By now you’re probably aware that we love taking photos. Our Instagram is full of them because we also love to share them. From recording milestones to family holidays to moments that are too precious to forget, we want to remember them all – even more so as parents.
As two mums who are likely only ever going to have ‘the one’ we are acutely aware that something that T does now may not happen again next week, so capturing those faces, for example, are priceless, as they’ll be gone before we know it. It’s not long now before he starts school so we’re soaking up as much as we can.
As a family who likes to share certain memories and display them proudly you can imagine that photo frames breed like rabbits in our house, and they do, but over the past few years the space in which to store them has not. So we needed some help, and Nixplay have done just that.
Nixplay Seed
The Nixplay Seed is an electronic photo frame that enables you to send photos from your phone (via an app) to the photo frame via Wi-Fi. Allowing you to share memories the moment they happen or create ‘playlists’ of your favourite collection of photos. By adding more photos you soon create your own ‘slide show’ of photos that change every few minutes.
We were recently sent the 8-inch version in Mango (it also comes in Mulberry, Black, and Blue) to try out to see how well it kept up with our collection of photos. Funnily enough, this isn’t the first Nixplay photo frame we’ve had, we actually have a previous version – the Original – and we love having it on in the background during mealtimes or family gatherings.
The Nixplay Seed, however, is one of their newest models and is much lighter (359 grams) in comparison, making it incredibly versatile when it comes to placing it around the home. It also comes with speakers and a 1027 × 768 HD display. Included within the frame is also an infrared motion sensor to pick up movement when someone enters the room (it ‘sleeps’ when not being admired!).
There’s also a nifty little remote included, although you can also control the frame with your phone!
When ours arrived we knew exactly what to put on it – our photos from our holiday to Corfu.
Setup
Setting up your frame is really easy.
First, choose whether you want your frame to be landscape or portrait. The power cable to the rear of the frame is generous making it perfect for any room. Next, download the app and follow the instructions to connect your phone and then your photos.
As well as photos from your phone’s gallery (it’s compatible with both Apple and Android) the app can also connect to Facebook, Instagram, Dropbox, Flickr, and Google Photos if you so wish.
One of the things we love about the frame is how reactive it is to its environment. The lighting in our house often changes, from being a sun trap to a cave, not to mention when it’s evening time and we turn off the big lights and put on some lamps, however this isn’t an issue for the frame as it intelligently dims or brightens depending on the lighting available – meaning it won’t blind you in the dark or ask you to squint through the darkness.
The actual quality of the picture is visually stunning. Both Sharon and I have versions of the Google Pixel (2 & 3), which have amazing cameras, however adding them to this frame makes them look even better (which we didn’t think was possible).
Navigating the app
Once set up is complete, you’re free to manage the settings as you please, and browsing the app is super simple. If you want to change how the photos appear on the screen, no problem, simply edit the transition or pan mode. You also have the option to add a sleep timer, a screensaver, as well as more photo frames!
Within the app you an also create different playlists, view how much memory you have left, as well as access the remote if you don’t want to get up.
Global sharing
I think one of the most striking features about the Nixplay photo frame is their ability to share photos across the world. For example, Sharon’s technophobe mum lives elsewhere in the country, making sharing photos difficult (unless we print and send them hard copies in the post for framing!), however with Nixplay we would have the ability to place a photo frame in her lounge whilst we uploaded photos from our sofa, meaning Sharon’s mum could have a constant flow of grandson updates!
This would also work for family members who live across the world or perhaps don’t have the ability or space to keep updating photo frames (nursing or care homes, for example). It warms my heart knowing that after a holiday or the release of school photos they could be up on the app and across the world within seconds ready to show distant family.
Value for money?
The Nixplay Seed is around £129.99 from most online and high-street shops, and I would say that this is great value for money, especially looking at the savings you could make on photo frames! We still love having frames on our walls and shelves, but having a Nixplay means we can have one frame dedicated to just ‘holidays’ if we wanted to.
The frame itself is light and versatile, and the quality of the display is incredible. The options to personalise make every new photo a joy to reveal and having separate playlists means that if you wanted to just have (embarrassing) baby photos for an up-and-coming 40th birthday party you could!
If you could display all your favourite photos, what would that playlist look like? Birthdays? Holidays? Embarrassing moments? Ever thought about exchanging several frames for the one?
Disclosure: We were sent an 8-inch Nixplay Seed for the purpose of an honest review, however all thoughts, opinions, and images are our own.
Please note: All prices mentioned were correct at the time of writing.
