Tuesday July 21, 2009
Reaching for the Skyla
By TAN KIT HOONG
SIMPLE: The Skyla Memoir FS-80 has a black, minimalist look that hides a host of functions. The Skyla Memoir FS80 proves that a built-in scanner is what all digital photo frames need.
JUDGING from the number of digital photo frames on the market you’d think that sales of these gadgets has got to be booming.
However, I don’t personally know anybody who actually owns one.
Be that as it may, the Skyla digital photo frame has an interesting feature that makes it stand out from other me-too digital photo frames — it has a scanner built right into it.
While this sounds a little strange, but it actually makes sense.
The idea is that instead of using a PC to scan and transfer your photos to the Skyla, you just scan them directly into the device via the built-in scanner, no PC necessary.
Up and running
Take it out of the box and the Skyla is practically ready to go as soon as you plug in the power adaptor — turn on the device and you’re essentially up and running.
Tucked inside the box is a USB cable and more importantly, a remote control that’s just a little narrower than a credit card. For an 8in display photo frame, there’s quite a large bezel on the Skyla — for good reason, as one side of the bezel has the touch controls, while the bottom length of the bezel actually hides the slot-loading 300dpi scanner.
Connect the power supply and turn on the display and you’ll be presented with a pretty high-quality 800 x 600-pixel display — colour accuracy is very good, as is brightness and contrast.
Viewing angles are not bad as well with good side-to-side viewing angles, though the image blacked out a bit from extreme vertical angles.
The Skyla has quite a number of connectivity options — other than the mini-USB connector for your PC, you also get a CF, Memory Stick/SD/MMC and xD card slot, and a regular USB port to plug in flash drives.
The Skyla can read off these connected cards/devices for JPEG photo viewing.
DOUBLE DUTY: Scanning photos into the Skyla is a simple affair, and you don't need a PC to do it. Another way to transfer images, of course, is to connect the Skyla to your PC using the supplied USB cable — interestingly, the internal memory appears as a USB flash drive as well.
However, the JPEG photo format is not the only format supported by Skyla as the digital photo frame also comes with MPEG1, MPEG4 and MotionJPEG video support as well as MP3 audio.
I tested it with some video and music files and it certainly worked with DivX files (which is based on the MPEG4 codec) and MP3 audio.
In fact, you can accompany your photo slideshows with an MP3 that you’ve stored in the Skyla as well.
Audio levels when playing back music or videos isn’t particularly high, and since the speakers are on the back, it would be a bit better if you position the Skyla closer to a wall so the sound will bounce forward.
There are also alarm clock and calendering functions as well, which is quite useful if you have the Skyla on your bedside table.
That’s about it for the digital photo frame features, really.
Scanner
What makes the Skyla stand out from the rest of the digital photo frames has to be its built-in scanner.
The device scans at 300dpi and produces images which are roughly 2 megapixels in size, which is not too bad.
Scanning on the Skyla works completely independent of a PC and all you have to do is slide a switch on the side of the frame to flip down the paper guide, after which the Skyla will automatically switch into scanning mode.
After that, just align your 4 x 6in photo according to the guide and press the Scan button, and the print will feed into the device and come out the back.
Once done the only editing option you have is to rotate the image, after which the device will prompt you to save the image.
Scanning quality is not the best, but more than adequate for the purposes of the digital photo frame.
Of course, you can connect the Skyla to your desktop PC and copy the image to your desktop for use elsewhere or to edit, if you want.
Conclusion
For what it offers, the Skyla is not bad at all.
The screen is certainly very nice and the scanner is actually a useful addition to the device, making it extremely convenient to transfer prints that you have right into the Skyla, without having to connect it to a PC at all.
For a list price of RM899, it is a little pricey (thought not exorbitant) compared to a basic digital photo frame.
Pros: Built-in scanner; good quality display; video and audio playback included.
Cons: A little pricey.
Skyla Memoir FS80
(Skyla.com)
Digital photo frame
Display: 8in, 800 x 600-pixel resolution
Built-in memory: 1GB
Connectivity: USB 2.0, mini-USB 2.0, 5-in-1 card reader
Other features: 300dpi scanner, wireless remote control
Website: www.skyla.com
Price: RM899
Review unit courtesy of Integrity Micro Distributors Sdn Bhd, (03) 2274-6692.
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