An HP digital photo frame that I bought last year from Dabs has recently broken. It’s backlight started flashing on and off – and what luck, it was doing this ONE DAY before the years warranty ran out!

Anyway, I contacted Dabs and they collected it and refunded my money. All credit to Dabs for excellent customer service.

So, the hunt was one for a replacement. I could, of course, go for the same one, but the backlight issue was a big disconcerting, so I thought I’d look out for something else. I’m not always a brand snob but when it comes to a product such as this I am. Digital photo frames are the kind of odd product that are rarely reviewed, so you often have to rely instead on blind buying and hoping.

I looked at the usual suspects – play.com, ebuyer, etc – but they mainly rely on unbranded makes. Dabs, however, continued to impress with a good range that were of interest. And one really stuck out – a Sony wireless photo frame.

It was launched late last year with a flurry of good reviews (yes, there are some for this!). It has the usual array of memory slots, an excellent quality screen (although only 7″, but that’s the size of the HP one that I had before), wireless capability (including the ability to download photos from Picasa Web Albums – something I use for my online photos!), even a browser and the ability to scroll news feeds across the top of the photos. The only down point of this whole product was its buggy browser (which is odd, as it’s the Opera browser), but then this wasn’t a capability that I was particularly interested in.

Play.com sell this photo frame for £230. Dabs have it for £84. Oh yes, that’s right. Just 84 of your finest English pounds. Both of those prices include VAT and P&P.

The reason is simple – it’s a discontinued line. Other retailers appear to be selling it cheap, it just appears that Play hasn’t caught up. None-the-less, considering this was the kind of price it was selling for when released less than a year ago, this is a truly excellent bargain.

It’s due sometime next week – once I have my mits on it, expect a thorough review.