Best Digital Photo Frame Solution?

stirlo on 23/10/2018 - 12:05

I'm looking into getting a digital photo frame as I never get around to printing things out.

I've looked at the market a bit and it seems there's plenty of low quality Chinese imports available from ebay for $50-100 and the same ones are in shops for $80-170. I've looked at the ones in the shops and they all seem to have terrible screens. Considering you can get a 24" Full HD IPS monitor for $150 or an retina IPS iPad screen for under $100 the photo frame options are pretty poor. Being an ozbargainer I'm trying to find the best bang for buck solution.

The smart home solutions for Amazon and Google look nice but they're more expensive and too thick to hang on a wall. The Google home hub also seems like it has a very small screen.

There's a Nixplay brand in America that seems to make good quality frames but they're still low spec'd and a ripoff compared to what the hardware should cost.

Best bang for buck seems to be buying an Android table from China and using that however it's very difficult to tell screen quality from spec sheets and renders. Does any one have any experience importing a cheap android tablet that had a good screen? Any suggestions for model numbers?

Otherwise iPads have excellent screens and I'm considering using one however its not as customisable as the other solutions and the cheapest iPad 3's still seem to cost over $200. Considering I got an iPad 2017 for $300 from Harvey norman last year it just doesn't seem a good deal to pay $200.

Lastly should I just buy a Monitor/TV and use that to display photos? Has anyone else done this? Do they end up looking too big/out of place? The price is very competitive compared to the dedicated solutions but it does seem unusual.

Any other tips? Also does any one know any good photo frame apps if I end up going the android option?

Poll Options

  • 0
    Cheap eBay 10" Frame
  • 0
    Store purchased 10" frame
  • 0
    Cheap Android Tablet
  • 5
    Older Model iPad
  • 3
    Google Home Hub
  • 0
    Echo Show
  • 0
    Nixplay
  • 1
    32" TV screen
  • 2
    22" computer monitor
Electrical & Electronics Digital Photo Frame

Comments

  • bobbified on 23/10/2018 - 12:17

    looking into getting a digital photo frame

    What? These things still exist?

    • stirlo on 23/10/2018 - 12:19

      They basically don't. All that exists is the same 2 (7" & 10") poor quality Chinese models that are rebranded by retailers and sold to grandparents around xmas. Someone should do a kickstarter for one that taps into Insta/FB/iCloud and doesn't look like shit for younger peeps…

      • bobbified on 23/10/2018 - 13:16
        +1

        I considered buying one a while ago and then I got one for my birthday. There was the burn-in issue that kept getting talked about and the fact that in the room, it's bright and I couldn't sleep with it on. The burn in issue never happened to me because I had it off all the time!

        IMHO, I think printing the pictures at Officeworks and putting it in a traditional frame beats an electronic screen. It's much cheaper as well.

  • HighAndDry on 23/10/2018 - 13:18

    There was someone on the forums asking what to do with an old tablet. See if they're looking to sell? Or just buy an old one off gumtree/ebay.

  • BuyoTheCat on 23/10/2018 - 14:25

    My friend uses and old ipad for such a purpose.
    It is the first gen ipad. not really good for anything else

  • eug on 23/10/2018 - 15:38

    If you can get over the size and non-wall-hangability of the Google Home Hub, it looks like a winner.

    The US$149 Google Home Hub is not just a digital photo frame, but it’s such a good digital photo frame that if it did absolutely nothing else, I could see many parents and grandparents paying the asking price for it without thinking twice.

    Google says it tuned the auto-adjustment feature specifically to make photos displayed on the screen look like a printed image in a frame.

    And it works. The Home Hub’s screen is lovely to look at, never too bright, with pleasing saturation and colors. The relatively low 1024 x 600 pixel resolution is never a problem in use and it looks great from across the room or just a couple of feet away. The screen is very good at combating glare and truly does look different than any other digital display I’ve viewed photos on. It’s remarkable how effective Google’s tuning is at re-creating how a printed image looks. Unlike the crappy digital photo frames that were popular a decade ago, the Home Hub actually does justice to your images. I found myself just staring at the thing for minutes at a time waiting for it to refresh with a new memory.

    • stirlo on 23/11/2018 - 22:37

      Ended up buying one of these and I have to agree with the review above. It looks way better than any other one on the market. Only downside was the small picture size. Here’s hoping they release a max version sometime soon

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