Pandigital Pan Touch PAN8002W02T 8-Inch Digital Picture Frame (Black) by Lamorinda Distributing
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Digital camera reviews of Pandigital Pan Touch PAN8002W02T 8-Inch Digital Picture Frame (Black)
Digital camera Review: Overall, very pleased
Summary: 5 Stars
I just bought this digital frame as a Christmas present for my in-laws and so far I am very pleased with it. When looking for frames, I really wanted one that could easily be connected to my PC and upload the pictures that way. This frame made that very easy. The USB cable they provide for you was easily recognized by my computer and from there it was a breeze to upload. My one complaint with this frame is that even though I have set the slideshow mode to "shuffle", is not displaying the pictures randomly, only in the order that I uploaded them. I am still trying to work that out. Overall though, great picture quality and easy to use.Digital camera Review: Pandigital 8.0 Inch LCD Digital Photo Frame with PanTouch
Summary: 4 Stars
Excellent Photo frame. Would definitely rec to others. Easy to use and easy to transfer pictures on to and off of!!Digital camera Review: Pandigital Pan Touch PAN8002W02T
Summary: 5 Stars
I received this digital frame as a gift, and I love it! The picture is crisp and beautiful, and the user interface is pretty easy to figure out. The touch screen is basically a strip at the top and right of the display that responds to touch, and is just average as far as responsiveness goes. I have no reason to use it to play music or movies, so I've never tried this feature, and I don't care if my photos are in order. I just enjoy having the gorgeous, bright screen to look at. The one flaw is the stand. It is too flimsy and lets the frame lean back a little too far. I have had this frame for over a year with NO problems whatsoever, and it runs for hours every day. Buy with no worries! If you choose not to go with this one, be sure to look for a high resolution. This one is 800x600 and I wouldn't go much less on a frame this size.Digital camera Review: Pandigital is slowly starting to learn
Summary: 3 Stars
Note: this review is for the newer, 8" Pandigital frame, with Pantouch techology.
Pandigital has left a bad taste in my mouth over the past few years. I bought a first generation frame from them about 2 years ago, just as these "photo" frames were starting to become mainstream. I particularly like the pandigital models because the frames have glass covers, making them look a lot more like a "real" picture frame, as opposed to some of the uglier models out there.
Anyway, 2 years ago, I had nothing but problems with the pandigital frames. My computer would not recognize the frame when I synced it via usb. This was quite a common problem for many users if you check past reviews. Pandigital did nothing to resolve the issue other than tell people to exchange the frame. Well, unfortunately the frame was never actually defective - it just had poorly coded software that was inherently incompatible with specific builds of Windows XP. On top of that, no matter how much memory you loaded up in the frame, it would only recognize 2000 pictures; however, it took me a few hours of experimentation before I figured out that was the problem, given NOWHERE in the documentation was there a point about a limitation on the "number" of photos you could use. Anyway.. I digress..
So just the other day, I saw that Pandigital has a new model frame, the Pantouch. It looked almost identical to their last generation of models, which was fine with me. Also, I saw on the box that it could hold up to 6,400 photos. I saw that clearly they had fixed that previous 2000-photo limit, so I decided with much hesitation to purchase this new model.
On the plus side, the frame synched up with my PC just fine, and sure enough I was able to load up my 3,000 pictures onto the frame just fine. But then that's when the problems begun. The frame would start to lock up in mid slide-show. I started taking off photos and found that to keep the frame from locking up, I could only have around 1,000 pictures. I even tried to downsize the file size of the pictures, so that my 3,000 pictures only took up 400MB of space, and put them directly ON the memory of the device (which has 512MB). Still, the stupid thing wouldn't run the slideshow without locking up.
After about 5 hours of trying different types of memory cards, quantities of pictures, and changing file types, I found out the problem: You cannot run a slideshow on more than 1,000 photos in RANDOM-MODE. Yes, if you are having problems with the slideshow locking up, it's because you need to switch OFF the random mode. Apparently the frame has a very slow processor and when it tries to search all of the internal memory for a "random" photo, the process takes too long and the frame just locks up. For some reason I haven't been able to figure out this issue has never been explored... I guess maybe no one has more than 3,000 photos?
Anyway, after fixing that issue, my frame is fully operational. The actual user interface is pretty good compared to other frames. The "pantouch" technology is a complete gimmick. It works, but I found myself just using the remote and on-device buttons to navigate. Also, I really want to know what type of genius product manager decided it would be "appleish" and "trendy" to use a touch-interface on a glass picture frame! It's one thing to have a touch-screen phone, because finger prints aren't much of an issue, but common, who wants finger prints on their glass picture frame?
So in conclusion, I give this frame 3 stars. It loses 1 star because of the shoddy memory and hardware, and the fact that the frame gets cranky once you have over 1,000 photos on it. It loses another star for Pandigital's abysmal customer service, because if this thing dies on you, you won't get getting much help from them!
Digital camera Review: Perfect except for stand
Summary: 4 Stars
Picture quality was perfect and it was very easy to use. We had very high resolution professional photos from a wedding and they look great. One small problem: Because of the angle of the stand, you have to put it on a fairly low surface, like a coffee table, or you could put it on the wall and you would have no problem (or, like me, you can prop it up on a couple of books). Excellent value for money. BTW, you do NOT have to touch the actual screen to work the buttons, you only have to touch the white frame around the picture, so there is no problem with grubby finger marks on the actual picture. Shuts off automatically at night and it comes with its own remote control.