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August 27, 2009
[REVIEW—DIGITAL FOCI PHOTO BOOK]
Price: $500
Neat but expensive
The low-down: This photo book is a digital photo frame in fully portable form, made to look like a book with a “leather-like” cover. It is rechargeable-battery operated with 2.5 hours of viewing. The screen is 20cm (diagonal) and 800X600 pixel resolution. There is built-in sound processing for audio files which play through a small speaker. The sound quality is comparable with a small notebook output – squeaky. File input is from USB link to computer, or from just about any memory card. It will even read some RAW file formats. Images can be viewed one at a time or as a slideshow with elegant transition effects. It plays videos in some MPEG formats.
Like: It's certainly a cute concept and it could be the ideal brag book for any grandma who wants to skite about her grandchildren. It also has obvious commercial applications for photographers presenting to clients or sales people spruiking products. It is fun to use and people respond positively and happily to the idea of a digital book.
Dislike: The price.
Verdict: This is an attractive product, but realistically it has to be compared with a netbook computer or even a small screen notebook. 800X600 is not high definition and the Photo Book can't compare with a small notebook for versatility. For a sales presentation it has the advantage that it can be made to look as though it does only that one thing, but for general use the “one special thing” function is limiting. We suspect that there is a market for the Photo Book but it will be specialised. As a go-anywhere digital photo frame it has an obvious advantage over a digiframe that sits on the shelf.
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Posted by terry at August 27, 2009 11:06 AM
