Labs

Though its size of 10 inches is matched by the Kodak frame, the 10FF2M4's price of £174 towers over all its rivals. Even as the largest model in Philips' range, it would have to do something pretty impressive to justify that cost. Unfortunately, it doesn't do quite enough.

In keeping with the premium price, this is the best specified of the Philips frames. Cosmetics first: four interchangeable fascias - black, white, red and silver - drew admiring glances

ADVERTISEMENT

from around the Buyer office and should ensure the frame will fit in with your home.

Under the hood, there's a useful 128MB of internal memory, enough to store plenty of pictures at the frame's resolution of 720x480 pixels, and the built-in memory card reader makes it easy to add pictures from your camera. MP4 movies are supported as well as JPEG photos.

There are also plenty of slideshow transitions on offer. That should have been a bonus, but we found the more complex effects were poorly executed, and there's nothing relaxing about watching a slow and jerky procession of images.

Despite the slightly low resolution, picture quality was good, if a little dim. Edges and colours were sharp and rich, although other frames in the group could claim to reproduce colours with more clarity. Still, this is undoubtedly one of the better panels on test.

Despite a fair few positives, like the decent screen and range of features, we just wouldn't pay quite this much for a 10 inch frame. If the price comes down, it'll be worth considering.