Is The Frame by Samsung worth the high price?
The Frame by Samsung, a high-end hybrid digital photo frame and Smart TV that looks great on paper. A 4K display, access to the Samsung Smart Things app, customizable appearance for photos & artwork, access to an Art Store for tons of professional artwork, and more. Unfortunately – in typical Samsung fashion – the real-world performance that these digital frames offer is less than satisfactory.
Right off the bat, The Frame by Samsung is extremely expensive. Ranging from around $530 up to $4,300, this isn’t something you’ll buy on a whim. Despite the extreme price these digital frames command, they struggle to find their place on the market.
Samsung’s digital frame/smart TV doesn’t quite deliver what you’d expect from a Smart TV (YouTube app seldom works, buggy interface, poor display durability) and don’t quite do enough as a digital photo frame (severely limited internal storage, cannot play photos directly from a USB, poor slideshow controls, no cloud storage). The result is a Smart TV/digital photo frame that falls into the nether – a fact that’s worsened by an outrageous price point.
Unlike top digital photo frames like the Pix-Star 15-inch frame, The Frame by Samsung can’t be connected or managed in multi-frame control groups. It’s prohibitively expensive to buy several Samsung digital frames for the family, and remote-control capabilities are limited (despite access to the Smart Things mobile app).
Another major upset is the 16:9 display aspect ratio – arguably the worst aspect ratio for displaying photos. Most smartphones capture in 4:3 and most cameras capture in 3:2. This is one of the biggest issues with this cross between a Smart TV and a digital photo frame. Photos need to be edited before being sent to The Frame by Samsung – or they will be boxed into the center of the display by black pillar bars.
When you consider all of the issues such as poor quality-control in previous iterations, faulty displays, awful customer support, and extremely limited features (as both a digital photo frame and a smart TV), it’s very difficult to justify buying Samsung’s digital picture frame.
At The Frame by Samsung’s price point, you could buy a dedicated smart TV along with several top digital picture frames like the Pix-Star 15-inch version. You can then interconnect them, share photos, videos, and audio messages with your loved ones, and effortlessly bring the family together – but more on Pix-Star’s frames down below.
How does The Frame by Samsung compare with Pix-Star’s 15-inch digital photo frame?
Perhaps the most significant difference between The Frame by Samsung and Pix-Star’s 15-inch digital picture frame is the price. The former ranges from $530 up to $4,300; whereas the Pix-Star 15-inch costs an affordable $199.99. With such a significant price leap, you’d expect a comparatively large leap in performance, functionality, features, and durability – but this simply isn’t the case.
As digital photo frames, Pix-Star’s frames are known to be one the most versatile and feature-rich on the market. You get free-for-life cloud storage, 8GB of internal storage, USB/SD card support, a mobile app & web dashboard, the ability to import photos directly from social media, photo-sharing, and online storage platforms, remote-control capabilities, and much more.
By comparison, The Frame by Samsung only offers 4GB of internal storage (of which 3.5GB are taken up by pre-loaded apps), leaving very little space for your high-resolution photos (~10-20 high-res photos or art pieces). This negates the benefit of the impressive 4K display. You need to downsize photos to lower resolution to store just around 75 photos (which is usually the limit).
Additionally, Samsung’s digital photo frames don’t offer any cloud storage. These digital frames can’t read photos directly from an inserted USB drive (they need to be copied to the limited internal storage first). Even if you’re willing to accept all of these quality-of-use issues, slideshows are extremely limited. You can’t choose the order & frequency at which photos are displayed – and the shortest slide transition speed is a whopping 10-minute (compared to just a couple of seconds with Pix-Star’s frames).
Pix-Star’s frames can plug-and-play photos from an inserted USB/SD card, almost all of the 8GB internal storage is available for your photos, videos, and audio files. You can send & receive photos & other media from anywhere in the world through the Pix-Star Snap mobile app (don’t worry, it’s easy to use), as web albums via the web dashboard, and directly through email.
While Pix-Star’s digital picture frames can’t boast the same 4K display, their 4:3 aspect ratio closes much of this gap. Slideshows are extremely versatile & customizable, photos take up the whole display, and you can manually skip to previous or next pictures. There are tons of slideshow options and videos that can be included (along with audio files/web music/radio stations being able to play over slideshows).
For the price of one of Samsung’s new digital frames, you could buy several Pix-Star frames, remotely manage & control them in groups of up to 25 connected Pix-Star frames, and send photos from anywhere in the world. Unlike Samsung’s The Frame, you don’t need to pay for any expensive subscription packages or hidden fees. Pix-Star’s frames have durable matte-finish displays and aren’t nearly as prone to damage as Samsung’s overly-large digital frames.
How many photos can Samsung’s digital photo frame hold?
One of the most common complaints about The Frame by Samsung is the severely limited internal storage capacity. Their frame comes with 4GB on internal storage – which would normally be enough – but around 3.5GB of it is taken up by the pre-loaded apps. This usually leaves you with enough space for 10 to around 70 photos, depending on their resolution and size. This is hardly enough to be considered sufficient for a digital frame – let alone a frame for families or homes.
Additionally, Samsung digital frames cannot read or display photos directly off an inserted USB/SD card. Any photos or artwork need to be copied to the frame’s internal storage before they can be viewed in slideshows. This pales in comparison with Pix-Star’s (and other top digital frames) free-for-life cloud storage, USB/SD card support, and 8GB of internal storage.
How long does The Frame by Samsung last?
If you spend any time reading through reviews for previous iterations of The Frame by Samsung (e.g., their 2019 and 2020 versions), they’re plagued by quality control complaints. From lackluster customer support to the frame’s being delivered dead-on-arrival or failing within a couple of months – you would expect a lot more from a device at this price point.
Samsung has a long way to come before its digital frames can compete with other top digital frames like the Pix-Star. At The Frame’s price point, you’d expect a device that can perform effectively for several years.
Can I load photos to The Frame by Samsung via USB/SD card?
To load photos to Samsung’s digital picture frame by USB, they need to be copied to the frame’s very limited internal storage. No plug & play feature lets you read & display photos directly off an inserted USB drive. This means that there is no way to expand the limited local storage of The Frame by Samsung, which in turn severely limits its versatility as a digital frame – and falls well short of what you’d expect at this price point.
