Does a wall digital picture frame work with Wi-Fi?
Getting a wall digital picture frame with Wi-Fi capabilities is essential. Most premium wall-mounting frames like the Pix-Star offer extensive Wi-Fi and cloud-enabled features & functions. On the other hand, most cheap and mid-range digital picture frames don’t offer any Wi-Fi connectivity. Instead, they work off a combination of internal storage space and USB/SD card support.
That being said, Pix-Star’s frames can also work offline. They have 8GB of internal storage and support USB/SD cards (without limiting their maximum supported capacity). Pix-Star’s plug & play feature lets you connect a USB/SD card and play slideshows directly on the frame without having to copy any of the content to Pix-Star’s internal storage first – giving you virtually unlimited storage space and offline functionality.
What to look for in a wall digital picture frame?
The first feature to look for in a wall digital picture frame is a mounting system. We recommend getting a frame that supports using a standard VESA mount as it offers a robust and easy-to-set-up mount that supports various orientations.
The second feature to look for is Wi-Fi support. The frame should be able to connect to Wi-Fi, send & receive photos & other media from anywhere in the world, and be remotely controlled. Wi-Fi connectivity also paves the way for extremely useful features like cloud storage and cloud-enabled features like web albums and importing photos directly from your computer to your frame.
Finally, make sure to get a wall digital picture frame with a 4:3 aspect ratio, at least an 800×600 resolution display, and a display between 10 to 15-inches. Smaller frames are hard to see from across the room and at angles. Larger displays offer better immersion and a more alluring viewing experience. We suggest a 4:3 aspect ratio as this matches the ratio that most modern smartphones capture photos in – so you don’t need to worry about photos being cropped or boxed in by black pillar bars.
What is the best wall digital picture frame?
Pix-Star’s 10-inch and 15-inch wall digital picture frames are arguably the best on the market in terms of functionality and value for money. Pix-Star’s frames support being wall-mounted in both landscape and portrait modes. Additionally, they support using a standard VESA mount, have dedicated hanging holes, and an attachable stand for resting the frame on a flat surface.
Pix-Star’s digital frames all come with free-for-life cloud storage and automatic cloud backups. All incoming photos, videos, and audio messages sent wirelessly to the frame are saved to both the cloud and internal storage. Pix-Star’s 8GB of internal is more than enough space for all of your favorite memories – and is large enough to offer versatile and robust offline functionality.
Pix-Star’s web interface lets you sync photo albums from external sources like social media, photo-sharing, and online storage platforms. These are available offline once saved and have the potential to automate much of the photo-sharing process. Finally, Pix-Star’s remote-control feature lets you remote manage & control up to 25 connected frames from anywhere in the world. It’s done via the web interface and lets you adjust settings, start slideshows, manage storage, and much more.
How to set up a wall digital picture frame?
Before setting up a wall digital picture frame, make sure you have the necessary wall-mounting equipment on the frame. If a frame is made to be wall-mounted, it will usually come with support for a standard VESA mount of the frame’s rear.
If there is no standard VESA mount, there may be dedicated hanging holes that let you hang the frame on the wall in different orientations. As an example, Pix-Star’s frames support using a standard VESA mount, have built-in hanging holes, offer an attachable stand, and support both landscape and portrait with all three of the above mounting/resting methods.
If a digital frame has none of the above mounting or resting methods, then it’s probably not meant for wall-mounting. While you could DIY build a setup to mount these frames on the wall, there are many things you have to take into account (overheating, blocking the input port for USB/SD cards or power inlet, etc.).
Once the frame is mounted on the wall in the desired orientation, you then need to connect to Wi-Fi. This lets you send photos to the frame remotely – often through either a mobile app or web interface (even email in some cases). We don’t recommend buying non-Wi-Fi digital picture frames as they don’t have the features & real-world functionality to cater to the needs of the connected modern home & family.
Do wall digital picture frames use touchscreens?
Very few wall digital picture frames use touchscreens. They’re less durable, quite a bit more expensive, and are often poorly made and hard to use. While this is truer for cheaper and mid-range digital frames, it’s not something unfamiliar in the upper end of the market. Very few premium wall-mounting digital frames use touchscreens.
Top frames like the Pix-Star choose to go for such as letting you remotely control your Pix-Star frames from anywhere in the world. This is done through the Pix-Star Snap web interface and is easy to use and set up. Through this remote-control feature, you can adjust your frame’s settings, start slideshows, manage local & cloud storage, and much more.
You’ll find that you hardly need to use the touchscreen interface – especially when there’s a responsive handheld remote that can get the job done without requiring you to stand directly in front of the frame.
Touchscreens are prone to be damaged by small knocks and falls, along with being fingerprint prone. You’ll find that you have to clean the screen after every use, or suffer through the annoying marks that make the screen hard to view from a distance or at an angle.
Touchscreen displays are rarely found on digital picture frames with screens larger than 8-inches. This is mainly due to the high cost of these panels. The higher cost that they bring needs to be offset by removing some features and functions such as free-for-life cloud storage, video & audio support, versatile slideshows, remote control functionality, and more.
We don’t recommend buying a digital picture frame that uses a touchscreen if it has a display larger than 8-inches. Even for these sub-8-inch frames, you still often have to make sacrifices to make room for the higher cost of the panel. We also suggest that most modern homes & families need a digital frame with a 10-inch display or larger. It ensures you get great immersive slideshows and a frame that can effortlessly fill any room it’s mounted in.
