The Monster Smart Home 16 GB digital photo frame is an affordable product with mid-level features and design This photo frame has a plain, gallery-style black wood exterior, and the all-important photo quality is crisp at 1280 x 800 pixels; for an 8-inch digital frame, it offers more than enough resolution for most images and smartphone videos But is this one of the best digital photo frames?

Read the rest of our Monster Smart Home 16 GB Digital Photo Frame review for a more detailed look at this frame and to determine if it is the right one for you

The Monster Smart Home 16 GB 10-inch digital photo frame is available at Amazon for $59, or you can purchase an 8-inch version of the same frame for $49, also from Amazon The frame can be positioned horizontally or vertically with a balance piece that attaches to the back Unlike other frames we've seen, it features a simple design: a black frame and a flexible white paper mat attached externally to a freestanding base

We wondered how practical this design would be, as the white surface could become scratched or discolored over time by dust, dirt, or spills However, despite the fact that it does not accentuate the aesthetic style of the frame, it fit us quite well

The white mount can be removed by unscrewing and lifting the screws on the back of the frame However, to do so, at least two of the four screws on the back must be removed Once the white mat is removed, a more beautiful (in our opinion) non-removable black mat will take its place

The frame is operated via a touch screen, with controls accessible with a few simple taps There is a physical on/off button on the back, which is handy if you don't want to unplug the unit to turn it off Unfortunately, the touchscreen controls are not particularly intuitive, and some commands take a few seconds to register For example, if you want to rotate a photo twice, you have to wait for the on-screen controls to fade out and come back into focus before the second operation You can use the magnify buttons to enlarge the image and adjust the size of the subject, but the software will not remember that setting on the next photo rotation

Unlike most slideshows, which work automatically, Monster Frame allows you to start it manually using the on-screen arrow buttons Otherwise, each photo just sits there indefinitely This allows you to turn the slideshow on and off, so you can display as many photos as you like in one You can also display or hide the date and time of the picture in the frame The volume of the video can also be adjusted to your liking

There are only five photo transition effects to choose from, compared to more than ten for most frames, but this should not be a problem In fact, most people tend to prefer non-gimmicky slide and fade effects that allow them to focus on the photo

The gallery shows another set of touchscreen controls, including a full-screen alarm clock Depending on the settings, you can choose to stretch the photo to full screen or fit it to the borders that are displayed The border is always a black bar, not a subtle fill around the edges as other frames offer It also creates extra space around the edges, unless the image is 16 wide by 10 tall The full-screen control is actually an animation that gradually enlarges the photo, distorting the display rather than adjusting the photo to fit the frame

The trash symbol allows you to instantly delete an image from the frame, and the back arrow takes you to the gallery However, dumping an image into the trash does not guarantee that it will be permanently deleted When I restarted the frames, the manually deleted images still appeared in the gallery

The frame has physical inputs for a micro SD card and a micro USB device, but neither worked on the two frames I tested Sadly, the micro USB port did not fit the input I had According to Monster's technical support, it should be possible to lock the micro SD card in place, as some digital cameras can, but two separate cards in two separate frames did not

Once the cards were physically secured by hand, the images were displayed in a separate gallery on the screen However, even if one managed to secure a card loaded with images, the frame would only read the card and not transfer the photos to the internal memory; the basic flaw of the SD input not working cannot be overlooked This counts as a substantial blow to this particular product

The picture quality of the Monster frame is respectable, with bright, crisp, vibrant colors that look just fine most of the time The compact size of the frame keeps the picture nice and sharp with a resolution of 1280 x 800 Brightness can be adjusted through the settings, and viewing angles are decent, with only a slight darkening of the image from the extreme sides of the frame

If the slideshow is set to 10 seconds, the same image will be displayed for those 10 seconds, even if you try to manually swipe to the next image Note that 10 seconds is the fastest interval that can be set for a slideshow

The Monster Smart Home 16GB digital photo frame is app-based for iOS and Android and provides an easy way for users to contribute images to the frame Sadly, the app's performance is flawed in many respects and seems to focus more on smart home devices, such as controlling lighting, than on manipulating the frame

Once the app and frame are connected (only possible on the 25 GHz band), you can directly access your gallery or camera roll and select up to 100 photos at a time to add to the frame However, you cannot upload photos and videos at the same time Once 100 photos are reached, no more can be added until that batch has finished uploading

The app will display the slow progress of the upload on the mobile device screen, but you will not see new photos flowing into the frames gallery during the upload

It was interesting to note that the app uploaded 100 photos in two separate uploads, one of which was a day earlier than the other; the upload did not finish after an hour Videos could only be uploaded one at a time, but neither the iOS app nor the Android app allowed videos to be posted and run on the frame Videos would appear in the upload record, but never appeared on the frame, no matter how many times we tried

The app interface should show an upload record of all the images currently on the frame, but most of what I saw were empty squares that gradually filled up as the app was open longer Deleting two-thirds of the images submitted to the frame did not change the app's record

When using the app, you can invite friends and family to contribute photos and videos to Frame and comment on images they like Frame offers 6 GB of free cloud storage, but there is no direct online access to backed up photos and videos, and the app is sparsely described It can also be programmed to work with Google Assistant or Amazon Alexa voice controls

The Monster 8-inch frame is a cheap product in every respect and can be quite frustrating to troubleshoot when key features simply do not work as they should The exterior is basic, no-nonsense black, but the thick white paper backing surrounding the glass looks odd and may become susceptible to dust and splashes over time

The budget-friendly Atatat Digital Photo Frame is recommended Although it does not have built-in memory, we were impressed with its visual quality and additional features, including video and sound playback