Can the Meural Wi-Fi photo frame work offline?
The Meural Wi-Fi photo frame cannot work without Wi-Fi. These frames need a constant connection to the company cloud servers to access, sync, and display your photos. It’s a major concern as you have to store all of your photos on the web before they can be sent to your frames.
Many people worry that it’s just a way for Meural to get your personal information. You have to create an account to access this web storage – and you only get the first 4GB for free. After that, you need to pay a service fee to expand cloud storage (an additional 20GB).
For a Wi-Fi digital photo frame to work offline effectively, you need internal storage capacity and USB/SD card support. Neither of these features is offered by Meural’s frames. This means that if the company servers go offline – or the product is discontinued (which we see often) – the frame will be rendered useless.
For comparison, Pix-Star’s Wi-Fi photo frames offer extensive offline functionality. There’s 8GB of onboard storage. Photos and other media are received directly to the frame’s local storage. You don’t have to rely on syncing these photos from the web servers first.
Pix-Star’s frames support USB/SD cards and don’t impose maximum size limits. You can start slideshows directly off the connected USB/SD card. Alternatively, you can copy its content to the frame’s internal storage.
How to load photos to the Meural Wi-Fi photo frame?
The only way to load photos to the Meural Wi-Fi photo frame is via the mobile app. While this seems like a great method, it’s very limiting. All photos sent via the mobile app are uploaded to the company web servers. Only then can they be synced to the Meural frame. This extra step reduces your control over your information (as you need to create an account) and privacy. It’s also risky as you are dependent on the company servers staying online.
The mobile app is reportedly very buggy and hard to use. Sending multiple photos to several frames can be tricky. They often fail to load, with only a handful of photos syncing successfully. The photo-sharing process is slowed significantly throughout these syncing steps.
To add to the problem, you only get 4GB of storage on these web servers. Once you’ve used this free allotment (it won’t take long to fill up – particularly for families), you have to pay for more. We don’t recommend getting Wi-Fi digital frames with extra costs as there are many other better alternatives.
For example, Pix-Star’s frames offer free-for-life cloud storage and automatic backups – and they’re a lot cheaper than the Meural Wi-Fi photo frame’s base price (before the extra costs).
How does the Meural Wi-Fi photo frame compare with Pix-Star’s frame?
The Pix-Star Wi-Fi photo frame is one of the most popular frames of 2022. They cater specifically to elderly users and modern homes through robust and easy-to-use features. Pix-Star’s frames offer free-for-life cloud storage, remote configuration support, and both a mobile app and a web interface.
Manage and control all of your Pix-Star frames from anywhere in the world via Pix-Star’s multi-frame control groups. Here you can adjust their settings, start & manage slideshows, manage storage, update firmware, link & sync web albums, and much more.
Unlike the Meural Wi-Fi photo frame, Pix-Star’s frames can receive photos directly to its internal storage. Pix-Star doesn’t rely on syncing all photos from a central web server. This speeds up the photo-sharing process and reduces the risk you take on (in the case the cloud servers go offline).
Pix-Star’s frames support USB/SD cards and have a plug & play feature. You can start slideshows directly from the inserted USB/SD card without copying anything to local storage first. Pix-Star’s frames a great for offline photo-sharing. You can simply give grandma a USB/SD card full of photos. She can then start slideshows with only a couple of button presses.
Compared to the Meural Wi-Fi photo frame, Pix-Star’s frames offer better video & audio support. You can play 2-minute clips (compared to 15-seconds with Meural’s frames) and include them in slideshows. With Pix-Star, you can listen to web music and radio, play audio files and radio stations over slideshows and even connect to speakers/headphones.
Pix-Star’s slideshows and aspect ratio are also better than Meural’s frames. Pix-Star’s 4:3 aspect ratio is better suited to photos sent from smartphones (as they capture in 4:3). Photos won’t be surrounded by black bars – meaning slideshows are more immersive.
Pix-Star’s slideshow controls are far more comprehensive, letting you control the play order and frequency of photos. Create beautiful collages, manage slideshows from anywhere in the world, and change slideshows settings without exiting the current slideshow!
Pix-Star’s frames are much cheaper, more versatile, easier to set up & use, and don’t charge any extra subscription or service fees. They’re probably the best value for money Wi-Fi digital photo frames on the market for the modern home & family!
Does the Meural Wi-Fi photo frame play videos?
The Meural Wi-Fi photo frame can play video clips – but they’re limited to only 15-seconds. Longer video clips will be cut down to 15-seconds or won’t play at all. These videos need to be synced at the moment, significantly slowing the frame down. This is one of the major issues with requiring media to be synced as needed from the Meural web servers.
For comparison, Pix-Star’s frames let you play 2-minute video clips and include them in slideshows. These included videos can be set to play muted by default. You can connect to external speakers for a more immersive viewing and audio experience. Pix-Star’s frames can receive photos from the Pix-Star Snap mobile app or by USB/SD card.
Does the Meural Wi-Fi photo frame charge extra fees?
The Meural Wi-Fi photo frame only gives you the first 4GB of cloud storage for free. Unfortunately, this web server is the only way to load photos to the frame – so it’s used up quickly. Once you’ve used up your free 4GB allotment, you will need to purchase an additional 20GB. There are no other package sizes available.
We suggest avoiding digital frames that charge extra fees. There are many other top frames like the Pix-Star or Dragon Touch that offer the same feature without the extra fees!
