Why You Can Trust CNET AGFAPHOTO AF5080M review: AGFAPHOTO AF5080M
The AGFAPHOTO AF5080M digital photo frame offers pleasing image quality but its average performance and feature set fail to let it stand out from the crowd.
Design
The AGFAPHOTO AF5080M is an 8-inch digital photo frame with a simple look, forgoing the perspex border of other models. It offers interchangeable faceplates so you can swap and change to match your decor or your mood. The unit comes with three frames -- brushed aluminium, glossy black plastic and a wood effect frame that we favoured most out of the group for its understated, classy look.
AGFAPHOTO AF5080M
The Good
The Bad
The Bottom Line
One quirk we noticed with the frames is that the aluminium faceplate has a clear "spot" marked on it which matches up with the infrared sensor to allow navigation via the remote control. While this appears to be necessary, the other faceplates are blemish-free so we put it down to the darker colours or perhaps metallic material used in the plate. We feel it ruins the look of the unit so we stuck to using the two other options.
Features
The AGFAPHOTO AF5080M has a resolution of 800 x 600 pixels and supports JPEG images which it displays in 4:3 format. You can view photos by clicking through them manually or using the slide show display mode.
Besides showcasing your digital photos, the frame can also play audio and video, supporting MP3 and WMA music files and four video file types -- AVI, MPEG-1, MPEG-2 and MPEG-4.
There are also a few token image-editing tools built into the interface but we didn't find them useful and would rather use even the most basic photo-editing software.
Media can be viewed direct from a memory card using the 5-in-1 memory card reader, or transferred from your computer via the two USB ports. The frame offers 128MB of internal storage, which isn't a huge amount, especially when storing audio and video files as well as images.
Besides its multimedia functions, the AF5080M also includes an alarm, clock, and calendar which beef up the feature set a little but aren't anything to boast about.
The AF5080M includes a fiddly, unbranded remote control that we found unnecessary for the most part due to the small size of the frame.
Performance
Loading images onto the AGFAPHOTO AF5080M is an easy task, and an enjoyable one thanks to the impressive screen quality. The photos we displayed were crisp and bright though colours were a little oversaturated making skin tones redder than the originals.
We also found the progression of images acceptable though larger files slowed down the unit and slide show transitions were occasionally staggered.
Overall, the quality of the LCD display and multimedia features impressed us but its average performance let it down and there are no unique features to help it stand out from the crowd. If all you care about is how your photos look and you're willing to put up with occasional frustrations during use, the AGFAPHOTO could be a viable option.