Coby DP356BLK 3.5-Inch Digital Photo Frame with Alarm Clock, Black

• 3.5 inch TFT LCD
• Displays JPEG photo files
• Plays MP3 and WMA music files
• Photo slideshow mode
• SD/SDHC card slot , USB port for fast file transfers

As the title says, it's a great alarm clock but it's really not meant for displaying your photos because the screen is too small. This is an Alarm Clock with benefits. It wakes you up in the morning and you can glance over in the evening to see one of your photos and you'll say, "I remember when I took that."

Pros:

3 alarm tones

Displays your photos

Lots of settings

8 minute snooze

Easy to use

Automatically turns on/off

Cons:

To small for displaying your photos to others. (who cares, it's in your bedroom)

Goes into Slideshow when I turn it on. I would rather it be Calendar mode.

Other notes:

Music mode is decent.

Snooze stops working after the second time you press it. May be a good thing or a bad thing.

It forces you to get up or you could fall asleep after second snooze and be late for work.

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I bought this compact Coby picture frame to take advantage of the many digital pics that we take on vacation and at family gatherings. All too often they sit on the PC not doing much of anything. This would give me a nice alternative to the traditional picture frame. Its strength is also its shortcoming. The small footprint on this mini picture frame allows you to place it almost anywhere. But its certainly not the showplace that many larger digital photo frames might be.

To maximize your enjoyment of this little wonder, you'll want to have an SD card on hand. It doesn't need to be huge. In fact, if you've been looking to upgrade the card in the family DSLR, this might be your chance. A simple 1 gig card should me more than abundant for a decent stream of photos.

There are a few other onboard features in this compact picture frame. The calendar mode is effective as a calendar, period. If you squint really hard you'll see there is a thumbnail slideshow, with images smaller than a traditional postage stamp. Not really sure why the folks at Coby even bothered. There is also a passable music player that will allow you to provide an mp3 soundtrack to your slideshow. Its not going to replace your trusty iPod, or even your favorite FM radio. That said, I was able to listen to a ripped CD without any real gripes. Again, a nice compliment to the office workspace, as it will provide you your own personal soundtrack without annoying fellow co-workers.

Gripes are minor. In addition to the peculiar micro slideshow in calendar mode the slot for memory leaves the SD card hanging out and exposed. The base certainly seems deep enough that they could have enveloped the whole card or at least slid it further into the frame housing. A curious choice in my estimation.

I feel this little frame delivered some nice bang for the buck. It capably displays my personal photos and offers some additional features, all at a very reasonable price. Glad I discovered it.

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When I found this while searching for a alarm clock I was really impressed. An attractive looking LCD picture frame with MP3 & alarm clock for less then many regular clocks, what a deal! When I opened it I was much less impressed. First off, even though I used a ruler to try to visualize the size of a 3.5" screen, once I opened the package and placed it on my nightstand it just looks tiny. Then I tried to use and within 10 minutes I decided to return it. As a picture frame that you would put on your desk at work, maybe it is not too bad. Even though the screen is small, in just picture mode it is not terrible. The screen is clear & bright, and the resolution is pretty good for what it is.

But as an alarm clock it is terrible. You have 3 mode to display the time: a rendering of an analog clock (that only uses 1/2 of the screen so it is microscopic), a full month calendar mode, and a clock/date readout with a thumbnail photo. To look at the pictures shown in the Amazon description they all look pretty good (magnified on my 22" computer monitor). But in reality, on such a small screen you need magnifying glasses to read the time in any mode. Then I tried to set the alarm. You have to go through 2 sub-menus and scroll down through 10 different options to set it. And pushing the completely non-intuitive buttons requires quite a bit of force and they make a rather loud (low quality) clicking sound that will wake the kids in the next room. For instance, if you want to change the time from 6:30 to 7:15 literally takes a few a minutes because you have to hit the buttons like 30 times to get into the menu and scroll down to where you set it, then once for the hour and 45 times to change the minutes (holding the button down does not let you scroll through the numbers). In addition, it also displays the indoor temperature and even though I let it sit on the nightstand for several hours it always read 10 degrees higher then the actual temperature.

To sum it up:

As a cheap digital frame; Good

As a alarm clock; Bad

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Pros: It does what it says. The display is nice and crisp.

Cons: Choosing different options in different modes in awkward. When it starts it always goes to the menu rather than clock or photo view. You can't pause the photo slide show and keep listening to music.

I gave this as a gift to my mom who is always wanting prints made from her digital photos. She loves this frame because now she can look at the photos any time she wants! And she loves that it plays music too!