Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Super tiny storage space ruins what could otherwise have been the Cadillac of digital photo frames. It all began well enough when I originally purchased this frame based on its high customer ratings. It was the most expensive photo frame I came across, but my loved ones deserve a Cadillac, don’t they? Setup was pretty easy, including the wireless router connection, and in no time I was uploading family photos off my phone and computer left and right using the handy smartphone app and software that sync with this product. The single deal-breaker was revealed only after a couple weeks of use, and only because I was looking at my Nixplay account on my computer and not in the smartphone app. I had uploaded LESS THAN 200 PHOTOS, but I was shocked to see that I was already using HALF of my allotted frame capacity! That couldn’t be right — could it? With literally thousands and thousands of photos I wanted to share, I was concerned! Digging deeper revealed the terrible truth about Nixplay: The frame only has 8 GB of physical storage and THERE IS NO WAY TO INCREASE THAT. Worse yet, this fact is not revealed anywhere that I could find scouring the product listing. Literally every other digital photo frame I had looked at has the capability to increase storage space via SD cards or USB thumb drives — but not Nixplay! This is such a standard feature across the board that I just did not notice its absence in all the Nixplay product descriptions. I felt like I had just paid for my new Cadillac, and then found out that the gas tank wasn’t included. And, finally, here’s the reason for all this: You can get plenty of online storage and create multiple albums to swap out on that tiny 8 GB storage space, BUT IT’S NOT FREE. Yep, the ultimate goal of this entire setup seems to be to force you to sign up for “Nixplay Plus”, a paid monthly service that you will need to keep up forever as long as you own your frame. The incredibly high price of this frame becomes apparent once you understand the marketing strategy that it uses. Most subscription-based marketing plans will offer you hardware for free or at cost — think free cell phone when you sign up for a two year service plan — and make money off the service that you have to sign up for. Nixplay gets you at both ends, almost forcing you to sign up for a paid plan but also charging a premium for the hardware up front. Just compare the cost of this frame to a full-blown laptop: For about the same price I can get a name brand laptop with a bigger 15-inch screen, full-blown operating system (capable of running a variety of photo slideshow programs), DVD drive, and 500 GB hard drive — literally 60 times more storage space than this photo frame. Seldom have I felt so taken advantage of. So, why the many great reviews? I think it’s from customers who are right where I was at just before I realized I was already running out of storage after only two weeks. They’ve been driving their great new Cadillac for a few days, having a grand time, unaware that their 1-gallon gas tank is about to run out. Eventually after much more research I bought the Pix-Star 15 Inch Wi-Fi Cloud Digital Photo Frame. This photo frame is bigger, much cheaper, has a great picture, and supports external storage media without having to pay for an online storage plan. I’ve been using this frame for months now and love it. Having an option — rather than almost being forced — to subscribe to a service plan would have made me happy to keep this Nixplay frame. As it is, I cannot give a higher review score than one star for a product whose INTENDED functionality forced me to return it. Buy this product if you wish, but be aware that you may never be done paying for it.