Visual aid

As digital photo frames go, the YES Visualax isn’t one to stand out in terms of looks or regular specifications. Question is, is it run of the mill in terms of performance though? Shayne Rana tells more.

As digital photo frames go, the YES Visualax isn't one to stand out in terms of looks or regular specifications. Question is, is it run of the mill in terms of performance though?

Form
The Visualax has a 7" TFT display with a black plastic frame. A small IR sensor is located in the front while the back has all the on-board function keys. The Power, Mode, Play/Pause, navigation buttons are located on the top. There's also a set of built-in stereo speakers.

There's a USB port for memory sticks. An MMC/XD/SD card slot is located inconveniently at the bottom near the DC adapter port. The oddest thing is that the device has no slots for any other type of card although one can clearly see un-opened slots for a CF card as well.

Features
Regular features like clock, alarm and calendar are included. The Copy/Delete function lets you to transfer files from a card or pen drive to the internal memory without having to use the PC. For some reason though, it didn't seem to work. And without a USB cable included for PC transfer, having internal memory and not being able to use it properly is bad.
I wonder why DPFs don't come with batteries.

User interface
The interface is identical to the Wespro DPFs. It's simple and the icons and sub-menus are easy to manoeuvre with the full function remote control. You can also switch between 16:9 and a 4:3 display ratio.
You can rotate the images with settings from the remote. The 16 MB of internal memory is good for storing a few images on-board so you won't have to always insert a pen drive.

Video
The video playback is better than most other low end DPFs. The playback is smooth and the visuals look clear. But don't watch it from too far a distance as the resolution isn't too high. It reads MPEG4 files and .AVI files with MPEG4 compression. Files it doesn't read won't show up in the menu.

Audio
The music player interface is simple. The audio quality is really good. Even at peak volume, the sound via earphones has a very negligible amount of distortion. The built in speakers are another story though. There's virtually no bass. The speakers are more for ambient sounds while viewing your pictures in a slideshow, for which there's a separate option on the main menu.

Images
The Visualax supports JPEGS, and the image quality reproduced is quite good. The colours could have been a little more vibrant though but they are nevertheless sharp. You have the option of viewing the thumbnails and then starting a slideshow as well.

Verdict
The YES Visualax is priced at ₹5,999 (streetprice of ₹4,999). While not too costly, the price should have included a CF slot. Not many DPFs come with internal memory, but 16 MB is not grand. The YES Visualax has nothing to write home about, but it would have been if the price was better.
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