Sapphire DPF080 review

There are an awful lot of digital picture frames to choose from all of a sudden.

We tested eight in issue 207 (click Labs at www.computerbuyer.co.uk). Sapphire's latest 8 inch frame offers plenty of options as well as solid picture quality. It's not cheap, at £82, but you get plenty for your money: the DPF080 is a versatile product that supports a wide variety of image, video and audio files. As well as the JPEG format used by most images, it can play MPEG, M-JPEG and AVI movie files and DAT audio tracks.

The rest of the specification is decent, though not exceptional. A pair of tinny 1.5W speakers cater for background music. We can't really see why you'd really want to use them unless, presumably, there's nothing else in the room to listen to.

There's a remote control included, which is just as well, as the controls built into the unit feel a bit tacky and are placed so you can't easily use them while looking at the screen. A memory card reader supports plenty of formats, so you should have no problem getting your pictures in.

Minor gripes aside, the frame's image quality was excellent, rivalling the sharp, clear pictures we saw on the Kodak EX1011 that won a Good Buy award in our group test. The Kodak is bigger, at 10 inches, but the Sapphire has a slightly higher resolution of 800x600 pixels, helping to ensure detail isn't lost in a haze of fuzzy pixellation, as with lesser products. Our photos looked admirably clear, with bright colours.

The Sapphire's glossy black surround comes with five interchangeable coloured fascias as well as the more sedate black, silver and white. The inserts feel quite cheap and liable to break easily, but they look OK and give you an easy way top ensure the frame complements your decor.

This is a versatile digital photo frame with plenty of features and excellent image quality. Though not quite as stylish or as fully featured as the Varnam that won our group test, it's slightly bigger and cheaper.

Author: Mike Jennings