froze up and become inoperable. I downloaded about 1,900 photos from my computer into the frame. I downsized all the photos to 800x600 pixels and they took up about half of the built-in 1GB of storage. I started a slide show, then went into the menu to change some setting. After changing the setting an hour glass showed up in the corner of the screen and it froze. I let it sit for a few minutes, then I hit the power button to turn it off. I turned it back on, saw the SAMSUNG splash screen, then an hourglass, then it froze showing the photo directory with a question mark on every photo. It would not move out of that screen and none of the buttons responded.

I called Samsung and they were unable to do anything for me and suggested I return the frame to the seller. The representative I spoke with at Samsung was very nice, and it was a pleasant experience. I'm sorry that the frame broke. It seemed very promising.

All in all... if it didn't break it seems to be a great value.

We've got couple of these frames for our parents in Russia. We were looking for easy to manipulate, but presentable looking frame for two 60+ moms without any computer knowledge. This frame was a steal deal (below 60$ each in 2009), is easy to manipulate, has support on several languages, looks very expensive and is sturdy.

Frame supports different memory cards and has internal memory for 1Gb. There are functions to watch just photos, slide shows or photos with your music on the card or in memory. My mother-in-law uses it to listen her audio books, while watching her grandkids on the bright and fairly big screen. I believe she even watches some video clips on it, since frame supports avi format.

Frame has very sturdy and universal stand support, but could be also hang on the wall. Black outline of the frame has moire structure and is made from hardy plastic. Back of the frame has carved flower design, which is unusual, but pretty. It stood out from the crowd of more pricey, but cheaper looking frames, when I've spotted it in one of the electronics stores.
The touch control on the side of the frame's outline is highlighted only when you touch it: just swing your finger along left side of the frame to activate control illumination. Control is a bit more sensitive at times, but our parents quickly adjusted to it.

Frame shows some log time if photo exceeds 3Mb and if it reads from the card, but transitions of pictures taken with 5MP camera are smooth, especially if pictures loaded on the frame's drive. We have not used software, supplied with this frame - drag and drop method worked with our PC.

Overall, we and our parents were satisfied with this frame type, it's functionality, quality and look.

P.S. all photos of this frame I've seen on the internet does not reflect actual outstanding quality and design. You will be pleasantly surprised how nice it looks. It will make a great gift for your relatives and friends.