Hands-on Cibox C107 Photo Frame review

Digital photo frames have become increasingly popular over the past few years, so I thought I’d give one a closer look. The Cibox C107 is the one I’ve chosen to review as it seems to be quite representative of the field. Indeed, looking at the digital photo frame market, it seems they’ve all become commodities with very little to choose between them apart from price.

The Cibox C107 offers the usual array of features: 7″ TFT screen, SD/MMX/XD/MS card support, and the ability to playback pics up to 6 megapixels in size. It also offers a few extra bits and pieces, including music playback, video playback, alarm and calendar.

It’s these last few features that leave me a bit perplexed. Video playback on a cheap digital photoframe? Why?! The whole photo frame only costs £70, so as you can imagine, the playback quality isn’t exactly great. Worse, even if it was, would you really want to watch a video on a photo frame stuck on your shelf?!

And then there’s music playback. The back of the Cibox C107 is decidedly plasticy, and that’s where the speaker’s held. Look at the back and you’re reminded of a cheap plastic alarm clock, and that’s pretty much how the music player sounds!

In fact, it’s the alarm-clock nature of the C107 that reveals it’s true purpose. Rather than a handsome digital photo frame you’d happily display in your lounge, the C107 would be much better off at your bedside as an all-singing all-dancing alarm clock.

Looked at in that context it makes perfect sense. The music playback isn’t great, but it’s what’s expected from a radio alarm clock. There’s no radio on the C107, but most people use music to wake up to. The digital photo frame adds a bit of novelty and decoration to your bedside table, while the built-in calendar feature will let you get your bearings in terms of what day it is when you first wake up!

Still not sure why you’d want to watch video from it though!

The picture quality’s not great, but it’s adequate, while all the controls are extremely simple to use and set up. There’s even a remote control that’s just as easy to use.

All in all, then, the Cibox C107 is great value for money. It’s not perfect, and it seems like overkill for an alarm clock, but at £70, it’s great value.