Toshiba's 8-inch digital phone frame, the Toshiba Gigaframe Q81, has a sleek look to it, which would instantly draw you in. But does the Toshiba Gigaframe Q81 have the features to make you want to buy it?
Initially in our tests the Toshiba Gigaframe Q81 was easy to set-up as all you had to do was plug it in, and flick a switch at the back, but then it came to putting the stand on it. The stand is bulky and not particularly attractive, it also awkward and confusing to assemble. As it is bulky we expected the Toshiba Gigaframe Q81 to be sturdy, but it seems the opposite, and looked as if it may fall at any given moment.
Input buttons are on the bottom of the Toshiba Gigaframe Q81 frame, which makes them tricky to use, however, they are still useable. The buttons light up at first, making them easy to see as they are black buttons on a black frame, but they then do not light up anymore, which means you cannot see which button is which, although you can't tell anyway due to them having no icons.
The main menu is very simple to use, as there are only four icons, and it is easy to understand which one is which. Although it was difficult to figure out which button to use to select what you wanted.
Picture quality is probably the Toshiba Gigaframe Q81's best feature. Images look crystal clear, and they looked very high quality, which is down to the 4:3 ratio display. The tilt sensor also worked well, so no on-their-side pictures. The resolution that is 800-by-600 is fairly good in comparison with other digital frames, although you would get a higher resolution if you went for a larger frame.
When you import a high megapixel image, it does make a difference as it looks better due to it being even less pixelated. The image size does not slow down the transition between images; it stays at the same speed it was with smaller images. The colour that is seen in the images is correct, and the frame does not change any of the colours. When an image is a different size to the Toshiba Gigaframe Q81 frame, it doesn't cut anything off, instead it creates a black border around the picture.
Music sounds good, and is certainly loud enough. The speed of the Toshiba Gigaframe Q81 is reasonable, but could be slightly quicker, as it seems to be quite slow when doing certain tasks.
There is no built-in Wi-Fi so you cannot get pictures from websites such as Facebook, and people cannot send you pictures either. Pictures can only be imported from either a memory card (does not support USB sticks) or a computer, but the Toshiba Gigaframe Q81 is only compatible with a Windows computer, so Mac users will have to go with the former options.
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