Why You Can Trust CNET Kaiser Baas 1.5-inch Digital Key Ring Frame review: Kaiser Baas 1.5-inch Digital Key Ring Frame
In the age of convergence, this Kaiser Baas frame on a key-ring is an inexpensive novelty whose lack of features make it unnecessary despite good image quality.
Design
Available in a trio of colour choices -- black, white or pink -- the tiny Kaiser Baas digital photo frame measures 60mm by 10mm by 40mm and weighs an extremely light 1.5 grams. If you can't guess from the name, this device comes with a key ring and is intended to be attached to your keys and carried around everywhere.
Kaiser Baas 1.5-inch Digital Key Ring Frame
The Good
The Bad
The Bottom Line
The 1.5-inch LCD display takes up most of the real estate on the front of the frame, with no buttons to speak of -- just a loop protruding from the top (to attach the key ring) and the company name emblazoned along the bottom.
There is a USB port of the left-hand side and "up", menu" and "down" buttons. A tiny reset button sits above the "up" button, accessible by sticking a pin in the tiny hole.
The plastic casing feels quite sturdy for such a lightweight unit, but we wouldn't suggest throwing it around too much. Having it attached to a key ring also opens it up for scratching the screen when it comes into contact with your keys.
Features
The Kaiser Baas digital photo frame has a non-expandable 8MB capacity -- a tiny amount even for a small device. It supports JPEG and BMP image files only, and cannot be used as an external storage device as you must install the included software before transferring files.
Kaiser Baas claim the device can hold over 70 images but unless you resize them dramatically (using an image editor, this isn't possible using Kaiser Baas software) the actual number of photos will be considerably less. As far as viewing functionality, you can adjust the contrast and use 14 different transitions to switch between photos in your slide show.
Non-image related functions include a clock and schedule function, features which are already available on even the lowest-end mobile phone.
Mac users also miss out -- the Kaiser Baas digital photo frame is compatible with Windows only -- 2000, XP and Vista, but restricted to Windows users nonetheless.
The capabilities of the Kaiser Baas key ring frame are acceptable given its size, but not outstanding given the number of devices which can do as much or more than this standalone device.
Performance
The Kaiser Baas menu system is a little more complicated than we deem necessary, taking away from the concept of a simple, easy-to-use device. However, once you get used to cycling through the menus, it's not difficult to navigate, albeit slightly annoying.
Files are transferred to the frame from your computer via USB 2.0, though as mentioned earlier, you have to install the software first.
We had no trouble with file transfers though wireless functionality would be a lot more convenient and allow compatibility with other wireless devices such as mobile phones and digital cameras which would eliminate the extra step of first transferring images to your PC.
Unless you're particularly keen on a digital photo frame key ring, we think most people will be happy to display photos on their mobile phone or iPod rather than adding another item to their slew of portable tech devices.