Is there a monthly fee for the Nixplay Smart digital picture frame?
There is an optional subscription fee for the Nixplay Smart digital picture frame called “Nixplay Plus”. You can choose to pay for Nixplay Plus monthly, quarterly, or annual, with the annual payment plan offering the lowest cost option.
Nixplay Plus unlocks most of the Nixplay frame’s functionality. While it’s an “optional” subscription fee, Nixplay’s frame struggle to compete without it.
Nixplay Plus unlocks features like access to the Nixplay mobile app, up to 50GB of cloud storage (compared to 10GB without Nixplay Plus), unlimited shared playlists, site-wide discounts of up to 25%, multi-frame control groups with up to 10 Nixplay digital photo frames, and support for 60-second video clips.
Now, this is where Nixplay’s issues begin. Competing digital photo frames like the Pix-Star offer almost all of these features – with many more additional and more comprehensive features – without charging any extra fees.
For example, Pix-Star’s digital picture frames offer free-for-life cloud storage, support for 2-minute video clips, multi-frame control groups with up to 25 Pix-Star frames, full access to the Pix-Star Snap mobile app (and web interface), remote configuration support, web album imports (from social media, photo-sharing sites, etc.), and even more.
When you consider that Nixplay charges to unlock these features – and Pix-Star doesn’t – it’s hard to justify paying all those additional subscription fees. When you add in the cost of Nixplay Plus to their already premium price tag, Nixplay’s frames become arguably the most expensive on the market in the sub-15-inch size range.
We recommend avoiding digital picture frames that charge monthly fees. They fail to offer anything sufficiently unique to justify paying extra monthly/annual fees – especially when competing for digital photo frames like the Pix-Star offer the same (and more) without charging a cent extra!
How does the Nixplay Smart digital picture frame compare with the Pix-Star frame?
As discussed above, the main difference between Nixplay and Pix-Star digital picture frames is Nixplay’s premium subscription fee. It’s essential to note because Pix-Star offers almost all of Nixplay’s “paid features” without charging extra.
Pix-Star offers free-for-life cloud storage. Nixplay only offers 10GB for free and up to 50GB with Nixplay Plus. Pix-Star let you create multi-frame control groups with up to 25 Pix-Star frames. Even with Nixplay Plus, you can only control up to 10 Nixplay play – and only one Nixplay frame using the “free” version.
Pix-Star lets you play 2-minute video clips without paying extra fees. Nixplay only lets you play 15-second clips for free, and only up to 1-minute with the Nixplay Plus subscription.
And it doesn’t end here…
Pix-Star then goes on to offer loads of features that aren’t possible with Nixplay’s frames. Web album support lets you import photo albums from a dozen external sources such as social media and photo-sharing sites directly to any of your linked Pix-Star frames.
A versatile web dashboard lets you manage and control up to 25 Pix-Star frames from a single user account. Here you can change their settings, start slideshows, update firmware, import web albums, manage local & cloud storage, and much more.
Pix-Star also offers extensive USB/SD card support; whereas Nixplay offers none. With Pix-Star, you can insert a USB/SD card of any size into the frame and play slideshows directly on the frame. It’s super-easy to use, great for bulk photo-sharing, and elderly-friendly.
You get extensive offline functionality with Pix-Star’s frames; whereas Nixplay’s frames are highly dependent on Wi-Fi. Pix-Star offers a better media library and browser, lets you create playlists for free, and you can start slideshows from specific files and folders.
The Pix-Star frame offers better value for money and enhanced functionality, and lets you avoid the trap of subscription-based digital frames. The last thing you want to do is add to the growing list of subscription-based services we use in our daily lives – especially if it doesn’t bring anything particularly unique or superior to non-subscription-based options!
Does the Nixplay Smart digital picture frame work without Wi-Fi?
The Nixplay Smart digital picture only offers basic offline functionality. Its 8GB of onboard storage hold photos for offline viewing. That being said, there’s a common issue whereby the display goes black and a popup shows saying “No connection found” when trying to start slideshows while the Nixplay frame is offline.
Another essential feature for offline functionality is USB/SD card support. This lets you play slideshows from a connected USB/SD card, or at least use it as a method for photo-sharing (to the frame’s internal storage). Nixplay doesn’t offer any USB/SD card support. You can use this method to load photos to the frame’s internal storage – or to play slideshows without Wi-Fi.
Can the Nixplay Smart digital picture frame support USB/SD cards?
The Nixplay Smart digital picture frame does not support USB or SD cards. With many competing digital frames like the Pix-Star, you can insert a USB or SD card full of photos and view slideshows directly on the frame. In some cases, you have to copy these files to the frame’s internal storage before viewing them in slideshows.
Nixplay’s digital picture frames don’t offer any of these features – severely limiting their offline functionality. You need to connect to Wi-Fi to sync photos from the cloud for slideshows, receive pending photos sent via the mobile app, etc.
Does the Nixplay Smart digital picture frame play video?
The Nixplay Smart digital picture frame only supports 15-second video clips using the “free” version. If you want to play longer video clips, you need to pay for the “Nixplay Plus” subscription.
Should you choose to pay for “Nixplay Plus”, you’ll still only be able to play 60-second video clips.
For comparison, Pix-Star digital picture frames let you play 2-minute video clips without having to pay any extra monthly or annual subscription fees.
With Pix-Star, you can include these video clips in slideshows, set them to play muted by default, connect to external speakers for enhanced immersion, and much more.
