NETGEAR Meural MC321HW Canvas II – the Smart Art Frame with 55 cm HD Digital Canvas, 41x61 cm Dark Wood Frame (WiFi-Connected)

I was really worried I’d get buyers remorse when the Meural 27” arrived. I had been looking for a digital photo frame online and found this among the listings and got very excited by the promise of having ever changing art on my walls. In the current lock down situation I was unable to see one in real life before I bought it. Excitement may have got the better of me when deciding on the purchase but now I have the Meural in my house I am absolutely in love with the thing. It was really simple to set up with the phone app taking about 10 minutes including uploading some of my own photos to the canvas. The image it displays is fantastic. As you would expect with a 1080 screen you can see pixels when extremely close but at any other distance pictures look sharp and vibrant. The matte finish to the screen is impressive and online photos and video reviews did not do it justice. With some images more than others there are times when I think I would definitely be fooled into think they were prints if I didn’t know better. For my own interest I compared a framed print I own with the same image on the Meural next to one another (Nocturn in Black and Gold). The backlit Matt screen of the Meural kept the image visible in different lighting and at different viewing angles in a way you don’t get with a print behind glass, useful for rooms with lots of sunlight or that get dim lighting. It was appreciable that the Meural lightened the image slightly but I would never have noticed that in isolation. I opted for the art subscription (£70) which I think is worth it although a free trial with the purchase of the screen would seem a reasonable expectation. For the most part the app is easy to use. Setting up playlist of your own images (that are on your phone) is easy. Creating a daily or weekly schedule for the Meural is straightforward including wake up and shutdown times. Controlling the canvas from the app is really easy. There are a few of limitations of the device although non have killed my enthusiasm. The screen is obviously a fixed, standard size meaning any art not in 16:9 will be cropped. You can edit that crop for your own images. It hasn’t bothered me yet paintings you are familiar with may look different as a result. The power switch on the device sits slightly proud on one edge. This is no issue unless resting it in landscape orientation on a surface. Just playing around with it lent against a wall it turned off a few times before positioned just so. This is not an issue when hung. The motion sensors to control the screen with gestures are not the most precise. Doing more than skipping a painting or reading art info would probably get frustrating but you would probably opt to use your phone for anything else and that works great. Finally looking for art through the subscription on the app takes some getting used to. Browsing without knowledge of key search terms is not as straight forward as I would like but after a while I’ve gotten the hang of it. Over all I’m really please with the Meural and would recommend it whole heartedly to any one who likes the idea of getting to see more artwork in their home. A great impulse buy.

I had high expectations of this frame. However on set up I had a number of issues, the frame would not connect to my home WiFi and when I tried to register the product to access the customer support I got a message saying the frame was registered elsewhere. On checking the accompanying documentation it appeared to be in multiple languages, and I thought I had been sold a knock-off.I contacted Meural support and over 24 hours they managed to sort out the product registration. I then contacted customer support live, and they worked through the WiFi set up issue - which took around an hour, but eventually got working. It turned out the documentation was all correct / the frame gets shipped to multiple countries.So. Overall this is definitely a 5-star product. The picture quality is amazing and a step up from the circa £100-£150 frames. I use it to display photographs, and the colours are rich and warm, and come across with a true white balance from the original pictures. The frame is easy to operate. And notionally easy to set up. The customer service I received was first class.I would highly recommend this for those who are serious photographers and want to display their images.

I owned the first generation Meural canvas before the company was taken over by Netgear. Netgears firmware update on my old Meural canvas stopped it working ‘wonder why?’ So I replaced it with the new Meural 2. It’s an expensive digital artwork/photo frame, looks great and gets many comments. Hopefully this new canvas will more than 5 years. The rotating bracket does not come with it too, you will need to order that direct from Netgear.

I use my meural mainly to showcase my photography work but I do also like to use the artwork gallery as well to show some more traditional artwork.I like the feature where u can swipe near the screen and it brings up information about the artist and image.The display is amazing and crystal clear the auto backlighting is amazing and really brings my images and traditional artwork to life.It really is worth buying the additional mount to make changing the screen from portrait to landscape.Overall I can’t recommend this enough it’s far superior than other digital displays and although expensive is worth every penny.

I bought two of these frames in early 2020. Three months out of the warranty period of 2 years, some dark patches started to appear along one of the edges of the screen (shown in the attached photo)This same problem has occurred on both frames. (Bought from same supplier, at the same time and the problem is along same edge of the canvas. The only difference is that they were in two separate locations. I was advised that this was a hardware problem which could not be repaired, the canvas could only be replaced, and this was not possible because it was after the warranty period had expired.Furthermore, NETGEAR encourage you to buy the GearHead networking support this is also useless if you have a hardware problem. They can only guide you through an issue that you have with your network (i.e., Wi-Fi connection lost, reset etc) and its pretty basic at that.So, when thinking about purchasing please bear in mind these items may only have a two-year life and after that you will have to write off your investment to experience (approx. £1400 in my case) because they cannot be repaired and that is the maximum length of the warranty under which replacement can take place. BEWARE! I believe that where a manufacturer has confidence in the reliability of their product, they give long warranties and have repair solutions in place to keep customers happy. NETGEAR IS NOT ONE OF THESE. THIS IS DEFINITELY A “TAKE THE MONEY AND RUN” SORT OF BUSINESS.If you like a gamble go ahead and purchase!