14 DAY TRIAL // Digital photo frames are a relatively "young" concept, but since the market is already filled-up with such products, manufacturers are trying to diversify their approach to this segment in order to make their offer more attractive. And that's also the case with Sanyo's latest announcement, the HNV-M70 ALBO digital frame, whose design is like nothing we've seen on the market lately.
First and foremost, it's important to say that the new digital frame from Sanyo has a very peculiar design, looking retro and futuristic at the same time. In a few words, this thing looks like one of those displays we've seen in the cartoons and SF movies of old, with the controls placed on the support rather than the frame itself.
The main selling point of the Sanyo digital frame is represented by the display, which has a 7-inch diagonal and an 800 x 480 pixel resolution. Additionally, the LCD TFT screen has a 16:9 native aspect ratio, plus 140 degrees and 120 degrees horizontal and vertical viewing angles, respectively.
As far as the communication options are concerned, the new digital photo frame from Sanyo offers some pretty peculiar features. First of all, it's important to mention that the HNV-M70 sports a built-in Wi-Fi module, which allows users to connect it to their home wireless router in order for the frame to access certain photosharing websites.
Furthermore, instead of installing a Bluetooth module, the manufacturers have taken the rather strange decision of equipping the device with an Infrared port, which can be used for sending photos from mobile phones equipped with such ports as well (whatever those might be). Additionally, the HNV-M70 also incorporates a few more "classic" interfaces, such as a memory card reader compatible with the SD / SDHC, miniSD, microSD, Memory Stick PRO Duo and Memory Stick PRO-HG Duo card formats, plus a USB port.
The ALBO digital frame from Sanyo has 256 MB of internal memory, which can, however, be increased by adding memory cards. It also sports 1-W stereo speakers, which explains why it is compatible with a wide range of multimedia files, including MP3, WMA, WAV, as well as JPEG and BMP picture formats.
Sanyo's ALBO digital frame will arrive in stores next month and will sell for around 40,000 Yen or $423 US dollars, which is a bit much, given the current average price of such devices.
