Is the Sammix digital frame good for families?
A great digital frame for families looks very different from what you’d expect from a frame for the solo user. The Sammix digital frame has a couple of family-focused features such as a mobile app, photo-mail, and USB/SD card support. Unfortunately, many functional issues stop these frames from being great digital frames for the family!
Cloud storage is a very important feature to look for in a digital frame. Sammix digital frames don’t offer any cloud storage or backups. To view photos on the frame, save them to the frame’s internal storage and start slideshows from there. By contrast, Pix-Star’s frames aren’t much pricier – yet they offer free-for-life cloud storage.
Remote control and multi-frame control groups help families manage their frames no matter where they are in the world. Sammix offers neither of these features. You can’t use the mobile app or a web interface to adjust the frame’s settings, start slideshows, manage storage, etc. This is offered by other frames like the Pix-Star – and are incredibly versatile features for the modern home & family!
Photo-sharing in bulk helps save time and effort when sharing photos with the whole family. You’ll often have more than one frame (or one for your grandparents), so sharing in bulk is a must-have feature. Sammix only lets your bulk share photos by USB/SD card, but more on this down below. The mobile app (either the Frameo App or Sammix’s Ourphoto App) only lets you share 9 pictures at once. It’s not enough for the number of pictures most families share.
Sammix digital frames do come with USB/SD card support – although it could be much better. The SD card slot rarely works and USB/SD cards are limited to 32GB. You can’t view photos in slideshows directly off the USB/SD card. You can do this with competing frames like the Pix-Star (whereby you can use a USB/SD card as connected external storage for playing photos, videos, and audio files.
Video & audio-only have limited support on Sammix digital photo frames. Video clips can’t be longer than 50-seconds and cannot play inside slideshows. You can’t view them individually. Audio files can play over slideshows, but it’s hard to set up and can only be transferred to the frame via USB/SD card.
Competing frames like the Pix-Star offer a web album feature. This lets you connect to and import photo albums from social media, photo-sharing, and online storage platforms. These web albums can play as slideshows that can be started from anywhere in the world. They’re saved to internal storage and can automatically sync and update whenever you add new photos. Sammix doesn’t offer any similar features. You need to manually download and send these social media photos to the frame.
In summary, Sammix digital frames are missing a lot of important features and functions for families. They’re not easy to use and set up. They’re not well suited to elderly users. You can’t control them remotely or connect to social media and photo-sharing sites. You can’t share photos in bulk over Wi-Fi and the mobile app is very limited. For a slightly higher price, you can get the Pix-Star digital frame – arguably the best digital frame in 2022 for modern homes and families!
Do Sammix digital frames use touchscreens?
Sammix digital frames have a touchscreen for navigating the menus, slideshows, and more. We generally recommend avoiding touchscreen digital frames as they’re more expensive and less durable. They scratch easily when they don’t use a matte finish display. When they do use a matte finish, dirt and oil are very hard to wipe away, making the display hard to see from an angle.
Sammix’s touch display is slow and unresponsive. You’ll often find yourself double-inputting touches or having to wait after each touch. This is particularly frustrating as you have to browse through all the frame’s photos in slideshows to find a specific photo. We suggest getting a non-touchscreen digital frame with remote configuration support such as the Pix-Star Wi-Fi & cloud frame.
Can Sammix digital frame play video and audio?
Sammix digital frame can only play short 30 to 50-second video clips. These video clips can only load to the frame through the mobile app and only one at a time. Audio files can play over slideshows, though you first need to save them to the frame’s internal storage from a USB/SD card. You can’t include videos in slideshows, unlike Pix-Star’s frames that offer this feature.
It’s worth noting that Sammix digital frame doesn’t have a file explorer. This means that you cannot create folders or albums from which to start slideshows. Slideshows play through all the frame’s saved photos, playing them in relatively random order. Finding a single video or audio clip can be very slow and frustrating.
How to send photos to the Sammix digital frame?
Use the Frameo mobile app to send up to 9 photos to one Sammix frame at a time. It’s slow and doesn’t suit bulk photo-sharing. For comparison, the Pix-Star Snap mobile app lets you send up to 250 to several Pix-Star frames at the same time.
Emailing photos is another option with Sammix frames. You can send more than 9 pictures at the same time, but setting up the photo-mail system is slow. Emails are often slow to deliver and require you to sign up for the Ourphoto App on your computer.
USB/SD card support offers the only bulk photo-sharing method. You can’t play slideshows directly off the connected USB/SD card. They’re also restricted to 32GB and SD cards rarely work. For reference, Pix-Star frames don’t restrict the maximum size of USB/SD cards and you can play slideshows directly off them.
Do Sammix digital frames have cloud storage?
Sammix digital frames don’t offer cloud storage or cloud backups. All photos are saved to the frame’s internal storage and there’s no way to play slideshows directly off external sources like USB/SD cards or social media. Cloud storage is an essential feature for modern homes and families. It enables features like remote configuration support, web albums, and online access.
Pix-Star’s cloud and Wi-Fi digital frames are arguably the best cloud-enabled frames on the market. You get free-for-life cloud storage, automatic backups, remote configuration support, online access, and web album support (importing photos directly from social media to your frame).
