Review: Pandigital PAN8002W02T 8″ Digital Photo Frame With PanTouch

Written on Sep 11, 2008 by MKowalski and filed under Pandigital, Reviews

The world of digital picture frames is full of newcomers, of brand names you’ve probably never encountered before. For me, Pandigital was one such name. So what does Pandigital’s 8” PanTouch photo frame have to set it apart from the rest of this anonymous crowd? A touch-responsive interface, for starters, and a healthy 512 MB of internal memory, audio/video playback, and optional wireless network connectivity beyond that.

But it’s the touch interface, which promises to make the experience of viewing shots something akin to thumbing through photos in a traditional photo album according to Pandigital, that first grabbed our attention. Without a lot of broad name recognition at the moment, this manufacturer is clearly hoping to break into the photo frame market the old fashioned way: by building a product that does something few others do. Even though we’re fascinated by the idea of a touch interface, the bigger question with the PanTouch will be whether its basic features and functions are solid.

Pandigital PanTouch PAN8002W02T Quick Specs

• 8” LCD screen
• 800×600 pixels
• 512 MB internal memory
• Built-in card reader supports SD/SDHC, xD, Memory Stick, and CF
• USB and mini USB ports
• Audio/video playback
• Touch interface

Design and Build

Opening Pandigital’s box, you’ll find a frame that for all its claims of uniqueness looks pretty much like most of the other digital picture frames out there. That’s not to say that the frame is unattractive, though. Rather, it has a less modern, more traditional look that’s only recently become common among digital photo frames, but should fit in well in the kinds of household spaces most of us inhabit.

A conventional glass plate – just like the one that sits in front of your printed photos in a regular picture frame – and cream photo mat are held in place with a fairly plain looking molded frame. The PanTouch’s removable bezel isn’t actual wood, but it does a decent imitation. Four thumbscrews allow the frame to be removed for glass and screen cleaning, and make it theoretically possible to swap out the frame for a different one – except for the fact that at the moment, Pandigital isn’t offering replacement bezels in other styles.

The fact that this frame is really nothing more than a digital picture box within a traditional photo frame means that you might, if you were industrious, be able improvise your own interchangeable frame system with this unit as a starting point, but in terms of what’s currently available for purchase, you’re stuck with the look you start with in this case.

Fully assembled, the Pandigital frame runs about 1.5 inches thick, or about par for the course in terms of thickness for an 8” frame these days. Four nail/screw recesses on the back panel allow the frame to be mounted on a wall in either landscape or portrait orientation.

You’ll also find a swing-out “kickstand” for supporting the frame on a table or desktop. The stand can also be positioned to allow for portrait or landscape playback.

In spite of the PanTouch’s relatively light weight, however, all is not well with this frame’s flimsy plastic support leg. On more than one occasion, the frame toppled over on my desk after being lightly bumped. Without much rigidity and with no grip material to help it stick to the desk, the stand allows for a lot of slipping and sliding and makes the frame a little more delicate to deal with than some others I’ve used.

Memory card readers and USB connections, playback/menu controls, a headphone jack/audio out with analog volume control, and the master power switch all reside on the top and sides of the unit, recessed several inches below the edge of the frame itself.

Additionally, the back of the device houses a pair of speakers, allowing users to put their slideshows to music or play back video files with audio.

Memory/Picture Sources

On the back of the display, you’ll find two card readers: one for CF memory, and an additional multi-card slot that handles just about anything else (SD/SDHC, MMC, MemoryStick, and xD-Picture Card). A USB port also allows the Pandigital to serve as a host device and transfer files from USB flash drives.

While the memory connections aren’t easily accessible with the frame hanging on a wall, for instance, it’s nice that memory cards and even most flash drives are hidden from view when looking at the frame head on. A mini USB port for transferring files directly from a computer is less conveniently located on the back of the frame, but we’re guessing that Pandigital assumed most users won’t be connecting their computer with the frame hanging on the wall.

I put the Pandigital frame to the test with SDHC, xD, and CF memory, and had no trouble connecting, viewing, and transferring files from these card types. A flash drive in the frame’s USB host port also worked without a hitch. In each case, Pandigital’s latest doesn’t seem to be particular about where images are located, finding files located several levels down in the USB drive’s file structure. Copying a single file, a selected group, or the entire contents of a card to the frame’s internal memory is as easy as selecting the appropriate menu option in the photo view screen.

Speaking of storage, the frame’s 512 MB of internal memory provides enough storage space for around 500 high-res, moderate compression images. If you’re willing to resize your files to fit the frame’s 800×600 display area, you should be able to store more than 3,000 JPEGs, according to Pandigital. That’s not bad capacity at all for a frame in this class, and file management on the PanTouch couldn’t be much easier with its USB connection: simply connect the frame to your computer with the supplied cable and add or remove images, videos, and audio files as desired.

Display Modes

Powering up the PanTouch, the frame launches into slideshow mode unless you tell it otherwise. There’s no memory function, meaning that the slideshow returns to the top of the list of images whenever the power is cycled. The only problem here is one of startup times, with the PanTouch taking roughly 20 seconds to boot up and display the first image from the time the switch is flipped.

Photos from memory cards or flash drives can be added to the mix instantly by simply inserting the memory type into the frame’s reader. The PanTouch will immediately move to the first image on any connected external memory type before displaying shots from its internal memory (unless shuffle mode is selected, that is).

