How do Facebook Portal digital picture frames work?
Facebook Portal digital picture frames have the immediate pull of one of the world’s most recognizable brand names. It’s immediately linked with technological innovation and cutting-edge creativity – but is that the case here? We’re looking at the Facebook Portal by its performance and functionality as a digital picture frame, not a smart or integrated hub. This is essential as we plan to compare the digital frame functionality of these hubs with what else you can get on the market.
The Facebook Portal offers some digital picture frame features like the ability to use the display to play albums of photos and to let you cycle through them. Sadly, this is about as far as this feature goes. Photos are linked to the Facebook Portal via your connected Facebook account and added to an album that’s saved to the hub’s home screen. You can only send 20 pictures at a time and don’t have much control over the order and frequency of how photos are played within these basic slideshows.
While the Facebook Hub has quite a few features like using Messenger to keep in contact with your friends, view WhatsApp messages, etc., very few of them help the Facebook Portal succeed as a digital picture frame. Many essential features are missing like remote control functionality, adding photos by email & USB/SD card, web album support, video playback, etc.
Strictly as a digital picture frame, the Facebook Portal is not a great option. They would fit in somewhere in the low to mid-end of the market due to limited digital frame features, a small display, and limited photo-sending options. Many premium digital picture frames like the Pix-Star (and several others) are far more capable. They offer versatile slideshows, plenty of ways to send photos & other media to your frame, great ease of use, mobile app & web interfaces, and much more. Below we look at how the Pix-Star digital frame compares with the Facebook Portal.
How do Facebook Portal digital picture frames compare with Pix-Star frames?
Pix-Star’s digital picture frames are some of the most versatile frames on the market. They have big & bright displays that offer manually adjustable colors & brightness. There’s a motion sensor that automatically wakes the frame up when someone walks into the room. Alternatively, you can set the frame to wake and sleep according to a pre-set schedule.
Pix-Star’s digital picture frames offer far more versatile slideshows than you get with the Facebook Portal digital picture frames. You have plenty of customizations that make controlling the style, order, frequency, and source of slideshows effortless. This is a stark contrast to the Facebook Portal’s severely limited slideshow control where you can’t even control the order of playback.
Pix-Star’s digital frames are very easy to send photos, videos, and audio messages to from anywhere in the world. You can use the Pix-Star Snap mobile app, import web albums via the web dashboard, send photos by email, and even by USB/SD card. Facebook Portal digital picture frames can only receive photos from your linked Facebook account – whereby you can only load 20 photos at a time. Pix-Star’s frames let you send up to 250 photos to several frames at the same time quickly & easily.
Another great feature of the Pix-Star frame is the web album feature. Whereas Facebook Portal frames can only load photos from Facebook, Pix-Star’s frames can import photo albums from around a dozen social media, photo-sharing, and online storage platforms. Supported platforms include Facebook, Instagram, Google Drive, Google Photos, Dropbox, Flickr, and more. Web albums are saved to the Pix-Star frame’s internal storage and are available offline.
Facebook Portal digital picture frames need Wi-Fi at all times to function properly. Pix-Star’s frames offer extensive offline functionality that lets you start slideshows, manage local storage, and use many of the features. Pix-Star’s frames can even be remotely controlled when connected to Wi-Fi, letting you adjust the frame’s settings, start slideshows, manage storage, and much more.
In summary, while the Facebook Portal has a lot of features, very few of them complement the digital picture frame function. By contrast, Pix-Star’s frames offer excellent value for money, a rich feature set, great build quality, and a focus on families & elderly users. They’re excellent choices for modern homes and make sharing special moments with your loved ones far more user-friendly and effortless than most other frames on the market!
Can Facebook Portal digital picture frames be wall-mounted?
Facebook Portal digital picture frames cannot be mounted on the wall. These frames are quite thick and bulky with a non-symmetrical profile – meaning they can’t mount flat on the wall. Their odd shape doubles as a stand that lets the frame rest on a flat surface like a table or mantelpiece. The Facebook Portal also has a small display, so wall-mounting isn’t a great option. With their narrow viewing angle and short effective viewing distance, these frames aren’t going to be easy to see from across the room.
If you’re looking for a wall-mounting digital picture frame, the Pix-Star frame is an excellent choice. You can mount them via the frame’s built-in support for using a standard VESA mount, and hang them on the wall with the dedicated hanging holes. Pix-Star’s frames also come with an attractive and sturdy attachable stand for resting the frame on flat surfaces. This stand also hides the power inlet cable and adds to the aesthetic appeal of the frame.
How to send photos to Facebook Portal digital picture frames?
The only way to send photos to the Facebook Portal is by importing them from your linked Facebook account. You can only import 20 photos at a time and they need to be saved to the frame’s home screen. From there, you can open the folder and view the photos – though you’ll need to manually browse through the photos and slideshow settings are very limited.
Can Facebook Portal digital picture frames be remotely controlled?
Facebook Portal’s digital picture frame features & slideshows cannot be controlled remotely. The device uses a touchscreen that requires you to be directly in front of it to adjust settings. If you want to get a digital picture frame with remote control functionality, Pix-Star’s frame is an excellent choice.
