Amex Digital recently announced the release of SP-7, its 7-inch digital photo frame which includes an integrated photo printer. At a list price of $199 the SP-7 will let you view photos, watch movies with sound, and print out 4” x 6” photographs. With speakers built into the frame, you can also play MP3 audio files to while your photos are displayed in slide show mode. The SP-7 rounds out its usefulness by including a USB port for file sharing with your computer or compatible digital camera, and a remote control for set up and program adjustments.
The digital photo frame and printer are offered in a wooden acrylic design, recently made available to the public by Amex Digital is one of several similar products on the market. The SP-7 offers a combination frame/photo printer that is slightly slimmer in design, allowing it to more closely resemble a regular digital photo frame than other brands on the market. The Digital Photo Printer, marketed by Keinan Japan, for example, resembles a square box, which takes up a large footprint of space on your desk or shelf. Hewlett Packard’s (HP) photo frame printer resembles a mini photo kiosk that does little to represent itself as a picture frame.
The SP-7 specifications include an LCD screen with an 800×480 resolution and a 16:9 aspect ratio, the ability to play back AVI, MPEG1, MPEG2, MPEG4 movies, and MP3 audio files; a built-in card reader and internal memory of 128MB is also onboard. While there is growing competition in the market place for photo frame printers, it may be Amex Digital’s price that will catch the consumer’s attention when looking for a wallet-friendly piece of equipment. The SP-7 is listed for $199 – no other photo frame printer currently sells for less than $250. Smartparts, Prinics, and HP’s digital photo frames and printers are priced from $250 up to $300.
The consumer will need to decide if the SP-7 will meet their needs with the choice of one print size (4” x 6”), or if, for example, Prinics higher sales price is worth the added choice of print sizes (5”x7”, 5”x4”, 3.5”x4”, and 3” x 4” images). HP’s model gives you the option of 2 print sizes (4”x6” and 5”x7”). Smartparts’ print size is similar to that of the SP-7.
TFOT has previously covered stories on wireless picture frames, including the world’s first wireless frame. Other related stories include 3-D printing on demand, and FujiFilm’s 3-D digital photo frames.
For more information on the Amex SP-7 you may visit the company’s website.