The PanTouch is a bit weak on slideshow options. While background music – the frame supports MP3s only – can be added, the PanTouch is limited to six slide-to-slide transition effects and three playback speed settings (fast, medium, and slow). Hence, there’s no way to set up this particular model to only change images once every 15 minutes, or once an hour.

With desktop use clearly in mind, the PanTouch also features a Calendar/Clock mode, with a small window that displays the slideshow alongside a month-at-a-time calendar view.

Video playback on digital photo frames tends to be hit or miss, but the PanTouch lands a hit in this case. The frame had no trouble smoothly playing back 640×480 AVI video directly from a memory card; while supported video formats aren’t specified, we were also able to successfully view MPEG clips. And even the audio playback isn’t terrible. The PanTouch is capable of more distortion-free volume than I expected, though the sound is a little thin. Also, because of the position of the speakers on the back panel of the frame, audio is noticeably more muffled when the frame is mounted on a wall than when it’s sitting on a desktop with the speakers able to direct sound outward without obstruction.

Menu System

The 8″ PanTouch’s menu structure is relatively transparent for a digital frame. From the easy to access Home screen, users can get to one of six basic modules: Photos, Music, Video, File, Clock, and Network Photo (if you have Pandigital’s optional Wi-Fi dongle attached).

Jumping into the Photos, Music, or Video areas pulls up thumbnails of all available files of the type indicated by the area name. Viewing photos full-screen or playing back video or audio files is as simple as selecting the appropriate item from the list of available options.

Pressing the “Setup” button from the Home screen calls up a master setup menu with options mostly pertaining to the slideshow. From this menu, users can change slideshow speed or transitions, change video playback settings, specify automatic on/off times for the frame, or even reset all settings to their default values.

In terms of physical interface, you have three methods for controlling what’s going on on this frame: a set of top-mounted buttons, a remote control, and of course the touch interface. Of the three, the five round buttons that sit on top of the display unit itself are by far the least convenient when the frame is set up and in use, as you have to reach behind the bezel to access them – which also means that you can’t easily see which button does what.

The remote control provides redundancy for the top buttons, as well as some additional controls for things like playback volume, in an arrangement that’s much easier for navigating menus.

Pandigital’s generic but easy to use remote was my preferred control style, in fact, until the controller decided to stop working altogether two days into the review. Swapping for a fresh battery did no good. Not a good sign.

As for the touch interface, as it turns out the PanTouch doesn’t actually have a touch screen at all. Rather, the system, which Pandigital calls “Edge Touch”, works like a series of touch-sensitive soft buttons beneath the horizontal and vertical portions of the top right-hand corner of the frame’s mat.

Tap top right corner of the photo mat and you enable the touch system, which mostly just works as a series of directional arrow soft keys to navigate the menus with the same left/right/enter/exit controls found on the back-panel buttons (think the series of five or so soft keys that run down one side of the screen on your bank’s ATM and you’d be on the right track).

Of course, this means that menu control isn’t as simple as touching the option you want to select directly on the Home screen. If anything, having to navigate with the area-specific soft “buttons” is actually less intuitive than just using the remote. As easy as thumbing through pages in a photo album it isn’t, and after the little bit of novelty had worn off, I went back to using the remote and dedicated buttons instead.

Display

The display itself is an 800×600 pixel panel that’s acceptably bright and crisp. Viewing angles are fair to good: there’s practically no color inversion when viewing the frame from side to side, but images tend to invert quickly when looking up or down at the frame at angles greater than around 45 degrees.

Straight out of the box, the PanTouch’s colors looked a little washed out against those from the same images viewed on a computer monitor. Conveniently, the PanTouch allows users to modify screen brightness, contrast, tint, and color by selecting the “Adjust LCD Color” option within the slideshow setup menu. In our case, a little tweak of the brightness setting brought back some vibrancy.

Otherwise, the Pandigital’s display is unremarkable, accurately reproducing the full range of color in even the most vivid images most of the time. I personally find the PanTouch’s traditional glass over mat look appealing, but it should also be noted that the top glass layer, while providing protection for the display itself, can also pick up distracting glare and make on-screen images difficult to see at times. The brighter the room you’re planning to use the PanTouch in, the more this may be a real concern.

Extra Features

The PanTouch has a couple of automatic shutoff options, including the ability to turn the frame on and off automatically at specified times that’s perfect for business uses, as well as a more conventional “sleep timer” that lets you set the frame to sleep automatically in a certain number of hours.

As mentioned above, there’s also a wireless networking option with the PanTouch. To get connected this way, you’ll need to purchase Pandigital’s Wi-Fi adapter, which plugs into the USB host port on the frame. Cost? Currently about $30.

Pros

• Decent internal memory
• Smooth video, audio playback
• Display features color controls

Cons

• Touch interface a bit silly
• Additional frame styles not available

Bottom Line

Ok, so Pandigital’s touch interface is a little bit of a gimmick. But if you can look beyond that, the 8″ PanTouch is a pleasant surprise insofar as it does practically everything else reasonably well. Menus could still be clearer and more logically organized, slideshow options are a bit scarce, and speaker positioning isn’t ideal. But an 8” multimedia frame with a nice display and decent memory capacity for less than $150 doesn’t look like a bad deal to begin with. Factor in the PanTouch’s flexibility in handling file and memory types, its color/contrast controls, and its clean, classy appearance and this model definitely seems to be worthy of serious consideration – touch interface or not.

4 out of 5 stars