Review: GiiNii Wedge 7″ Digital Picture Frame
Written on Nov 18, 2008 by Thomas S. and filed under GiiNii, News, Reviews
The 7” GiiNii Wedge is basic digital photo frame with movie and music playing capabilities. With a sleek aluminum-clad body and small footprint it can fit anywhere. It also offers an innovative power saving system to scale back power consumption in off hours. GiiNii isn’t exactly as well known as Sony, Kodak, or HP in the digital photo frame market, but they are starting to gain speed now that retailers s like Wal-Mart and Walgreens starting to carry their products.
GiiNii 7” Wedge Specs
- 7” LCD 4:3 aspect ratio, 800×600 resolution
- 512MB internal memory
- Supports SD, MMC, MS, xD
- Mini USB for file transfer
- Touch sensitive control buttons
- Integrated Speaker
- Video playback (AVI, Motion JPEG)
- Smart sleep mode
Design and build
The 7” GiiNii Wedge has an attractive modern design with a brushed aluminum finish and relatively thin freestanding body. It blends in well in both an office setting or at home, although it would look best near other gadgets.
The foot of the frame is a little over 1 inch deep, and narrows to about ¼ inch at the top. Unlike some frames that need a rear support to stay upright, the wedge design doesn’t need as much free space behind it for a stand.
The one complaint I have with the design of the Wedge is the location of the AC connection and the huge ferrite magnet located two inches from the plug. It is hard to hide the cord, and looks out of place with its clean look. It would have been better to locate the plug on the back, making it easier to hide.
The Wedge feels quite sturdy with the aluminum shell, enough that it could take a tumble more than once and not be any worse for wear. The metal exterior is a thick gauge of metal, which holds its own against dents or flexing. If you have children that run amuck in your home and like to tip over furniture in their wake, the GiiNii Wedge would be a perfect choice.
Memory/Picture Sources
The GiiNii Wedge has 512MB of internal memory for image storage and a SD/MMC/XD/MS slot on the side to read images straight off a camera. The internal storage is good for about 150 10MP images, and many more if you compress the images to the resolution of the display. The internal memory is accessible through an onboard mini-USB connection located on the side and it will also act as a card reader for memory cards plugged in. The card slot on the side is spring loaded and lets the card sit flush when fully inserted. This is a nice as the card doesn’t stick out like a sore thumb when on display.
Display Modes
The default display mode when turning on the Wedge is a combo photo/clock slideshow. In-between each image transition a clock will display on the screen. You can switch away from this to an all clock mode or a standard photo slideshow. The slideshow settings allow you to change the delay between each image and the style of transition. I kept it set to a fading transition between images and picked a 30 second delay. Some of the shorter delays such as 3 or 10 seconds were too sudden to enjoy an image before it switched to the next.
When viewing large images from a newer digital camera, the GiiNii Wedge lagged when trying to adjust menu options or change viewing modes. Since lag is not noticed when viewing image transitions, it was not that big of a problem. One easy way around the delay was just ejecting the memory card and then adjusting the settings that you wanted to change.
The internal speaker also lets you play music in the background during a slideshow. The speaker is loud enough to fill up a small room and sounds pretty nice. It’s not a boom box, but for playing music in the background while displaying vacation images it does the job quite well. The internal music player supports MP3, WMA, and WAV music file formats which covers most music sources outside of iTunes.
Movie playback is also supported, but rather limited besides a very low resolution movie off of a digital camera. The limited power of the GiiNii frame makes some movies stutter, but this is not a primary feature that will be used by most people. Movies will play better on the internal memory though, rather than the external memory card.
Menu Controls
The menu controls are located on the right side of the frame, and are all touch sensitive. Each button has its own divot so you can find the correct button, although none of them are labeled. Depending on the menu or mode you are in, the function of each button is displayed on the right side of the screen. I found this somewhat confusing at first, being quite easy to hit the wrong button on accident.
To enter the menu system you press any of the buttons on the right side of the frame. Depending on the images being displayed or the mode that the frame is in, it may take a second or 2 for the controls to show up on the screen.
Display
The quality of the screen is very nice and easily stands out in a bright living space. Colors are bright and vibrant making most images “pop”. Black levels are good enough to view darker detail cues even at bright backlight levels. Viewing angles are very good, showing proper image color from almost any angle around your room. The screen is textured to prevent glare, instead of being glossy which can be difficult to view if it is near a window or in a room with bright overhead lighting. You have 3 brightness settings inside the menu and more adjustment depending on the level of EnerGiiNii energy savings. Considering the max wattage draw of this display is around 10 watts, I would have no problem having it set to max brightness every day since it would have little impact on my energy bill. Overall I think the screen on the Wedge holds its own against other models I have seen.
Extra Features
This GiiNii model also includes a clock/alarm and calendar. The clock feature is handy if you don’t have any way to tell time in your room, but since I have no less than 5 clocks within arm reach I didn’t need it. There are multiple clock designs to choose from, to pick the best design for your needs. Both analog and digital clock options are available. The calendar overlay I found to be rather useless, unless you were trying to match up an upcoming date with the day of the week.
Pros
- Bright and colorful screen
- Solid aluminum shell
- Built-in power saving feature is nice if you forget to turn electronics off at night
Cons
- Sluggish menu system
- Limited movie playback
Bottom Line
The 7” GiiNii Wedge sells for a $99, which is a decent price for the cool design and high quality display. The menu system is sluggish, but it is rarely used beyond initial setup. Movie playing capabilities are great on paper, but the limited support for file formats rules it out as a main use. Overall if you enjoy the design and the price works, it’s not a bad digital picture frame to consider.
4 out of 5 stars
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