Philips 9FF2M4
06 NOV 2007
Launch price
£190.00
Stuff says
A solid performer that builds on the excellent 7FF1M4 with a bigger screen and extra features. Still, a little Wi-Fi wouldn’t hurt at this price would it Philips?
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With its photoframe line-up, Philips gingerly walks the tightrope between dodgy budget models with their shocking viewing angles and washed out colours, and digital masterpieces that could double as your telly but have price tags to match.
Its latest 9FF2M4 boosts the screen size from 7in to a more respectable 9in. Not all of it's used for displaying your snaps but the overall effect is of a photo size roughly midway between a 'small' 6x4in print and a 'medium' 7x5in one from down the local processing shop.
Size versus resolution
Despite the bigger screen it's still the same 800x480 pixel resolution as the old version, which means a slight trade-off in sharpness. The viewing angle's also suffered slightly from the excellent 7FF but not enough to see it placed anywhere near the same category as some of the appalling budget frames we've seen.
We wouldn't mind Philips giving the backlight just a teensy bit more power in the next update but overall the picture is very good and colour remains spot on.
Like its predecessor, it comes in two flavours, either the wood surround 9FF2CWO, or the 'Modern Line' 9FF2M4 with interchangeable bezel that we got our hands on.
The 7in model had a complex layout of half a dozen buttons round the back. Now Philips has had a rethink and opted for just two buttons with a neat four-way rocker, making the menus a hell of a lot easier to wade through – though still not perfect.