There is no set up required to get started with the Sungale ID800WT. You just have to plug in the power adaptor and press the “power” button on the back and you’re good to go.

Once the software initializes, it directly goes to a slideshow mode showing you your pictures. However, I will start with the main screen which can be accessed by navigating with the touch screen or by pressing the “exit” button at the back.

There are ten icons on the main screen. Storage allows you to access your files that are stored in either the internal memory (512MB) or from a flash drive that you have plugged in. Of course, to add photos or other files to the internal memory, you need to use the included USB cable to connect the ID800WT to your computer. It will appear as a standard USB storage drive and you can add files to it.

It is very easy to navigate, with most actions requiring just one touch. To access different folders or files, you merely touch the item on the right to highlight it and then touch the large icon on the left to browse. At the bottom are several other buttons that are activated based on the context.

Pictures show up as files. You can enter slideshow mode by touching the preview image on the left. It takes a while to “decode” the file before displaying it.

It then zooms in and cycles through all pictures on the device in slide show format, with transitions between images. Curiously, no “decoding” is necessary in slide show format.

As the pictures show, the screen is very vibrant and colors look eye-popping. The 800×600 resolution is very sufficient for a photo frame of this size.

Apart from pictures, the ID800WT can also play music files.

Video files can also be played, although they don’t fill up all the available space on the screen.

Text files can also be displayed in a rudimentary fashion.

Going back to the main screen, slide show parameters can be adjusted by selecting “Settings” from the main screen.

You can also display information about the ID800WT.

There is also a calendar feature that you can use to set alarms and such – definitely a nice feature to have.

By this time, you are probably wondering why I haven’t gotten to one of the main features of the ID800WT – WiFi. The truth of the matter is, it just would not connect. Going through the settings, I tried connecting to several routers (Linksys WRT54GL, Trendnet TEW-432BRP, LevelOne WBR N Max) without any luck. Sometimes it would let me connect but the connection did not stay on for more than 30 seconds so there was no way for me to test the Weather, IP Radio, News, YouTube, Gmail, Picasa, or Stock features. Other reviewers have had success but not us.

Sometimes, I even got a weird, scrolling-type message while trying to connect. The screen became “distorted” and the frame became unresponsive – the only solution was a hard reset.

After trying everything to get the Wi-Fi to work, including putting the frame right up next to the routers, I finally gave up.

In any case, the features that did function did so very well. After all, the ID800WT is marketed as a digital photo frame, and it displays photos very well.

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