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Kodak EasyShare M820 Digital Frame review

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The good: Affordable; touch-panel navigation; choice of customizable borders (red, silver are included); respectable image quality; support for video and MP3 playback; accepts virtually all memory card types, as well as USB storage devices.

The bad: Frame is plastic; no remote included; middling performance.

The bottom line: Kodak 8-inch EasyShare M820 represents a good balance between affordability, features, and decent image quality in an amply sized photo frame.

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Kodak offers a number of digital photo frames, including models that feature built-in wireless connectivity and even cutting-edge OLED display technology. However, its 8-inch EasyShare M820, available for less than $100, is an attractive option for consumers hoping to balance affordability with some advanced features in a reasonably sized frame.

Some digital photo frames have real wood or metal finishes, but this is strictly a plastic affair. With its simple, slim black border, the frame looks elegant enough from afar and comes with two stick-on decorative mattes (one is red, the other silver) that allow you to customize the frame's look. The kickstand on the back swivels, giving you the option of locking the frame into horizontal or vertical orientation. On the back of the frame there are keyhole slots for mounting the frame to a wall with screws, along with a threaded tripod mount if you want to prop it up with a tripod.

In terms of features, the M820 is a step up from the basic package found in the entry-level P820 and P720--but you don't get the wireless connectivity found in Kodak's W-series photo frames, which include the W820 and W1020. The main upgrade here over the P series is support for video and MP3 playback (you can play music in the background of slideshows) and some built-in memory. There are two small speakers built into the back of the frame.

The M820 comes with 128MB of internal memory. That 128MB allows you to store about 1,000 images resized to the frame's 800x480 resolution; the images will automatically resize when you copy them to the frame if you select that option from the settings menu. But if you want to show off more photos, the frame accepts all memory cards, including CompactFlash, MemoryStick, SD/SDHC, and xD-Picture cards. There's also a full-size USB connector for plugging in thumbdrives or your camera and a mini USB to connect to a computer for drag-and-drop uploading.

This frame, like several other new frames, uses a Touch Border interface; you touch the bezel to access menus and settings. With this frame, the various touch points along the bottom and right side of the frame light up when you touch the bezel. You have to touch the border next to the icons that appear on the screen. For those used to dealing with a touch-screen display, this won't seem intuitive initially, but once you get used to it, the system works pretty well. We've seen some comments about the Touch Border not being senior-friendly, but anybody who reads the instructions should be able to get the hang of it fairly quickly. It is worth noting that compared to the basic P-series frame this model is more complicated to use simply because it has more features--and therefore more settings.

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Hunkered down in New York City, Executive Editor David Carnoy covers the gamut of gadgets and writes his Fully Equipped column, which carries the tag line "The electronics you lust for." He's also the author of "Knife Music," a novel that's available at Amazon, bn.com, and as a Kindle, iBooks, or Nook e-book. Full Bio

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