Giinii GN-812 8-Inch Digital Picture Frame Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)What's Good: Great picture quality
Great resolution (800x600)
Reasonable price point
Frame doesn't detract from picture
Supports a wide variety of memory options
Has Remote control
What's Not:Menus are confusing.
Firmware bug can cause hang.
Remote control buttons poorly placed
Overall I'd recommend this frame. Why, when I only rated it a 3? Read on.
The things that are most important, it does right. The 8" size is significantly better than 7" or less for not much price difference. The 800x600 resolution gives a beautiful picture.
There are a lot of memory options - SD, xD, MMC, MS, MMC+, CF, USB--and if your miniSD, microSD or MS Duo came with an adaptor, those work, too.
It has all the menu options you'd expect - show in order vs. randomize, 15 different transition effects, sound on or off, and quite a few more.
Most important, the black matte finish frame shows off the photo, unlike many of the glossy or more ornate frames I looked at which drew attention to the frame rather than the photo.
I didn't give or take away points for the time/alarm options because who cares? But if you want them, they're there. Nor did I take off points for the power connector fit because it works and it's not that hard to plug in right. I didn't give it extra points for music, because who is going to listen to music on an inexpensive picture frame? The sound is tolerable if you have an occasion for it.
So far as picture quality and functionality, then, I'd give it a 5.
The menus are counter-intuitive. Pressing the Menu button gets you one set of menus. Pressing the Exit button gets you another set of menus? Yes, you heard right - the exit button. Also, the option to turn the music on/off is on one menu, but selection of the songs is on another. The sleep button on the remote is just below the down arrow so you frequently hit it by mistake. Still, in the end, these are things that don't matter much - on the things that do matter, like size and picture quality, this frame does exceptionally well - better than most we looked at!
I rated it a 3 because of what seemed to be a firmware bug. Legitimately, though, the bug is on a feature you'll rarely if ever want to use--I rated it down on principle. The bug is this -- if you go to the menu to select which mp3 to play, the frame hangs and you have to physically unplug it and replug it to start it again. I returned the first one, and the second one I bought did the same thing, so I assume it must be a firmware problem. We are keeping the second one despite that because we don't want a frame that plays music, we want one that gives us a gorgeous picture and this one does.
CONCLUSION:
The things that matter, this frame does exceptionally well. The things it doesn't do so well are things that don't matter that much. It's got a quality picture that is large enough to see, a lot of options, and a reasonable price point. I recommend this frame.


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