Nixplay - W08K Touch 8-inch LCD Smart Digital Photo Frame - Black

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• Rated 4 out of 5 stars

  Works Great, Bit of Learning Curve

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  My goal for a smartscreen was to allow for easy access to upload photos from different people. The NixPlay UI has three different sharing methods and if the goal is for photos to automatically go to a Frame and a Playlist, then you want to share the Playlist that you intend to use, not share the Frame or just add Friends. It would be nice it if just had a primary share feature with custom privileges, it would definitely keep the redundancy of having to send multiple requests to just one and streamline the whole process. I can immediately recommend this for anyone that would be thinking for a grandparent or parent that may not be technologically inclined. While it is not hard to get up and running, there is a bit of a learning curve to the UI and its full abilities. The ability though to remotely uploaded to the Frame is pretty cool and have other people contribute. The settings has options to play on Photos in a list, the newest 100, 1000, 2000…and so on. I was thinking 30-50 range would suffice if this is cycling all day. It has the ability to have Date/Time on the screen, set a sleep schedule, and also a screen time out feature if there is no activity in the room. The last one I don’t really see the need for as my goal would be on all the time, except for when everyone is sleeping. The included documentation is very light on what the Frame can do and how to navigate around it, so that is where the learning curve comes in. There is a Micro-USB port that is on the device but there is no mention of what it is for; the AC Adapter has its own port. Possibly just another charging port, but I didn’t attempt to do anything with it. There is no documentation on the storage size for the device itself as i don’t think it has an user accessible storage. Under the Account Info screen it show Storage Usage, Frames count, and Shared Playlist count; 10GB, 5 Total, and 5 Total respectively. There is an option to link to Google Photos, but to be honest, I wasn’t too keen on setting this feature up as it does get quite a bit of access to your Google account. The allure to have this link is that it is easier to share a Google Photos folder and have people upload to it than asking people to setup a NixPlay account and send photos via it (NixPlay does have a browser option too, so downloading the App is not necessary). Also if the photos are just played via the Google folder then they may not be necessary to be uploaded to the NixPlay server? If it doesn’t need this then effectively you could potentially never need more NixPlay storage. The included 10GB with the free account is not bad though. Videos would definitely eat up more of that storage, but resolution is only 1280x720 (720x1280) depending on orientation of the Frame and that’s not going to eat up a lot of space at 15s a clip. There are other perks to upgrading to a paid subscription, but you can decide if it is best for your needs. The touchscreen aspect is nice to control the device and access all the same settings available from the app, so once it is setup and attached to an account (which it can only be attached to one account at a time), WiFi settings and screen control settings, etc can be accessed directly through the frame. Video feature…this is actually cooler than I thought it would be and at max audio, it is loud enough, but not too loud. The Free Account Subscription allows 15s of video playback which I think is pretty good. I uploaded a full 1 minute video and it clipped it to the 15s. Depending on your internet upload speeds videos can take awhile, so probably best to trim them before uploading and you get the 15s of time you want. The NixPlayer App has a built-in editor so this can be done then; it also allows you to play the clip while trimming to get the markers placed where you want them. The speed at which this editing takes place is definitely going to depend on your mobile device capabilities. The included stand is magnetic and I found it to be adequately strong to hold up the Frame, which is very lightweight. If putting in the portrait mode, I would recommend on a table or space no higher than 3ft. The best picture quality is when looking at just below eye level or lower. So when sitting on a couch, etc to view if it is then higher than eye level then the images will be washed out. However, plug location is going to be a determining factor for placement so most likely it will remain in the optimal height off the floor; end table and coffee tables would be great, bookshelves possibly, but an equivalent to a mantle height would not be good when sitting down. The 8inch version I think is adequate, but the 10inch version I think would have been a better choice, of course, if you need a smaller footprint, then the 8 inch is great. I cannot think of anything bad to say about the Frame. So far everything is working smoothly and as I would expect.

