What is the best Wi-Fi picture frame?
Pix-Star’s digital frames are arguably the best Wi-Fi picture frames on today’s market. While there are other frames with a higher-resolution display, there’s much more than goes into making a great digital frame. Pix-Star’s frames come with robust and versatile feature sets that few frames can compete with. There are no extra recurring monthly or annual fees, no upsells, and no hidden costs.
Pix-Star’s frame is one of the few high-end digital frames that cater to both elderly users and modern families. Much of this is thanks to intuitive and user-focused features like free-for-life cloud storage, remote configuration support, and access to both a mobile app and web interface.
You can send pictures, videos, and audio messages to Pix-Star’s frames from anywhere. The mobile app is particularly great thanks to its intuitive design and ease of use. Anyone in the family can use the Pix-Star Snap mobile app without creating a user account.
You can send up to 250 photos to any of your Pix-Star frames at the same time. It’s a great way for families to share photos on the go – and not any important moments and memories. We almost always have our smartphones with us, so a digital frame with a mobile app is more convenient, familiar, and makes photo-sharing effortless.
Pix-Star has a unique feature that lets you import photos from a dozen external sources directly to your frame’s internal storage. These “web albums” include support for Instagram, Facebook, Google Drive & Photos, Dropbox, Flickr, your computer, and more.
You can simply create a folder on your computer, drag & drop photos into it, and sync the folder with any of your Pix-Star frames. Linked albums can be set to automatically update to all linked frames when you add new photos – automating much of the photo-sharing process. You won’t need to micro-manage who gets & sees which photos. simply drag and drop, and Pix-Star will take care of the rest. Pix-Star’s web album feature is one of the most capable and useful digital frame features on the market at the moment.
Another excellent Pix-Star feature is their remote configuration support. It’s a feature that ties in perfectly with Pix-Star’s multi-frame control group function. Here you can manage and control up to 25 connected Pix-Star frames via their web dashboard from anywhere. The remote configuration feature lets you adjust your frames’ settings, manage local & cloud storage, start & control slideshows, link new web albums, update firmware, and much more.
Pix-Star’s 4:3 aspect ratio is ideal for photos taken on smartphones and cameras – and offers a more immersive viewing experience. Photos won’t be boxed in by black bars, cropped, or unnecessarily edited. This 4:3 aspect ratio is better than other digital frames’ 16:9 and 16:10 aspect ratios.
Finally, Pix-Star’s slideshows are some of the easiest to control among the best digital frames. You can adjust the play order & frequency of photos within slideshows. Set slideshows to play recently added photos more often, ignore small photos, and even play slideshows from specifically selected files & folders.
What is the best way to send photos to a Wi-Fi picture frame?
The best way to send photos to a Wi-Fi picture frame is via a mobile app. Only a couple of the best digital frames use a mobile app, and it’s rarely offered by mid-range and cheap digital frames. Pix-Star’s digital frames arguably offer the best mobile app on the market – the Pix-Star Snap mobile app.
It’s an excellent mobile app as you can send videos, photos, and audio messages to any of your frames from anywhere in the world. Additionally, you can send up to 250 photos to several frames at the same time – no matter where you are.
We almost always have our smartphones with us. Naturally, an intuitive mobile app will make photo-sharing more effortless and efficient. It’s worth noting that not all mobile apps are equal. In some cases – as with Skylight or Nixplay’s frames – you have to pay additional subscription fees to unlock the mobile app, video playback, and online access.
Another great method for sending pictures to Wi-Fi digital picture frames is by importing them as web albums. Pix-Star’s web album feature lets you import photos from a dozen external sources like Facebook, Google Drive & Photos, Instagram, your computer, and many more.
With most digital picture frames that don’t support web albums, you’d need to download the photos manually from social media, send them to your phone, and your frame via email or mobile app. Pix-Star’s web albums can be set to automatically update when new photos are added. This automates photo-sharing and makes it far more effortless for families.
Finally, sending photos by email is one of the best elderly-friendly methods. It offers a familiar process that works from any device no matter where you are in the world. Some of the top digital frames like the Pix-Star let you set incoming photos to display in the current slideshow the moment they’re received.
Do the best Wi-Fi picture frames use touchscreens?
Few of the best Wi-Fi picture frames use a touchscreen – and for good reasons. Touchscreen displays larger than 8-inches are significantly more expensive than their non-touch size equivalents. This often means that other features and functions need to be sacrificed to make room for the touchscreen’s higher cost.
Another key factor to consider is durability. Many premium frames are not very durable, especially in the long run. Their displays are very prone to scratching as they use glossy finishes. The alternative – matte finishes – are just as bad as the dirt and oil from your fingers is very difficult to clean off. In practice, you would need to wipe the display after each use. If you don’t, you’ll have to suffer through painful fingerprints overlaying your slideshows.
Finally, many of the best Wi-Fi picture frames like the Pix-Star don’t need a touchscreen. They have a handheld remote controller. It has a range that matches most rooms in the modern home. You don’t need to stand directly in front of the frame to make any changes. Pix-Star’s frames have a remote configuration feature that lets you adjust most of the settings & features from anywhere in the world. You can start & manage slideshows, local and cloud storage, and much more – no matter where you are.
We recommend avoiding the touchscreen digital picture frame. Its higher cost, poor durability, and superfluousness of some of the best frames make it a hard-to-justify purchase. You’ll get better value for money from a non-touch Wi-Fi digital picture frame like the Pix-Star frame!
What to look for in the best Wi-Fi picture frame for families?
The best Wi-Fi picture frame for families should be excellent at photo-sharing, synchronizing, connecting to social media, and displaying photos. Features like versatile slideshows and a great aspect ratio (we recommend 4:3) will have a very immediate impact on the viewing experience. Make sure the frame has a motion sensor and that you can set an auto-on/off schedule.
We recommend Pix-Star’s digital picture frames highly due to their comprehensive remote configuration feature. Here you can manage and control up to 25 Pix-Star frames via the web interface – the ideal feature for families. You can start slideshows, manage settings, update firmware, manage cloud storage, and much more. You will be able to set slideshows up on grandma’s frame no matter where you are in the world.
Do the best Wi-Fi picture frames charge monthly fees?
Some of the best digital frames on the market charge monthly fees to unlock features like video playback, the use of the mobile app, cloud storage, and online access to your frame. Prime examples of these subscription-based Wi-Fi picture frames are Skylight and Nixplay frames. We don’t recommend these frames as loads of other top digital frames offer the same – and often improved – features without the extra cost.
For example, Pix-Star’s Wi-Fi picture frames offer all the same features as Nixplay and Skylight – yet this doesn’t come with any monthly or annual fees. Pix-Star’s frames offer many features even better. You get free-for-life cloud storage, more extensive video playback, remote configuration support, and much more.
You will get much better value for money digital Wi-Fi frames that don’t charge subscription fees. Their long-term cost will be a lot lower than subscription-based frames, and their base price is often very similar! It’s also more inclusive as everyone in the family can get involved without needing to create accounts and surrender personal information along the way.
