It is early August 2021 and Nixplay has released their first touchscreen picture frame ready in time for the holiday season.
I have looked at three other Nixplay models in the past but none of them had a touchscreen. As always I did some real-life testing to give you my unbiased verdict in this article.
My tests are unbiased. There are no financial or material donations to be disclosed. Nixplay has supplied me with a review unit for this test.
A digital frame with a touch screen
I reviewed touchscreen digital picture frames from Feelcare, Skylight, and Dragon before but all Nixplay models so far came with remote control only.
I understand why Nixplay has waited quite some time to launch a touchscreen model themselves. Some of the first touchscreen digital frames felt cheap and the typing experience was a bit underwhelming. Nixplay is a quality photo frame provider, so I guess they wanted to wait until they had found the right technology.
Getting rid of the remote is certainly a big plus although I typically use the virtual iPhone remote on the Nixplay mobile app anyway.
But for many people who are less IT-savvy, using a touchscreen will be a welcome feature. Nixplay has always been very good at designing software, so I was curious how their touch screen implementation looked like.
The 10.1-inches photo frame hardware
The Nixplay W10K touchscreen photo frame arrived in the usual elegant Apple-style packaging which makes the unboxing experience a pleasure. No more remote control in the package, that work is now done on the screen. One less thing to look for!
The plastic frame is 10.1-inches in size and has an aspect ratio of 16:10 which is nice. I wonder if there will be 4:3 or 3:2 models in the future. As the tablet production, where the digital frames are sourced from as well, tends to follow the widescreen trend which is optimized for videos, I doubt it somewhat.
It has an HD resolution of 1280 x 800 px. The frame comes in matt black with gold accents and has a storage capacity of 8 GB which is plenty for thousands of photos.
You can place it on a table or mount it onto a wall. I wonder how many people will mount a small digital picture frame on the wall, I guess that makes more sense for 24” and larger frames. But it’s nice to have the option.
Of course, the frame auto-rotates depending on your choice of portrait or landscape orientation.
The one thing I always liked about Nixplay, was their ingenious stand design which tried its best to hide the power cable.
I don’t quite know yet what to make of the stand design for their touchscreen frame. It just doesn’t have the same simplicity to me but it does its job and places the frame firmly on a table. But I will admit that miss the old stand design a little bit.
It also wasn’t intuitive to put it together or I was just too impatient. Once you have assembled it, it really seems easy and obvious.
But if you want to give it to your grandparents on Christmas, you have to add a five-minute coaching session on how to put together the stand.
The frame has of course WiFi but no USB connection. An SD-card slot is indeed a thing of the past in 2021. If you are afraid of privacy then get a non-WiFi model. Nixplay’s frame is GDPR-compliant, which means that it adheres to the strict European data privacy regulation.
Display and touchscreen
The touchscreen is excellent. Much better than I had seen on other models. Typing is accurate and reliable, like if you are using an iPad.
The HD display resolution of 1280 x 800 px is fine but not outstanding. If you have used Nixplay’s 2K model with 2048×1536 px or the 10.1 inch Aura Carver, which is 1920×1200 px, then you are spoilt for life anyway.
It’s a bit like using an Apple iMac 5K for a few weeks and then going back to an HD screen, thinking that something is wrong with your eyes or glasses.
Most people won’t notice a difference, the experts will.
The Nixplay software
The setup is as easy as always with Nixplay.
In my view, Nixplay always had the most user-friendly app of all manufacturers and they have taken this approach to the on-screen menu which is very easy to operate.
To set up your Nixplay photo frame, you need to download the app for iOS or Android. If you already have a Nixplay account, you will be done in less than 60 seconds. The frame will be found automatically and all you have to do is to confirm a number.
Nixplay carefully updated their mobile phone software but hasn’t changed too much compared to the older versions.
Where your photos come from
Most people will have the photos on their mobile phones and it is easy enough to make albums for the images that are destined for the picture frame.
The Nixplay touchscreen photo frame can be synced with Google Photos directly on the app and with Dropbox, Facebook, and Instagram from the Nixplay website. I have not found an interface with Apple Photos but Apple is always a special animal.
In addition, Alexa and Hey Google are supported as well.
As before you can invite friends & family to add photos to your frame and you can even give out an email address through which you can have photos sent to your frame.
Nixplay also offers a paid subscription but unless you are operating more than five frames or you have a requirement for long videos, you don’t need it.
Conclusion
The ease of use of the Nixplay software if a big plus even if the price is slightly on the higher side.
But trust me, there is nothing worse than an electronic item which is difficult to operate – especially if you are giving it to friends & family that may be less gadget-trained than you are.
If screen quality is more important for you than having a touch control, check out my review of the Nixplay 2K.
My guess is that the Nixplay touchscreen photo frame will be a very popular item during Thanksgiving and the holiday season 2021.
(Photos: Wolfgang Männel)
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