Coby 1.5-Inch Digital TFT LCD Photo Keychain DP151WHT (White)
by Coby
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List Price: Our Price: $7.79 You Save: $22.16 (74%) Availability: Usually ships in 2-3 business days Buy Used: from $3.99 (click here) Category: Digital Camera See more product details |
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for British Pounds
Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Coby 1.5-Inch Digital TFT LCD Photo Keychain DP151WHT (White)
Customer Review: Destination - Landfill. An Epic Fail by Coby
Summary: 1 Stars
I received this from a gift exchange game at work and was quite happy at first - a digital photo frame is not something I would buy for myself - but my joy quickly faded when I tried to use my new gift.
I plugged this product in expecting it to work like a standard USB drive with a photo-viewing display. My expectation was a device that I could just plug in anywhere, drag and drop photo files to it, and go - just like any other sane USB storage device product.
That is not the way this product is intended to work. Installation of COBY's proprietary Photo Viewer Software seems to be REQUIRED in order for this product to work as intended.
The installation of the Photo Viewer Software was not user-friendly. When you insert the disk, you do not get the nice Autorun feature that any other civilized Windows program provides. Instead you get a Readme.txt file that has you drilling down into subfolders on the CD in order to find the correct installer based on your OS. After that, installation went smoothly except for extraneous steps that served no purpose except to make me click "Next" an additional time. It's just one extra mouse click but it is still evidence of a lack of attention to detail by the developers.
When you finally do get around to plugging the device in, in order for the program to recognize it you need to monkey with a menu screen on the device itself to choose between charging the battery and "updating" the device. I'm suspicious that charging and updating cannot be done simultaneously as a reasonable person would expect.
When I started the program, the first thing I encountered was a warning message box stating "Upload Completely!", yet more evidence of lack of attention to detail by the developers. The program itself looks like it was written for Windows 3.0. The toolbar icons in the program somehow manage to be blurry and aliased both at the same time; I have no idea how even the most novice graphical artist manages that anti-feat. The two-step shuffle required to select photos from the disk and then upload them to the device feels clunky and unintuitive. Context menus are totally absent.
Once I uploaded some photos to the device, I nearly undid all of my work trying to remove the stock photos that were included with the device - there are two delete toolbar buttons, with different icons, right next to each other. The only thing that saved me was yet another poorly-worded message box asking, "Make sure to clear all images?" Of course, I couldn't answer "Yes" or "No" like a sane person would expect, because the only options presented to me were "Ok" and "Cancel".
After all that, I still did manage to lose my work. The program gave the impression that the photos had been uploaded to the device when they hadn't - perhaps if the "Some images have been edited. Are you sure to exit?" dialog was more clear about which changes were unsaved (I assumed it was the cropping work I had done on the "local" side of the app), this could have been avoided. It turns out that there is a final "Download Images" button that needs to be clicked to finish the process, which rewards you with another poorly-worded message box stating "Download Completely!"
I usually hate and avoid products that require me to install their proprietary crapware (beyond basic drivers) in order to use them, and this product demonstrates exactly why I harbor that hatred.
If only the device behaved like a standard USB storage device, I could ditch the unforgivable software and keep the picture frame. Unfortunately, since the software and picture frame are symbiotically tied together, both will likely lie in a landfill (or end up recycled) in a few days.
Customer Review: Flimsy chain, but great little device if the price is right
Summary: 5 Stars
Only negative comment is the flimsy chain part of the keychain, especially the loop that goes into the recessed slot in the device. But the loop, and, in fact, the chain part can likely be replaced. The device has a 1.5" CSTN LCD Color Screen and sports 16 MB of Flash Memory that will store up to 62 photos. Photo files of the JPEG, GIF, and BMP variety can be displayed. It can be synced up to PC's (98SE, 2000,XP, or VISTA) and OsX Macs.
On all other counts, the device is what it is. At a time when there is generalized China-bashing, I can only applaud all other aspects of this pocket-sized slide-show device. The Coby DP-151 is superior to other similar products like the one at RS that sells for almost twice what I paid via Amaazon's vendor. Tigersoft was not at all helpful to me when I attempted to shop with them for this device. It is not a toy for the kids and will not tolerate much pounding with a hammer and forceful drops onto a tiled floor. The software that comes bundled with the device is exactly the same as what is sold with the more expensive RS device, although the RS device has a very impressive "keyholder" component.
I do not know about battery life, as the onboard Lithium-polymer rechargeable gets it's juice via USB. I suspect that the battery may have a tendency to discharge when unused for days or weeks, but it quickly recharges. The screen is amazingly bright and clear, and the slide-show function is seamless. In my hands, the software appears to also be seamless and very efficient in the way it autosizes the files that are pulled into the software while the DP-151 is docked via USB. The software also has a workable CROP function. Detailed graphics look crisp and sharp, but remember that a small device such as this one may require the use of your glasses.
