Review: Toshiba Tekbright PA3637K digital photo frame

Toshiba's Tekbright digital picture frame (full name PA3637K) offers the best picture quality we've seen from any frame we've looked at recently.

Although its resolution is just 720 x 480 pixels (0.3 megapixels), similar to that of larger screens, the fact that those are stretched over 7in rather than 10in makes an enormous difference.

Images appeared extremely sharp both close in and further away, and brightness and contrast levels were very good.

The 64MB of internal memory is enough to store several pictures, particularly if you first take the time to shrink them down to the frame's resolution, or can be used to store a few pieces of MP3 music to accompany your slideshows.

The frame's built in speaker is fairly good, if a little on the tinny side, and capable of reasonable volume.

There's no remote control; instead it uses touch-sensitive controls beneath the screen that light up in blue when in use (they fade away again once the slide show is in motion). They're easy to use, but were often slightly slow to respond.

The menu system is clear and easy to navigate, however, and the frame can accept most kinds of memory card. It also has a USB connection for connecting to a PC.

A stand is supplied in the box, but the frame is small and light enough that it can be wall-mounted using the single fitting hole provided on the rear of the device.

While it might be tempting to go for a frame with a larger screen (the enormous bezel on this one does feel a bit like wasted space) we'd argue that the excellent screen on the PA3637K makes viewing pictures more of a pleasure than it would be on a larger, worse quality device.