Memento 35 Inch Digital Picture Frame Review

On this video photographer Tony Northrup looks at the Memento 35 inch 4K digital picture frame.

So this is kind of strange but we never had a picture frame review on LensVid before. These types of things where all the rage around 2007 or so but since than they kind of disappeared (although not really – they just not have been getting a lot of attention).

The main problem with digital picture frames is that it is very hard to make them look like real images and not like LCD displays. Although in this video the Memento 35″ does look very nice, Tony does mention that in real life you can certainly see that it is an LCD and not a printed photo.

Now there are technologies that might make this difference less obvious – high quality high res OLED displays for example look truly amazing and with the right content and as Tony mentions in the future high res (and very high quality) E-ink color displays can be the real deal in terms of replacing printed images. However the E-ink technology that we have seen to date is very (very) far from that and the pricing on large OLED displays is still very very high making them less likely to be used for digital picture frames in the near future.

So we are left with conventional LCD panels and the Memento 35″ seems to be one of the best around. It has all sorts of drawbacks – it needs WIFI to work, the app isn’t perfect and you can’t change anything manually (no buttons on the screen), but the biggest problem is that it works straight ahead – this is probably not an IPS panel or at least not a very good one).

You will also need to figure out the power – most people will not want a power cord coming out of their picture frame so you will either need to make an outlet just behind the picture or hide the cable somehow (it does come with a flat power cord so that is nice).

To be honest we really love the idea of a digital frame – having a way to display your images (and not just a small number but dozens or more) is amazing. The problem is that the technology just doesn’t seem to be there – not in 2007 and not even 10 years later.

In the meantime if the Memento 35 Inch is something that you might want to buy you can get it on Amazon for around $900.

More guides and comparisons of photographic gear can be found on our photography gear guides – here on LensVid. If you liked Tony and Chelsea Northrup you can check out more of their videos here on LensVid.

Iddo Genuth

Iddo Genuth is the founder and chief editor of LensVid.com. He has been a technology reporter working for international publications since the late 1990's and covering photography since 2009. Iddo is also a co-founder of a production company specializing in commercial food and product visual content.