If one ignores the flimsy double-loop that attaches the chain to the device, the DP-151 could qualify as the most worthwhile 2007 gift article for under $20 (if you are able to purchase it for that).
Customer Review: Excellent quality
Summary: 4 Stars
Pros: Fantastic quality...almost as good as a camera LCD. The LCD screen is large enough to actually see the pictures clearly. The price..20 bucks is great! Heavy duty clasp on the chain makes me feel safe that I won't lose it.
Cons: A little thick at .5", screen scratches quite easily(kind of expected though)the manual is awful and you cannot rotate a picture in the software without cropping (not a big deal either, just rotate in a different program)
First of all, let me give the dimensions of this little bugger. I was skeptical of buying at first because I couldn't find accurate dimensions, but when I got the device I was pleasantly surprised. It is approximately 2" wide, 1.5" tall and .5" deep. A little thick compared to other models but it makes up for it in quality.
The quality of the photos are first-rate for such a small screen...I was thoroughly impressed. They are comparable to a digital camera LCD (this device is actually better than my mom's camera LCD!)
One downfall, the manual is awful- I didn't even bother reading it. Just plug it in and use your instincts with the software. I was a little confused at first because all of my pictures were cropped to fit the screen...I soon found out that I needed to check the box that says "whole image". Then I could see and add the entire image.
Surprisingly, when you crop the photos using the software provided they turn out as clear on the display as the original image. This impressed me as the other photo keychain I have loses quality drastically when the image is cropped.
***One tip..if you want your photos rotated and not cropped, use a different program first. That is one downfall of the software. In order to rotate a picture you must also crop it. Not a big deal though, just use different software to rotate first.
I would recommend this device to anyone. Makes an excellent gift for grandparents!
Customer Review: Bought Several - Several Failed
Summary: 1 Stars
I bought my first Coby keychain in Oct. of 2007 to load with pictures of our new granddaughter so that I could show them to other family members I was going to visit in another state. After looking at what was in the keychain, I flew to AZ and showed the pics to our daughter & her family. The next day, she wanted to see the pics again. This time, the unit would not turn on. Later it came on with a blue screen.
Upon returning to WA I reloaded the keychain, charged the battery for 24 hours (the charging indicator just flashes and didn't show the amount of charge). After that, the unit worked once, then the blue screen. Another time it blew out all the pics I'd entered, but left the two it came with intact. Another time it had many of my pics with tears and missing pixels in the display.
Thinking I had a one-in-a-million defect, I returned the unit and took a refund - the store had no more in stock. But I liked the idea so I ordered 6 more for gifts for family members.
Now, four months later, one failed almost immediately and was returned for refund. Two more failed within a month but were not returned to me so I don't know what garbage can they ended up in. Of the other three gifts, when I ask about them I get responses like, "Gee, Dad, I haven't had time to load mine up yet." Kids!
In summary, out of seven units I bought, four failed within the first month and I don't know what has happened to the other three.
One final word, the software that came with it was slow and clumsy to use. It wouldn't even run on one Windows XP machine, even though it ran on my machine which uses the same version of Windows.Coby 1.5-Inch Digital Photo Keychain (White)
Customer Review: Worked fine with Mac OSX Tiger
Summary: 4 Stars
I was a little leery about this product. Other reviews seemed to suggest that the keychain's software would not operate properly when used with Mac OSX despite its packaging's claim that it should. I gave the keychain a shot anyway, because we do have a Windows machine in the house, though it's not our primary computer. I figured that if all else failed, I could always E-mail myself the pictures I wanted and use the Windows computer if I absolutely had to.
Well, I didn't have to. The keychain arrived and I installed the software on my Mac Mini without any trouble. The Mini runs Tiger (10.4), and I noticed the software claims to be compatible with Panther (10.3). I'm wondering now if those that had trouble are trying to run it on Leopard (10.5), which is not 100% backwards compatible.
At any rate, the keychain software was fairly instinctive. The only confusing bit for me occurred after I had selected my photos and uploaded them to the keychain. It seemed to do something, and then everything just...stopped. According to the manual, once you've uploaded the pictures you should close down the photo editor and disconnect the keychain, which worked just fine. However, nothing in the software indicated that this was the next step, so if I hadn't had the manual handy I probably would have assumed something had gone wrong.
My little pictures are displaying pretty well on the keychain screen. I'm not finding that the chain or clasp are inferior in quality; they're nothing impressive, but I think they're pretty standard as keychains go. The image quality isn't fantastic, but I think it's decent under the circumstances.
I purchased the item for $14.99. I think I got a pretty good deal.