Nixplay Digital Photo Frames review

It’s no secret that the world has gone crazy for photos. From selfies to food photos, people are taking pictures of anything and everything.

I don’t know about you, but I have a ton of amazing pictures of vacations, family, and my dog all over Instagram and Facebook, but very few of these end up in frames.

In the digital era, Nixplay has solved this problem by making it incredibly easy to display photos. I was recently sent several different Nixplay Digital Photo Frames to review. Here’s the lowdown on how they work, how to make the most of them in your home, and some pros and cons of digital frames.

Setting up the Nixplay Digital Photo Frame

Set-up does take some time, but it’s pretty easy.

Each Nixplay Digital Photo Frame comes with a power cord and a remote control. Since the frame needs to be plugged in, you need to find a spot for it that’s close to a wall outlet.

Once you find the perfect spot, just connect the power cord to the frame, plug it into the wall, and turn the frame on. At this point, the frame prompts you to register for a Nixplay account. This allows you to upload pictures from your social media accounts (including Facebook and Instagram) or online storage (e.g. Dropbox). From here, you can connect the frame to your WiFi and start sending photos to the frame.

Displaying your photos on the Nixplay Digital Photo Frame

There are several options for displaying your pictures on a Nixplay frame.

If you want to display older photos that are already on your computer, you can register for a Nixplay account, upload your photos there, and send them directly to the frame through your WiFi network. For brand new photos taken with a digital camera that haven’t been uploaded to your computer yet, you can put your compatible SD photo card right into the slot on the back of the frame. The final option is to use the USB port in the back of the frame. I tested out this option with the USB included in the box, and it worked well.

Since there are so many different ways to store photos, it makes sense that Nixplay has made all of these options available.

Once your photos are on display, you can enable the motion sensing feature as a way to save electricity. The frame will turn itself off once it no longer senses movement.

Nixplay Digital Photo Frame colours and sizes

The Nixplay Seed comes in several different colours and sizes. Colours include black, blue, mango (a mustard yellow colour), and mulberry (a light burgundy). Sizes range from 7 inch to 10 inch.

The NIX Lux is available in two colours (or, in this case, textures): wood and metal. The frame is 10.1 inches. I didn’t get to try out the frame with the metal finish, but the wood finish was really attractive and looked nice sitting on my kitchen cabinet.

The NIX Advance Widescreen is available in 8 or 10 inch size and comes in black only.

The NIX Advance is available in 8 or 15 inches and comes in black only.

Creative ways to use the Nixplay Digital Photo Frame

There are a surprising number of ways you can use the Nixplay frames.

The frames can either be put on slideshow mode, or you can pause on any picture so that only one photo is visible. Personally, I find the slideshow feature a bit distracting, but I do think it would be a great conversation starter for any guests visiting your home. It’s also great if you can’t choose just one photo to display–you can see them all instead.

If you like the pause feature, you can still switch up the photos by selecting a different photo to display each day (or whenever you feel like seeing something new!).

Because you can send pictures from your social media accounts, it’s also possible to share photo collages you’ve created on Instagram and display them on the frame. Although it doesn’t have the same effect as a collage using multiple frames, it’s still a nice option to be able to see multiple photos at once.

I also pulled quotes that I’d shared on Instagram and created a playlist called “Quotes”. I really like to read quotes daily to inspire and motivate me, so it was nice to be able to display some of my favourites in a frame and be reminded of them daily.

The NIX Advance also allows you to use the frame to view videos. I’ve been wracking my brain to try and figure out why you would want to play videos on a photo frame. The only thing I can think of is if you wanted to show someone a video and you wanted a slightly larger screen than your phone. Otherwise, I feel like it would be extremely distracting to have video constantly playing in the background.

Overall thoughts on the Nixplay Digital Photo Frame

For me, the selling feature of the Nixplay Digital Photo Frame is how easy it is to change the picture that’s on display. With a traditional frame, you have to send it to a print shop, pick it up, take the frame down, and re-hang it with the new picture. No, this isn’t difficult, but it is a multi-step process, and it’s tedious enough for me to leave the same photos up year after year. Nixplay makes it easy to change it up with the click of a button. With so many families choosing to have professional photos done regularly for every occasion from weddings to maternity to newborn photos and beyond, this is a huge advantage.

There are definitely some disadvantages to the fact that you can’t use the frames without a power cord. For example, it limits the number of places you can put it since it needs to be close to an outlet. Then, there’s the look of the cord itself. If you place the frame close to an outlet on a shelf or table, the cord is easy enough to hide. However, if you choose to mount the frame on a wall (which you can do by purchasing a wall mounting kit), I’m not sure how attractive it would look with the cord hanging down.

Aside from the NIX Lux frame, these really look like digital picture frames. This might be OK for some people, but for others who are pickier about home decor, they might want to see more variety with the finishes on the frames.

I really like the versatility of these frames and that they can be used for multiple purposes, including photo slideshows, still photos, and even quotes. I also love that you can send photos directly to someone else’s Nixplay frame. It would make a great gift for relatives, allowing you to instantly share pictures through the Nixplay mobile app.

Overall, the Nixplay Digital Photo Frames are a great way to make the most of your photos.

You can find the Nixplay Digital Photo Frames in the Digital Photo Frames category on the Best Buy website.