The Picture Mate Show is a snapshot printer and more: Epson has integrated a digital frame into its design. Getting two products in one makes the Picture Mate Show's relatively high price more pleasant.
Insert a memory card or key drive, or upload photos to the printer's 270MB of internal memory, and the Picture Mate demonstrate can display them on its 7-inch, WVGA (480-by-800-pixel), 15:9-aspect-ratio color LCD. A dozen slideshow formats let you incorporate a clock, a calendar, simple animation, and other effects.
You can also print, of course, and the Picture Mate Show does a great job of that. In our tests, it printed color photos as fast as 1.4 pages per minute (ppm), with natural flesh tones, stunning landscapes, and attractive objects; black-and-white photos showed smooth grayscales. Its less-expensive cousin, the Picture Mate Charm, is slower but produces equally outstanding photos. An infrared remote that comes with a CR2025 lithium button battery controls the printer and frame; menus appear on the LCD.
The remote worked well from many angles but not from the frame where it rests on top of the printer; Epson claims that it has a range of 16 feet, though we didn't test this. If you lose the remote, you can buy a replacement from Epson for $30.
The Picture Mate Show is considered to work independently of any computer. But in standalone mode, it has a few quirks. The cropping tool requires a lot of tedious zooming and shifting. For layouts smaller than 4 by 6 inches, you can't choose photos at random; instead, you have to print a single photo, all photos taken within a certain date or month, or all photos on the media. For greater flexibility, you must install the printer on your PC or Mac and use Epson's bundled Easy Photo Print or another application.
Insert a memory card or key drive, or upload photos to the printer's 270MB of internal memory, and the Picture Mate demonstrate can display them on its 7-inch, WVGA (480-by-800-pixel), 15:9-aspect-ratio color LCD. A dozen slideshow formats let you incorporate a clock, a calendar, simple animation, and other effects.
You can also print, of course, and the Picture Mate Show does a great job of that. In our tests, it printed color photos as fast as 1.4 pages per minute (ppm), with natural flesh tones, stunning landscapes, and attractive objects; black-and-white photos showed smooth grayscales. Its less-expensive cousin, the Picture Mate Charm, is slower but produces equally outstanding photos. An infrared remote that comes with a CR2025 lithium button battery controls the printer and frame; menus appear on the LCD.
The remote worked well from many angles but not from the frame where it rests on top of the printer; Epson claims that it has a range of 16 feet, though we didn't test this. If you lose the remote, you can buy a replacement from Epson for $30.
The Picture Mate Show is considered to work independently of any computer. But in standalone mode, it has a few quirks. The cropping tool requires a lot of tedious zooming and shifting. For layouts smaller than 4 by 6 inches, you can't choose photos at random; instead, you have to print a single photo, all photos taken within a certain date or month, or all photos on the media. For greater flexibility, you must install the printer on your PC or Mac and use Epson's bundled Easy Photo Print or another application.
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