Netgear has announced the Meural WiFi Photo Frame. The frame is designed to conveniently display your photographs using an accompanying smartphone application.
The Meural is a 13.5″ x 7.5″ frame with a 15.6″ diagonal display offering a 1920 x 1080 resolution and anti-glare coating. The display promises a wide viewing angle and ambient light sensor to ensure it looks good in any setting and from a large variety of angles. Including its bezel, the Meural Photo Frame is 16″ (408mm) wide, 10″ (259mm) tall and has a depth of 1.68″ (42.4mm). The frame weighs 2.9 lb. (1.3kg).
Like Netgear’s Meural Canvas before it, the smaller WiFi Photo Frame also utilizes touchless gestures for photo control, allowing you to scroll through images with a wave of your hand. The frame can also quickly be rotated between portrait and landscape orientation.
On the inside of the Meural is 1GB of DDR3 RAM, 8GB of storage (of which 4GB are utilized for storing photos), a Quad-core ARM processor and WiFi 802.11a/b/g/n/ac (2.4GHz and 5GHz). The frame includes gesture sensors for both portrait and landscape orientation, an orientation sensor itself and an ambient light sensor to automatically adjust brightness. The frame utilizes a DC power port for power and Netgear states that it uses approximately 20W during typical usage. The included power cord is 6′ long.
Using an app on your smartphone, you can link existing photo albums to automatically upload and display on the Meural WiFi Photo Frame. The frame can also display location and data information so you will always know when and where images were captured by simply gesturing upward. You can also use the app to invite family and friends to upload their own photo albums to a specific Meural. This means that distant family and friends can upload new photos to your own Meural, allowing you to quickly share memories with one another via personalized photo playlists.
Of the Meural WiFi Photo Frame, Netgear’s David Henry, senior vice president for Connected Home Products, says, ‘So many photos are captured on smartphones every day, yet many are not seen on screens that showcase them in their fullest, richest detail, With our new Meural WiFi Photo Frame we’ve created a new way to enjoy and relive those special memories.’ Henry continues, ‘[with the included connectivity features] this new premium photo frame will also help to keep people close in a time when we all need to stay connected.’
The Meural Photo Frame is available to order now for $299.95 USD. The frame is available in one colorway: charcoal gray bezel with a wood-grain inlay. The full Meural art library membership is $8.95 USD per month or $69.95 per year. The membership is not required. However, membership does add 16GB to your Meural Cloud storage and allow you to send artwork to multiple frames using a single account. A subscription also includes 24/7 customer support, which is otherwise limited to the first 90 days with your Meural Photo Frame. You can learn more about the membership by clicking here.