The Aluratek 10.5" Digital Photo Frame offers a bunch of features for a reasonable price. The going price of this huge digital frame is about $175-200. It includes 256MB onboard memory, and allows you to play MP3s, and create slideshows with music on the fly.

I've recently had the opportunity to play around with two different digital photo grames. A 7" Dynex Digital Photo Frame (see review), and also a 10.5" Aluratek Digital Photo Frame.

The Aluratek 10.5" Digital Photo Frame comes with a bunch of features all built into a black frame. It has a lot of features for the $150 I got it for during Dell's Days of Deals. In June, most 10.5" digital frames were going for $250+. It has a 10.5" TFT LCD screen, 256MB memory which can store 1000s of pictures (if compressed), can play MP3s, can play digital movies, can play slideshows with background music, and a remote control.

The back and side of the frame is silver. You can plug in many types of memory cards such as CF, MS, SD (not sure about SDHC), MMC, and XD, and you can also stick a USB stick into the side. The box comes with a A to mini-B USB cable to connect to your camera or connect to your computer.

Review

Okaay, now I had a lot of problems with the Aluratek 10.5" Digital Photo Frame. Yes it had lots of cool features, and a very big screen, and costed only $150. The first problem I had was with Dell, in that it took them over a month to finally ship it to me. They said the supplier had a hard time meeting with demand. Why sell more than you have in stock? After using the frame, I told my friend who also ordered it to cancel their order. I had lots of hardware problems with this digital frame. Who knew when I would get it back if I sent in an RA since receiving this took forever. I needed it for a wedding in a month.

Secondly, the area between the actual LCD, and the black frame seemed to have some little bubbles around it. This is hardly noticeable and not that big of a problem. Overall, the screen was good. A standard 4 x 6 is only a little bit more than 7" diagnoally across, and a 5 x 7 is a about 8.5". This is 10.5" diagonally, so its a very big picture. When the screen did work I didn't have a problem with the resolution. However, I had the ocassional problem that when you turned it off and back on, it would flicker. Sometimes it would show the menu after a few seconds, sometimes it would just end up crashing, with a rainbow line along the center of the screen.

Another problem I had was actually connecting the frame to my computer. It would work sometimes, and other times my computer said it cannot connect to the USB device, and display that USB warning in my icon tray. This also happened to the other computers in my house, both running Windows XP. Connecting my cameras, and memory cards worked without a problem though. You can play directly from a USB Stick or CF, and that can provide a lot more storage than the built in 256MB. Don't get me wrong, 256MB is plenty especially if you shrink your pictures before hand, as the 10.5" screen won't even use the max resolution for a 5 megapixel photo anyways.

I contacted Aluratek's customer support via email, and said that my Digital Photo Frame should not do these things, however, when I emailed them back, they did not respond. The frame does come with a 120 day warranty, however, again, I needed the frame for a wedding in a month, and it took over a month after my order to get in back in the first place!

When the frame was actually working, and able to connect to a computer, the interface was easy to use. Even my brother was even able to copy all his music and pictures onto the frame and create a slideshow complete with the background music he wanted.

I wasn't able to test out the video play back however. I'll try it out when I get my hands on the frame again.

Pros

• Huge 10.5" clear LCD
• Has lots of ports to import your pictures
• Easy to create a slideshow with background music
• Plays Mp3s
• 256MB is plenty, and you can always leave your memory card inside

Cons

• Dies out, and it seems like its completely broken
• Only works sometimes
• Problems connecting to a computer via USB
• Not very good craftsmanship

Final Thoughts

Overall, it seems like the Aluratek 10.5" Digital Photo frame has lots of great features, but fails miserably in the reliability factor. I do not recommend this frame. Paying a higher price for a more well-known brand will be worth it.

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