Apr 09

Meural Art Canvas
Meural Art Canvas Review

Going to a museum is the best way to experience art. So what should you do when your favorite artworks are located thousands of miles away? Fortunately, there is a new way to sample amazing pieces of art in the comfort of the home. This can be done via a cloud connected digital art frame. The nice people at Meural have engineered their 27” Art Canvas with antiglare and an automatic light sensor for the best viewing possible.


Meural 27″ Art Canvas Unboxing

Overview:

The Art Canvas from Meural connects to the Internet through a wireless network in a home or office. Setting everything up only took a few minutes. After turning on the frame, it prompted me to connect to its WiFi connection after downloading their free app. It then requested security credentials for my WiFi and the specific activation code displayed at the top of the frame. Once connected to the Internet, it checked for new firmware.

Disclosure: I received a Meural Art Canvas at no cost for review. All thoughts and opinions are my own. Photos are courtesy of Meural.

Tech Specs:

  • 27” 1080p IPS Display with Anti-Glare Technology
  • 1920 x 1080 Full HD Resolution
  • 300 cd/m2 Brightness
  • 1.8 GHz Quad Core ARM Cortex-A17
  • 1GB DDR3 RAM
  • 8GB Storage
  • 802.11 b/g/n WiFi + Bluetooth
  • Standard Frame Dimensions – 29”x 18”x 1.5”
  • Includes Cord and Power Adapter

Meural’s website is where it is easy to load new art from their massive database of over 30,000+ pieces. It is free to setup an account. About 4GB of free storage is available as it comes with several gigabytes of art pre-loaded.

The initial setup process finished very quickly after connecting to the Internet and the Meural server. This frame does not have a touch screen as to keep fingerprints from reducing the quality of the works displayed. Instead, it is controlled via the smartphone app or by waving a hand in front of the base of the frame. There are two sensors that work the same in either landscape or portrait modes.

Meural Art Canvas Back Panel

Its app for the smartphone is the remote control. Their app was recently updated and looks clean. It offers the ability to swipe through the images, which will change what is on the frame accordingly. The built-in ambient light sensor adjusts the brightness of the frame for each image and its anti-glare mate display deflects light while organically amplifying color. If you are leaving the room for a long period time, a few simple motions of the hand brings up the sleep option.

Meural Art Canvas Display
Pre-loaded Art On The Meural Frame

Loading a few photos on the art canvas was easy too. My photos on its 1920 x 1080 full HD screen were accurately rendered with a balanced contrast and brightness via its antiglare coating. Standard photos that are not cropped display fine on the Art Canvas, but square Instagram images will show black bars on each side.

Demo – Controlling a Meural™ Canvas with Amazon Echo. from pddykn on Vimeo.

Uploading new photos to the connected frame is as easy as visiting Meural’s website and selecting the works from an extensive library. Select pieces from a myriad of galleries to upload to the canvas. Opting to switch multiple galleries worth of images may take a while, as gigabytes of files need to download on your frame.

Meural Art Canvas Options
Meural Art Canvas Options

Meural offers one size Art Canvas at 27” in three configurations. The first is with a black frame. The second is with a white frame. The third is with a shadowbox. Their one size and three configuration options should fit with most homes and offices. Hung vertically, the 27” screen looks impressive on a wall in my home. They say bring culture home, which is exactly what the art canvas does.

Conclusion:

The Meural Art Canvas is priced at $595 and comes with a free Meural account. It includes 8GB of storage to display your photos and works of art. The free online Meural account offers a place to select which art pieces to have streamed onto the connected frame. Enjoy your favorite pieces of art from the comfort of home.

Rating: 4.5/5

Pros:

  • WiFi enabled and sets up in a few minutes.
  • Comes with gigabytes of art pre-installed.
  • Sensors automatically adjust brightness.
  • Two motion sensors help to navigate simple functions.
  • Set it up once and the Meural app or web account controls the rest.

Cons:

  • Thicker than most HD screens, but includes computer hardware in the back.
  • No direct connections with Instagram, Google Photos or Facebook yet.
  • No option to set the timer that changes each piece of art.

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