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  Posted 3 years ago by MnstrMike

• Rated 4 out of 5 stars

  Good for sharing with family

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  The frame is nice. Crisp screen, and understated frame. Hardware / Design: The screen is an IPS LCD screen. There is a hidden motion sensor so the frame can turn itself off if no one is around (This is configurable and can be disabled). It can also play videos from a photostream. The frame is all plastic. The front is matte black with the sides painted silver. The back has a nice weaved texture that looks nice. The legs have a clever design that uses a magnet to keep the leg in place and can be rotated wit ease. The power plug comes off the back of the frame, from the center, and uses a barrel type plug. It does not use a standard USB type of plug, which I'd have preferred. Setup: The first time it starts, it takes a few minutes to initialize and it will then ask for the Wi-Fi credentials, that are to be typed directly on the frame (It's a touchscreen). In my cases it connected to Wi-Fi right away but it must've been looking for something on the network. Eventually after several minutes it prompted if it was using a public Wi-Fi with a sign-in portal, which of course, no. Clicked to continue and from that it worked just fine. It updated its software within a couple of minutes and it was then ready to use. To use it, one needs to create a Nixplay account (First and Last name, email and username). This can be done from a web browser or the Nixplay app on the phone. The screen shows the instructions and QR code to download the app and it shows a code that is then used to pair the frame with the account. Sharing pictures and cloud offers: To send pictures to the frame there are several options: Link with a Google Photos account, Facebook Photos, Instagram Photos, Dropbox and Flickr. Photos can also be hosted on the 'Nixplay' cloud, which as of writing gives 10 GB for free and also offers, of course, a subscription with additional capacity. Photos can be loaded to the nixplay service from a web browser, the phone's app or via email (Nixplay provides a personalized email account one can email to load photos to the frame, and the website provides a way to configure trusted email senders). I'm however an iPhone user who mostly uses iCloud photos and Amazon Photos because I also use Prime and it offers a decent photo service, and I also use Plex for storing other photos and videos (Thinks loaded in bulk from kids sports competitions are good examples). None of these services are offered by Nixplay, so the other options to me would be to use some of the services Nixplay does support or use their cloud. 10 GB of free storage is a good amount to keep a smaller selection of my pictures on display, but it won't be enough. The other services they do support are either too expensive or of questionable privacy, so I'm left in a bind here. The packaging mentioned Amazon Alexa support and this is true that it can be linked with an Alexa account to be able to ask Alexa to tun off the frame and other simple commands, but does not integrate with Amazon services. Also I was under the impression that the frame could link directly to 3rd party photo services, but It's not the case. The limited number of integrations have to be done via the Nixplay service (Which is currently free to use. So I thought that I would be able to use a connected frame that would integrate with common cloud photo providers but instead it depends on the manufacturer services with a limited number of integrations, and no option for local network storage. Conclusion: Well designed frame that works well when displaying your own pictures or to share with relatives. However the selection of cloud providers is limited if you're not interested in a subscription.

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  Posted 3 years ago by emiliosic

• Rated 4 out of 5 stars

  App Update for crop feature is a must

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  I was about to give this Nixplay photo frame a much lower rating for the one single feature that ALL digital photo frames should have: the ability to auto-crop photos to your frame orientation right when you upload the photo. When I first tested the frame I didn’t see any way at all to Edit the aspect ratio of pictures in the app. This is hugely important because traditional cameras take pictures at the standard photo ratio of 2:3 and iPhones take pictures at 3:4. So on the Nixplay in landscape mode, you will get pillar boxes on the sides of the picture frame IF you don’t crop the photo before you upload it. Originally the app had no option to do this but now you can by choosing Edit > transform > then choose either 16:10 in landscape or 10:16 in portrait. This gives you the square overlay that allows you to drag and crop over your photo. Again, all digital photo frames absolutely need this feature in the software, and you shouldn’t need to press any buttons, it should default to the option to crop/adjust based on frame orientation. If you don’t need any aspect ratio edits, you just hit next. I did take one star off because the Nixplay+ is required for literally every other edit function which is laughable to put everything behind the subscription. Was the transform option subscription only too before the last update? Good thing it wasn’t, bc that would have sunk the product. Otherwise the frame is attractive, screen looks good and the smart features and app control allowing you to set when and how the frame displays pictures are nice. I have a frame from a competitor that is still a bit better from the app perspective like it will do two portraits side by side in landscape instead of pillarboxing the single portrait.

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  Posted 3 years ago by TechBuyer