The Parrot PHOTO VIEWER 7″ is the bigger brother of PHOTO VIEWER 3.5″ that we reviewed last year. We liked the 3.5″ version as its compact size meant that it could easily sit on one of the desks in our office and allow us to upload the photos from our mobile phones via bluetooth.
Since then we have been looking to buy a larger photo frame that we can have in our lounge so were keen to try the PHOTO VIEWER 7″.
The Parrot Photo Viewer is unique in that it uses Bluetooth technology rather than a USB cable or SD card in order to upload and display pictures. Parrot have aimed this product at people with camera phones, giving them the ability to transfer their favourite photos from their phone to display them on the photo frame. Since the launch of the PHOTO VIEWER 3.5″ Parrot have done some work with the firmware running on the PHOTO VIEWER 7″ and have improved the bluetooth connectivity. The 3.5″ version suffered some problems in this department, often requiring a power cycle to get things working again. The 7″ does not seem to suffer the same problems.
At just 22.2 x 17.6cm the frame isn’t huge. It’s slim too measuring just 2 cm deep. However these dimensions include the frame, the LCD screen has an effective diagonal of just 7 inches and has a resolution of 720 x 480. This is a reasonable high resolution for an LCD of this size and therefore images look very sharp. The backlight is bright and evenly lit and can be adjusted to suit your needs. There is also a light sensor on the frame so that when the room is completely dark the frame goes in to a sleep mode where it simply displays the time. This is a nice idea if you are using the frame in a bedroom for example. You can turn this feature off though if you wish.
Available in 10 frame designs the frame can be used in either portrait or landscape and what’s more, the frame has a built in sensor that can tell which way is up and rotate the images on screen to suit; a pretty cool feature.
The photo frame is powered by the supplied mains adapter. There is a switch that allows you to turn the unit on and off. One thing that is did find strange and somewhat annoying is that, having chosen a black surround for my photo frame, I’m still stuck with a white adapter and power cable!
Uploading images via Bluetooth is dead easy. On my HTC TyTN I simply browse through the images I have saved and choose the one I want to send. Selecting beam file brings up a window where I can search for devices in range. Once the Parrot Photo Frame is shown on the list I click send and a few seconds later the picture is displayed on the screen.
Transferring files from a PC is equally simple but gives you the added benefit of being able to send more than one picture at a time.
The Parrot Photo Viewer will accept jpeg images in a variety of sizes and will automatically scale them to fit the screen. That said, it is a good idea to resize large images on the PC before you transfer them to save space as the frame has only 128MB of Flash RAM available for images. 128MB Should be plenty of room for hundreds of images, however you can’t necessarily fill this all up as even if you are below the memory limit the frame will not accept more than about 500 images. This should be ample for most people though!
The photo frame has a built in menu system that allows you to change various settings, review and delete stored images alter the backlight brightness, etc. The on screen display is really intuitive and is accessed by three buttons on the rear of the frame. You can also alter how frequently the images are changed from 5 seconds up to a few hours. The one thing that we thought was missing from the slide options on the 3.5″ model has now been added to the 7″ so that you can now display your images randomly.
The Parrot Photo Viewer is mains powered and comes with a slim power adapter. I would like to see a battery power option for this as it really is the ideal size for passing round to show people your photos. When most people see it for the first time they immediately want to pick it up.
The box for the Parrot Photo Viewer is also impressive and is ideal for anyone purchasing it as a gift for someone.
High-quality display
Featuring a high-resolution LCD screen with 720 x 480 pixels and 262 144 colours, the Parrot PHOTO VIEWER 7″ benefits from the TFT technology to guarantee you the highest level of rendering in terms of colours and sharp details.
It comes on during the day and switches off at night
An LCD screen gives off light, which can be a pain if you want to put it on your bedside table. The Parrot PHOTO VIEWER 7″ features a sensor that switches off the frame when the light level drops.
Technical and commercial specifications
Parrot PHOTO VIEWER Bluetooth® wireless photo viewer
- High-resolution LCD TFT screen with 720 x 480 pixels
- 262 144 colour display
- Effective LCD size: 7 inches
- Built-in light sensor
- Compatible image format: JPEG (700 K to 7 M pixels)
- 128 MB internal memory for storing over 100 photos
- Stores over 500 photos in its internal memory
- Automatic image resizing
- Menus: Slideshow, Picture, Delete, Reposition, Language…
- Fitting: free-standing or wall-mounted
- Power lead
- Automatically rotates the picture
(portrait/landscape)
Bluetooth®
- Built-in Bluetooth receiver
- Bluetooth v2.0 + EDR
- Bluetooth profiles supported: FTP, OPP and BIP
- Receives pictures from up to 10 metres away
- Pairing: not required with this product
- Software updates by Bluetooth
Dimensions and Weight
- Width: 22.2 cm Height: 17.6 cm Depth: 2 cm
- Weight: 358 g (not incl. frame)
Processor
- Samsung 2412 Microprocessor
- Memory : Flash = 512Mbits – SDRAM = 128Mbits
Conclusion
I like this Parrot PHOTO VIEWER 7″ we have it sitting in our lounge at the moment. The images are very sharp and clear and colours appear very rich. The firmware is a great improvement over the old 3.5″ version. If you are looking for a digital photo frame then consider this one!
Matt
[Technorati tag(s): smartphone blog, Pocket PC blog, Parrot PHOTO VIEWER 7″, Photo Frame, Gadgets]
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