Are 7-inch digital photo frames the best size to buy?
7-inch digital photo frames are the most common size for the cheap or budget end of the market – but this doesn’t mean they’re the most popular. These small frames have several limitations such as limited internal storage space, narrow viewing angles, short effective viewing distances, the lack of Wi-Fi or cloud capabilities, etc.
10-inch digital photo frames are by far the most popular size on today’s market. You can choose from several premium frames like Pix-Star’s 10-inch digital frame. That being said, larger 15-inch digital frames are also growing in popularity – especially for photography, art, and families. For the time being, 10-inch frames tend to offer the best value for money and deliver frames that can cater to the needs of the modern home & family!
Does Pix-Star sell 7-inch digital photo frames?
Pix-Star doesn’t sell 7-inch digital photo frames for several reasons. The first is that almost all 7-inch digital frames are cheap or budget-friendly frames with little to no Wi-Fi or cloud capabilities. They don’t have much internal storage space and can’t receive photos wirelessly. 7-inch frames aren’t ideal for the modern home as they’re a little too small (not a whole lot bigger than your smartphone) – so they struggle to find a steady spot on today’s market.
Pix-Star’s digital photo frames are available in either a 10-inch or 15-inch version. They’re some of the most versatile and feature-rich frames on today’s market, offering free-for-life cloud storage, highly customizable slideshows, remote configuration support, the ability to import photos directly from social media, photo-sharing, and online storage platforms.
Pix-Star’s frames have a supported mobile app called the Pix-Star Snap that lets you send photos, videos, and audio messages to several Pix-Star frames at the same time. You can send up to 250 photos to multiple frames at the same time too. Pix-Star’s web interface is just as versatile and lets you remotely control & manage up to 25 connected Pix-Star frames. Here you can also manage cloud storage, link & update web albums, start slideshows remotely, and much more.
Very few of these features are possible on 7-inch digital photo frames – partly due to their small size and lack of internal space for these features – but also due to their price to performance ratio. If you gave a 7-inch frame all of these features, they’d cost almost the same as a 10-inch or large digital frame. Nobody is likely to buy a 7-inch frame when they could get a 10-inch frame with the same functionality for only a couple of dollars more.
How to set up 7-inch digital photo frames?
Most 7-inch digital photo frames are going to be too small to effectively mount on the wall. They also rarely come with wall mounts build into the frame’s rear – meaning you’d need to DIY build a wall mount (takes a lot of time and effort). They’re also a little on the small side and you’ll struggle to see them from across the room.
While 7-inch digital photo frames are basic, this doesn’t mean that they’re easy to use. Their interfaces are often outdated and they’re not the most responsive frames. 7-inch frames almost always work through a combination of local storage and USB/SD card support for receiving photos. Make sure you get a supported USB/SD card for the frame and make sure that it’s under 8GB (to avoid compatibility issues).
Only load photos to the USB/SD card that match the frame’s resolution and aspect ratio. For example, if the frame has a 640×480 resolution display with a 16:9 aspect ratio, sending 1080p photos from your smartphone (these are usually taken with a 4:3 aspect ratio) is going to present several issues. Photos might not display, could be zoomed, cropped, or scaled-down – and almost all photos will be boxed into the center of the display by black pillar bars (making the already small display appear even smaller).
Do 7-inch digital photo frames use touchscreens?
It’s more common to find 7-inch digital photo frames with touchscreens than it is to find larger digital frames with touchscreens. A major reason for this trend is the significant price jump in the cost of touch-capable display panels between small 7-inch panels, and larger 10 to 15-inch panels. It’s usually more feasible to have a 7-inch digital frame with a touch display – and still have it priced in the mid-range of the market.
With that said, since most 7-inch digital frames are cheap or budget-friendly frames, using a touchscreen almost always makes them a lot more expensive than other similar-size frames. Another issue is that budget digital frames aren’t known for their attention to detail and build quality – a trend that doesn’t pair well with touchscreen displays.
If you spend any amount of time reading through reviews of cheap 7-inch digital frames with touch displays, clear patterns will show. The display is often cited as being the first part of the frame to stop working or experience issues. Touchscreens are inherently more prone to scratching and taking damage from small knocks and falls. The oil from your skin builds up over time and can be a nightmare to clean, particularly for matte-finish displays.
We suggest avoiding touchscreen display as the sacrifices made to keep costs down are rarely worth it. An equally priced non-touch digital frame will be significantly better built and/or have more versatility, practicality, real-world performance, etc. This only becomes truer as you deal with larger 10 to 15-inch displays and premium digital photo frames.
Can 7-inch digital photo frames connect to Wi-Fi?
Most 7-inch digital photo frames cannot connect to Wi-Fi as they’re usually offline frames. 7-inch frames almost always fall into the budget or cheap end of the market as their display panels are significantly cheaper than 10 to 15-inch display panels. They also tend to use rather low-resolution screens with very limited feature sets.
Wi-Fi digital photo frames are more common in the upper-mid to high-end of the market. Frames like the Pix-Star offer both Wi-Fi and cloud capabilities, letting you send and receive photos, videos, and audio messages from anywhere in the world via mobile app, web interface, and email.
By contrast, these cheap 7-inch digital photo frames can usually only receive photos by USB/SD card – seldom having more than 1GB of internal storage space. If you’re going to get a 7-inch digital frame, keep in mind that they’re a little on the small side for use in rooms like living rooms, master bedrooms, dining rooms, and an average modern home. While they might be decent for bedside tables and small coffee tables, they struggle to offer anything that mid-range and high-end frames offer (other than dirt-cheap prices, of course).
