Most of us have cameras and phones packed with thousands of snaps that rarely see the light of day yet eat up precious memory space, so it’s no surprise we’re constantly searching for ways to store our photos. But what about actually displaying our pics? A survey by Amárach Research shows that less than half of us actually print any of our photos to, you know, look at. Enter digital photo frames…
These displays look a lot like your traditional photo frame, but have a nifty screen built in, which flicks through your images, displaying them in all their glory. You can either select photos from your digital devices – normally via an app on your phone – or use a USB or SD memory card.
Something worth noting is the digital frames without USB or SD memory card slots tend to use cloud-based software to store your photos. So it’s a good idea to check you’re happy with the privacy on these clouds, and that you have adequate storage space for the photos you want to display.
Many digital photo frames now offer friends and family the ability to ping their photos to your frame, too. This is a lovely feature if you want to share photos with loved ones – who you trust, of course (there’ll always be one prankster).
Regarding image quality, the screen’s resolution is the best thing to look at. The higher the number of pixels per inch (ppi), the better the screen will be at displaying images. Of course, it relies on the images being of good quality, too – uncompressed images will always look better, whereas images saved from social media are often compressed and so can look a bit grainy.
How we tested
We spent more than a month trialling digital photo frames in our house. We looked at how large the screens were, how good our photos appeared on the displays, and how nice the frames looked on our shelves, of course. Extra functionality was a bonus, as was the ability to auto rotate and size our images to suit the frame. Here’s how they fared.
The best digital photo frames for 2022 are:
- Best overall – Aura mason digital photo frame: £189, Auraframes.co.uk
- Best for bedside table – Amazon echo show 5: £74.99, Amazon.co.uk
- Best budget buy – Hyjoy wifi digital picture frame: £89.99, Amazon.co.uk
- Best for privacy concerns – Nixplay digital photo frame: £79.99, Amazon.co.uk
- Best for customising display – Nixplay touch screen smart photo frame: £159.99, Nixplay.co.uk
- Best multifunctional screen – Amazon echo show 15: £239.99, Amazon.co.uk
- Best for on the go – Facebook portal go: £79, Facebook.com
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