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(More customer reviews)The HP DreamScreen is at its heart, a digital photo frame that's begging to be much more.
As with so many of 2009's consumer electronics, the DreamScreen is yet another example of a company trying to bolt on extended connectivity to popular sites. This time around, we have access to Facebook, Pandora, and Snapfish via built-in wired and wireless networking.
Setting up the DreamScreen is fairly painless. It quickly found and connected to my WPA2 network without any problems, and the built-in applications all ran as I had expected them to, albeit, very slowly. I thought that the slowness may be due to the product being so new, and immediately checked for a firmware update. Sure enough, there was one. However, it didn't seem to improve the response time.
The DreamScreen is quite large. Probably larger than what I'd want on my desk, and a bit too large for a normal end table. And while the back has slots to accept every type of flash media under the sun, it also makes the unit itself quite deep, making wall mounting an unattractive option.
As I had said previously, the included applications all work pretty much as I had expected them to. Facebook is a passive stream of status updates or photos. Snapfish can be pointed to someone's account, and Pandora seems to do the right thing if you already have a Pandora account with stations set up. The weather application updates quickly and often, and is visually appealing. The inherent problem with all of these, is that they aren't integrated or well executed.
So, mixing photos between any of the applications is just not possible without navigating between the different applications. On one hand, I can understand that the DreamScreen doesn't claim to do it, but if you're going to bundle multiple photo options, being able to see them all in a rotation seems like a natural function to me. And while Pandora works, the controls are not well thought out (e.g. making the music stop) and as you'd probably expect from a device like this, the audio quality is not very good.
Ultimately, you end up with a product that you'd normally "set and forget", but that really needs a lot of interaction to make any of the features work. I could see having this mounted somewhere that I could enjoy glancing at the pictures, and notice every once in a while that it's telling me what the weather's like, or that one of my friends has posted new pictures on Facebook. But in execution, I'd need to go find the remote, and navigate to each function. If I'm going to take the time to do that, why wouldn't I just grab my computer? (Or if I didn't have one, why wouldn't I spend about as much money on a netbook?)
The image quality is decent, but not nearly as good as what you'd see on the similarly sized Sony DPF-V900 9-Inch Digital Photo Frame (and a popular choice, now that I see it on another review). Again, it does what HP says it does, but it doesn't do it as well as it could, and seems almost an afterthought.
The DreamScreen really begs the question: "What need does this fulfill?"
If you're looking for a photo frame, you have better options from Sony, Kodak, and others.
If you're looking for an easy link to Facebook, the interface and one-way nature of the device puts a wet towel on that.
If you're looking for a portable media center, the audio quality is a serious barrier.
If you're looking for a "keep Grandma updated with something easy to use" device, you're hitting limitations with the interface (and wireless availability).
I just can't think of a single reason to buy this over another product, other than to say "Hey, check out this frame. Look at everything it can do."
Click Here to see more reviews about: HP DreamScreen 100 10.2-Inch Wireless Connected Screen
The HP 10-inch DreamScreen makes it easy to enjoy photos, music, video, as well as weather, clocks,calendars, Facebook, and more.
Click here for more information about HP DreamScreen 100 10.2-Inch Wireless Connected Screen
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