Samsung SPF-105P 10" Digital Photo Frame Review

Possessing the largest LCD of any digital photo frame in its class, the widescreen Samsung SPF-105P 10" Photo Frame is truly a gorgeous gadget for shutterbugs or photo buffs. From the high contrast, high resolution screen with bezel mounted touch controls to the extremely long feature set including USB monitor functionality and 1GB of built-in memory, this beast packs a ton of tech into its sleek and stylish case. Read on to find out if the Samsung photo frame can live up to its promises.

The Samsung SPF-105P 10" Photo Frame is simply a gorgeous piece of kit. Lifting the photo frame out of its stylish box gives the immediate impression of heft and quality. My review sample had the glossy black bezel with 1024x600 widescreen, high contrast LCD. On closer inspection, the front bezel contains faint circular patterns silkscreened in a matte black paint for a really attractive shiny but glare-free LCD surround. The stand, a simple single leg that attaches to by pressing its ball-joint end into the rubber socket on the back of the frame, provides a solid and adjustable support for the device in either a vertical or landscape orientation (landscape recommended).

The Samsung SPF-105P 10" Photo Frame.

Perhaps the only questionable design element of the product is the back of the frame itself - with floral patterns molded into the plastic casing, one wonders why the design team went to the trouble. Plugging in the power adapter and pressing the power button on the back of the unit brings instant gratification. The "Starlight" touch panel gradually appears on the right bezel, and the frame starts playing its preloaded slide show with music.

Here's the back of the Samsung photo frame and its detachable stand.

A headphone jack and one of the stereo speakers are on the right side of the Samsung photo frame.

One can't help but be struck by the quality of the Samsung LCD panel contained within that shiny frame. Those of you who have been turned off by the washed out look of competitor's photo frames at your local electronics retailers, rejoice. This screen compares well with any modern desktop LCD in color, viewing angle, brightness and contrast. It's simply the best screen I've seen in a photo frame. By default, the frame ships with the brightness cranked up to 70 - probably to make images "pop", but I found it was a bit high. Blacks, as typical for LCD panels, were not perfectly black, but in comparing the photo frame to my Samsung 22 inch SyncMaster LCD, I found the color reproduction very comparable. The photo frame has a matte coating on the surface of its LCD for good anti-glare performance. In my opinion, this combines well with the glossy bezel to give the impression of sharpness and clarity, while actually delivering in real world use.

The Starlight touch panel falls easily to hand and appears out of nowhere with the lightest touch of the right side of the frame.

While attractively backlit in white LEDs, the touch panel is an ergonomic disaster. It is supposed to be touch sensitive, but is actually far too sensitive, so any finger hovering over the controls results in errant button presses. Even worse, the act of moving your finger to press a button triggers the press as your finger approaches the bezel, then as you actually touch the button, a second press occurs. If you move your finger away too slowly, or again hover close after you press the button, you get a third press! I found the most reliable way to get only one press was to act as though the buttons were on fire: a quick "poking" action to avoid being burned.

Once you are able to work the buttons to navigate the menus, you come to eventually figure out the important icons: Menu, Enter, Back and Play. The button icons don't make their function immediately obvious. The problem is further compounded by a useless user manual. You'll need to install the included software to get the detailed electronic version of the manual which helps a bit in understanding what each button does.

After you insert a flash card and agree to the prompt that appears on the display, you'll be able to browse the photos on your card.

Memory Memory Everywhere
The majority of digital camera users will be satisfied to find a CompactFlash, SD and Memory Stick slot on the side of the SPF-105P 10" Photo Frame. Inserting a memory card brings up a prompt to either copy the photos to internal memory, or to play the photos directly from the memory card. There is also a Type-A USB port, for connecting flash drives or other USB mass storage devices loaded with pictures.

Here's the CompactFlash slot.

When the photo frame is plugged into the PC using its mini USB port and included cable, the photo frame is mounted as a mass storage device with 1GB memory. Memory Stick and USB devices also mount and are accessible to read/write as regular flash memory devices. Strangely, when I plugged in a Memory Stick, CompactFlash card and USB flash drive, the CompactFlash drive did not show up in Windows. Thus, the "card reader" functionality seems a bit compromised, or at least inconsistent.

Rest of the ports including USB is located along with one of the stereo speakers on the left recessed side of the frame.

The frame allows a limited amount of file management with its connected flash media - copying files to and from internal memory, and deleting images one by one or all at once.