Minimum Requirements For Buying a Digital Photo Picture Frame

Any digital photo picture frame you needs to be simple and easy for you to use and it should come with a minimum of a basic, but solid feature set and of course don’t forget you will need an above the average display quality. It also needs to display your photos in the way you want!

Typical display size should be a 7 inch or 8 inch, if you can afford it, as anything smaller is not so easy to se and anything bigger is going to cost you more money without doubt. This should give you an actual frames size of up to 10 to 11 inches by 6 or 7 inches, but this will obviously vary based on the thickness or width of the bezel area around the display itself.

Today it seems that black is the color of choice for digital photo frames, but if you look around you will find other popular colors such as silver or gray or blue. For more exotic colors you are going to be hard pushed to find exactly what you want. However it is always worth trying as the exact color match you need may be out there, but it may take you some time to find it. Check the kind of stand that comes with the digital frame and make sure it can support the frame in both portrait (tall) mode and landscape (wide). If you only need one of these positions then just make sure it does the one you need.

Some stands will also be less stable than others so make sure the one you are getting is stable. Another option is wall mounting, so check for this too if you need it in your digital photo picture frame.

Next check out the controls for the digital frame you want to buy. Where are they and are they easily accessible and easy to use? Usually you will find a set of buttons for power, menu selection and navigation situated on the front, back or side of the frame.

Make sure they are where you are comfortable using them. If you don’t like fiddly controls and you want a simpler and easier to use solution then buy a digital frame that comes with a remote. This will make everything so easy, but it will cost you more too!

Also check to determine which memory card slots the frame has and obviously make sure it has the one you need, such as the same slot for the card you use in your digital camera. These are all simple checks, but get this one wrong and you won’t be able to use your digital picture frame in the way that you want.

Most standard digital photo frames should now provide for CompactFlash, Memory Stick Pro and Duo, SDHC, MMC and XD slots for you to insert memory cards. In addition you should also have a USB slot of some kind.

These are necessary so you can connect your digital photo picture frame directly to your personal computer (laptop, notebook, netbook, apple mac or whatever) to download images from it easily. If you don’t have a computer and are just going to use the memory card from your digital camera then this is not so important.

Some more recent digital frames also now come with a full sized USB connector so you can connect a USB flash drive or thumb drive directly to it. These are useful for transferring a large number of images across at one time. Don’t forget to ensure that there is an AC adapter connection and power back included with the digital frame as powering these with batteries will get expensive very quickly. Also check the display quality – is it good enough?

Finally checkout the functionality of what the frame software will do by seeing how the menu options and navigation work. Slideshows are standard, but also see what other facilities are available with the digital photo frames you are considering. Then make a comparison and see which one gives you the best value for money!