Is the Aluratek 14” digital photo frame worth the money?
The Aluratek 14” digital photo frame is designed to be a mid-range digital frame. The lack of Wi-Fi and cloud capability hurts this attempt and makes the frame feel more like a budget model in the real world. Aesthetically, Aluratek frames attractive, but this doesn’t carry over well to their performance.
They’re quite limited in terms of their features and functions due to not having any Wi-Fi or cloud combability. This eliminates any way to send photos to the frame online, including email, mobile app, and via a web interface. It also means you can’t remotely control the frame from either a mobile app or web interface.
Photos and videos are saved onto the frame’s internal storage, which isn’t much at 4GB. These photos can’t be backed up to the cloud, which makes sharing them with other frames and family members quite a challenge.
One of the biggest issues with the Aluratek frame is its 16:9 aspect ratio. Almost all of your photos will either be cropped or surrounded by black bars. Photos taken on most digital cameras and smartphones have a 4:3 aspect ratio, meaning you’ll have to manually edit and resize them to match the frame’s 16:9 aspect ratio to fill the screen.
On top of this, these displays have a very narrow viewing angle. The contrast is only balanced when you view the screen straight on, with viewability tapering off quickly as you move away from that centerline. While the frame can be wall-mounted, this narrow viewing angle makes it tough to see from across the room or from an angle – despite using a 14” display.
Some scaling issues result in higher-resolution images appearing very grainy when viewed on the frame. You’d probably be better off manually editing and scales the images to match the frame’s native 1366×768 resolution for the best viewing experience.
Is the Pix-Star a better choice than the Aluratek 14” digital photo frame?
The biggest difference between the Pix-Star and the Aluratek 14” digital photo frame is Wi-Fi and cloud connectivity. The Pix-Star makes full use of Wi-Fi and offers a host of enabled features including weather, web radio & music, sending photos via email, a mobile app, and an intuitive web interface. You can send photos and other media from anywhere in the world quickly and easily – something not possible on the Aluratek 14” digital photo frame.
You can remotely control connected frames from a single user account, change their settings, start slideshows, and much more! This is all done through the web interface. Additionally, you can link your Pix-Star frame directly to your social media and photo-sharing account. It’s possible to link to multiple accounts on the same platform or multiple platforms at the same time. These are referred to as web albums. They’re automatically synced and updated each time new photos are loaded to the connected albums. It’s a fantastic way to get the same photos to everybody and requires almost no effort to do.
Pix-Star’s frame uses a more versatile 4:3 aspect ratio that matches most of the photos taken on smartphones and digital cameras. This makes it far less likely that photos need to be cropped or distorted. Slideshows are very versatile and give you plenty of control over the play order, style, speed, and frequency. You can display newer photos more frequently (or exclusively). Starting slideshows is simple and can be done with one button click from the main menu.
When you consider the Pix-Star’s versatility, functionality, and ease of use, it’s hard to ignore the value for money it offers. When compared to what the Aluratek 14” digital photo frame can do, it might well be worth saving up a little longer and paying a little extra for a Pix-Star frame. It’s one of the best on the market and an excellent frame for families and those that want to include their grandparents.
Is the Aluratek 14” digital photo frame Wi-Fi capable?
The Aluratek 14” digital photo frame cannot connect to Wi-Fi. They’re offline frames that work through a combination of internal storage and USB/SD card support. The lack of Wi-Fi capabilities means that you don’t have access to cloud storage or any Wi-Fi-enabled features such as weather & alerts, web radio & music, etc.
How many photos can the Aluratek 14” digital photo frame hold?
The Aluratek 14” digital photo frame has 4GB of internal storage space. Some of that is taken up by the operating system and software but still offers enough space for a couple of months’ worth of photos. The exact number depends on the size of the photos you’re sending, and if you’re also storing videos. Bear in mind that sending photos that have a higher resolution than the frame’s native resolution will take up more space than necessary.
Photos can also be stored on connected USB/SD cards. The frame claims to be able to support SD cards up to 128GB, though you’re less likely to run into issues with a smaller 32GB card – which is still more than enough storage space. Note that you won’t have much – if any – control over the play order of photos read from an inserted USB/SD card.
It’s also worth remembering that all videos need to be stored in the same folder on the frame’s internal storage or they won’t be read and displayed.
How to send photos to the Aluratek 14” digital photo frame?
Since the Aluratek 14” digital photo frame doesn’t have Wi-Fi or cloud capabilities, the only way to send photos is via USB/SD cards inserted into the relevant ports on the frame’s rear. Alternatively, you can connect directly to your computer with a USB 2.0 cable. This lets you load photos and videos directly to the frame’s internal storage. It also makes creating new folders and renaming file names (to control the playback order during slideshows) easier than doing it directly on the frame.
Try to use a USB/SD card with 32GB or less to avoid compatibility and formatting issues. It’s also worth noting which formats are recognized on the frame. For example, mp4 video files are troublesome for the frame to read and display. It might take a bit of trial and error to find which formats are most easily read and displayed the best on the frame.
