Philips 7FF2FPA Digital Photo Frame-7 digital photo Clear/Slvr Fr

...

in place once it's in there, so a bump of the frame can knock it loose. If you think you might want to turn the frame from landscape to portrait -- which is shown in the product description on Amazon's page -- forget it. The kickstand falls right out when you do that. Guess the product description must use a photo of a different model frame. It also holds the frame nearly vertical; the photos look great if the frame is at eye level, but when sitting on a desktop, they appear a bit washed out.

The software allows you to rotate portrait images so they're not sideways in this landscape frame, but you have to do each image yourself. The software isn't sophisticated enough to recognize the orientation of an image and adjust it automatically. And after you rotate the image, it doesn't show up scaled so that the whole image fits the frame. The software cuts off the top and the bottom, leaving the middle of the image centered in the screen.

Want to have multiple photo albums on different subjects? You'll be limited to three, and you get that many only because there are 2 media slots in addition to the internal RAM. It's one 'album' per media source. You can have one set of pictures in the internal memory, another on a compact flash card, and a third on one of the other supported media formats. Want to see a different grouping? You'll need another media card, or you'll have to wipe one of your existing ones and put new photos on it. Having multiple 'albums' means spending some money or spending some time.

Navigating the rather primitive user interface with the top-mounted buttons gets very old very fast. Although it's nice that you can copy images directly from your media into the frame's internal memory, doing it is a pain as you slog slowly through the media's images, selecting the ones to move, and then moving them. I think I'll just assemble everything that I want on my Mac and then transfer them via the included USB cable.

Setting the options -- date, time, alarm, start/stop times, transitions, background color is equally klunky but you only have to do it once... until you unplug the frame and then all your settings are gone. I guess it was too much trouble to use nonvolatile RAM to store the date, time, and other settings.

Although it's nice to be able to operate the frame on a timer -- set a start time and a stop time -- it would have been nice to have more than one setting. Then you could have one setting for weekdays and another for weekends.

The power cord terminates in another one of the oversized wall-warts that takes up way too much space in a plug strip. This one goes sideways. I guess that's a good thing on a wall outlet, but not in a plug strip. Why not put the power supply inside and use a regular plug? And why does it cost $40-$60 more to get a frame with an internal battery? About that battery... I really wanted a frame that had a battery so that I wouldn't have to find a spot near an electrical outlet for regular use; I was thinking about mounting it on the wall above my desk at work. I took for granted that the customers who entered reviews a frame and the battery were actually talking about this frame. However, I should have realized that if the product description didn't mention a battery, then it didn't have one, despite the reviews. There appear to be add-on battery packs available... and they cost about the difference in price between this frame and it's $169 brother.

The plastic frame is extremely light in weight, and it's edges are very smooth. The kickstand comes to a point that is also smooth. Even a slight bump can shift this frame on a smooth surface like a desk; the weight of the cord can drag the frame off the edge if it's sitting very close when you bump it.

It's not worth the trouble it would take to send it back, so I guess I'll find a safe spot -- near an electrical outlet -- to put it, and I'll use it for awhile until it comes time to give someone a birthday/anniversary/holiday gift. If I do buy another one for myself, I'll do in a bricks & mortar store so I can try everything out first. Hmmmm... maybe I can glue this to the back of a wooden frame from the arts & crafts store and attach that frame's stand...

Philips 7FF2FPA Digital Photo Frame-7 digital photo Clear/Slvr Fr

...

because it is set by the aforementioned annoying controls, it's better to just shut it off. Besides, everybody has access to at least 4 time-keeping devices--they don't need another one blocking part of their pictures.