Digital picture frames have been out for years but is not a very wide spread concept. This is because they’re either too expensive, not intuitive or very elegant. Nixplay has changed this with their latest digital picture frame Iris. It’s easily one of the nicest screens we’ve seen of this nature by far.
Hardware
Nixplay has a line of digital frames for different needs but the Iris stands above them all as something to truly show off at your apartment/house. It has a silk metal-finish coming in three colors of either Silver, Peach Copper or Burnished Bronze. Probably its more detailed feature as it looked even better then most of my frames hung up on walls that cost twice the amount. It also features a 1024×768 IPS display and that might not seem like alot for its 8″ size it is. The display gave great picture quality given you’ve taken good photos and has many ways to change its orientation.
The frame connects to a power outlet or computer from usb via a strong cable that’s attached to it. This cable also doubles as the stand for the frame that can be propped vertically and horizontally. There are no real buttons or slots in the device as the remote is its main tool for changing settings, playing the photos or customize its layout.
Software
Nixplay has made connecting your digital frames pretty painless from their Nixplay account when you set it up. From here anyone you’d like can go in and create new playlists of photos or add to existing ones. Many great ideas spawn for such features as those that are a long way from home or have relatives and friends can share photos with each other or even update a frame in someones home. We especially loved all the settings you can do with the pictures to make it fit the frame and fun ways of it transitioning.
While having great features it isn’t without its hiccups as there are some missteps. The frames cable which doubles as its stand is an interesting move and while great in concept not always in execution. Sometimes when positioning it on the corner or a desk you’d have to make sure the cord is in a specific direction along with the frame not only to hold it up but to give it enough length. This wasn’t a major issue as you just need to think of how you’d set it up before hand.
That’s also not as bad as the overall software hiccup we had when loading new images or playlists to the frame itself. When doing so we see that the frame loads the pictures but will come up empty when looking at the new playlist and even after showing up the device will not load it stating there’s no playlist. This most likely is due to the fact it’s still download the pictures onto the device but there’s no prompt stating that it is which is confusing to those using it?
Bottomline
Overall the Nixplay Iris is a great digital picture frame which isn’t too bad for its current price of $199. The elegance of the frame is enough to sell us on that but if you remember that the complements are mainly digital Nixplay also has plans on opening up its software to developers which can open the doors for interesting features such as videos which would make this a steel!
[…] recently had the pleasure to review the Nixplay Iris digital picture frame which can be found here and we liked it so much that we’ve partnered with Nixplay to give one away to our audience. […]