Is a small digital picture frame worth buying?
The small digital picture frame is seeing decreasing popularity in today’s market, especially with the broad popularity of 10-inch digital picture frames and the growing demand for 15-inch digital frames. Many of the top digital picture frames don’t make digital picture frames smaller than 10-inches. For example, Pix-Star sells both a 10-inch digital picture frame and a larger 15-inch frame.
Small digital picture frames are most commonly found in the cheap and mid-range end of the market, with 7 and 8-inch frames being the most common size. We rarely recommend these frames as they often don’t offer essential features such as Wi-Fi, cloud storage, mobile apps, web interface, and modern features like syncing photo albums from social media.
Most small digital frames have low-resolution displays and narrow viewing angles. Unless you view the display head-on, they’ll be difficult to see. Additionally, they rarely come with features for families and elderly users (multi-frame control groups and remote configuration support) and can’t play videos or audio clips.
If you’re going to get a digital picture frame, we recommend getting a 10-inch frame. it’s the most popular digital frame size and there are dozens of brands from which to choose. If you need something a little bigger for a modern home, large room, or big family, 15-inch frames offer great value for money and a big size-leap for a not-so-big price jump.
Does Pix-Star sell a small digital picture frame?
Pix-Star sells a 10-inch digital frame and a larger 15-inch frame – neither of which are considered small digital picture frames. 10-inch frames are arguably the most popular digital frame size on today’s market, with 15-inch frames being the most popular large digital frame size.
We recommend avoiding small digital picture frames as they are seldom made by the most popular brands on the market, often falling into the cheap or budget segment of the market. This segment isn’t often well regarded due to poor feature sets, low-resolution displays, and frequent quality control issues.
We suggest sticking with well-established brands like Pix-Star, Dragon Touch, Aura, or Nixplay and Skylight frames (if you don’t mind Nixplay or Skylight “Plus” recurring subscription fees).
What size is a small digital picture frame?
Small digital picture frames generally range between 6-inches and to 9-inches. Medium-size digital frames are usually 10-inches to 12-inches. Large digital picture frames are typically 15-inches and larger. The most popular digital picture frame size on the market at the moment is the 10-inch digital frame, with the 15-inch frame coming in at a close second.
We don’t generally recommend buying a small digital picture frame as they’re almost always found in the cheap, budget-end of the market. These frames are known for not offering key features like cloud storage, Wi-Fi, mobile apps, highly customizable slideshows, etc. – all of the things that matter in a digital picture.
It’s why you’ll find that most premium digital picture frame brands like Pix-Star offer a 10-inch and a 15-inch digital picture frame. While some good brands offer smaller frames, they’re rather a niche, e.g., digital frames for pets, and don’t pack a super-competitive feature set and often cost the same as larger 10-inch frames.
Do small digital picture frames need Wi-Fi?
Since most small digital picture frames are found in the cheap, budget-end of the market, they don’t often offer features such as cloud storage, Wi-Fi, mobile apps, wireless photo-sharing, remote configuration support, social media integration for photo imports, etc.
If you’re looking for a digital picture frame with Wi-Fi, we’d recommend getting a 10-inch frame with a 4:3 aspect ratio. For example, Pix-Star’s 10-inch digital picture frame offers free-for-life cloud storage, extensive Wi-Fi and cloud features, web albums (importing photos directly from your social media profiles), remote configuration and control, motion sensor, highly customizable slideshows, and much more – all for a highly competitive price and no recurring monthly fees.
Can a small digital picture frame play photos from social media?
A web album feature is what allows digital picture frames to import and sync photos from social media, photo-sharing sites, and even online storage platforms. While the feature might have different names with different brands, Pix-Star’s frames offer arguably the most robust web album feature.
You can import photos from a dozen external sources including Facebook, Instagram, Google Photos, Google Drive, Flickr, Dropbox, wirelessly from a folder on your computer, and more! Pix-Star’s web albums are saved both to the cloud and locally on the frame for offline access.
Pix-Star lets you remotely start slideshows from synced web albums that are saved locally on the frame. Here you can also manage web albums, update and sync newly added photos, change which web album is playing in a slideshow, and more. Web albums are easily managed with Pix-Star’s web dashboard for your Pix-Star frame or multi-frame control groups.
Can I play videos on a small digital picture frame?
Small digital picture frames rarely support video and audio playback. It’s very common for cheap and even mid-range digital picture frames to not offer any multimedia support as they don’t have speakers or hardware capabilities for video/audio playback.
Higher-end frames like the Pix-Star offer enhanced video and audio support. For example, Pix-Star’s frames let you play 2-minute video clips and audio recordings on any of your frames. You can send these clips to any of your Pix-Star frames via the mobile app. While 2 minutes may not seem like much, it’s more than almost all competing frames at Pix-Star’s price point.
Do small digital picture frames use touchscreens?
Small digital picture frames with touchscreens are slightly more common in the mid-range of the market than in the cheap range. Touchscreens are also more common among smaller digital picture frames due to the cost of larger, higher-resolution panels.
Medium and large digital picture frames with touchscreens often have to sacrifice features and functionality to keep the frame competitively priced, which is rarely worth it. Touchscreens aren’t ideal for digital frames. They’re usually glossy, fingerprint prone, scratch easily, and aren’t very durable.
