YES Visualax Digital Photo Frame

As DPFs (Digital Photo Frames) go, the YES Visualax is not one that stands out too much when it comes to the looks or regular specs. I’m not talking about performance mind you. But in the lower end segment YES probably stands a better chance than some of the others. Let me tell you why.

Form Factor
The Visualax has a 7-inch TFT display with a black plastic frame. The frame is interchangeable and YES has included a white frame as part of the packaging. A small IR sensor is located in the front for the remote.

At the back of the device is where you’ll usually find all the on-board function keys. At the top is a line of all the relevant buttons for Power, Mode, Play/Pause, navigation etc. A large Snooze button is also located here for the alarm clock. A set of built-in Stereo speakers are placed on either side of the pop out stand that can be adjusted for height so the DPF can be placed in both landscape and Portrait positions.

On one side is a USB port for memory sticks. An MMC/XD/SD card slot is located rather inconveniently at the bottom near the DC adapter port and earphone socket even though there’s clearly a slot space for the same right on the side near the USB. The 3.5mm earphone socket, is obviously also an issue with regards to placement, but if it’s being used as an Audio Out then, and only then does it have a certain merit. __STARTQUOTE__The oddest thing is that the device has no slots for any other type of card although one can very clearly see un-opened slots for a CF card as well__ENDQUOTE__.

What the Visualax looks like is simply a variant of a DPF mold that was created as a benchmark for the lower end devices of this sort. Presumably a slightly higher ended model will look identical only with more slots for various cards. All in all, even though I’m not happy with the placement of the memory card slot the Visualax is a simple and neat looking DPF.

Features and Performance
User Interface
The interface is identical to the Wespro DPFs. It’s simple and not very hard to navigate. The icons and sub-menus are easy to maneuver through especially when you can sit back and use the full function remote control. You can also switch between 16:9 and a 4:3 display ratio. I don’t recommend the latter as it tends to look a little squashed.

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Since these displays are not equipped with an accelerometer for auto screen rotation, the orientation of the menu does not change if you’re using the frame in portrait mode. This could make navigation a bit of a pain. You can rotate the images with settings from the remote, thus eliminating the need to actually touch the frame (except to change the stand for placement). The 16MB of internal memory is a bit of a bonus for storing a few images on-board so you won’t need to keep inserting cards and or pen drives.

Images
Getting the obvious out of the way, the Visualax supports JPEGS, and the image quality reproduced on this DPF is quite good. The colors could have been a little more vibrant though but they are nevertheless decently sharp. You have the option of viewing the thumbnails and then starting a slideshow as well.

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Audio
The music player interface is simple with the screen divided into essentially three parts - A folder selection screen, a visualization screen below that and the music files occupying. The audio quality is really good. Even at peak volume, the sound via earphones has a very negligible amount of distortion. __STARTQUOTE__The built in speakers are another story though. There’s virtually no bass and it sounds something like you’d hear in a rickshaw only at a much lower decibel level__ENDQUOTE__. The speakers are more for ambient sounds while viewing your pictures in a slideshow, for which there’s a separate option on the main menu.

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Video**
Video playback is better than most of the other low end DPFs I’ve tested so far. The playback was smooth and the visuals look clear enough to comfortably watch. Just don’t try watching it from too far a distance. The screen isn’t that large, nor is the resolution too high. It reads MPEG4 files and .AVI files with MPEG4 compression. Files it doesn’t read won’t show up in the menu system.

Misc. Features
Other features included are the more basic ones which you’ll find in all others viz. a clock, Alarm and Calendar. Another feature is the Copy/Delete function that will allow you to transfer filers from an external device like a card or pen drive to the 16MB internal memory without having to use the PC. You can also delete files in the same way by accessing the directory and deleting them from the device. For some reason though, it didn’t seem to work. The interface was easy enough to follow but images I chose to save didn’t get saved anywhere, nor did I receive any error message. And without a USB cable included for PC transfer, having internal memory and not being able to use it properly is a bad thing.

The Favorites section only showed me three images that were preloaded onto the devices memory and nothing else. There didn’t seem to be any option to add any more. You could also sort the images out in any order via this same menu.

Not having a battery option is still one of my biggest issues with the DPF industry. You’ll still have to find a spot in your home that’s near a wall socket and have a wire stretching across the way in order to power the unit.

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The Bottom Line**
The YES Visualax is priced at Rs. 5,999 (MRP) and 4,999 (Street), which is not too high but it could have been lower considering it has just a slot for SD and XD cards and not CF. The internal memory could be something to consider as not many DPFs come with that feature but 16MB is not really something grand. With a broader perspective in mind, the YES Visualax is nothing to write home about, but it would have been if the price was better.