Meural review: The most beautiful bit of technology we’ve seen

I’m pretty sure I first saw the Meural digital frame a couple of years ago, just sitting inconspicuously in the hallway outside Netgear’s main product briefing room. The concept was simple, bring famous and beautiful art to any home with a digital frame.

And they’ve done just that.

We’ve installed the Netgear Meural (with Walnut wood frame) in the EFTM office and it’s just spectacular.

It’s a 27 inch full HD display that can be hung in portrait or landscape mode.

But there’s something about the screen – it does not have a gloss finish, yet it shows images in such vivid colours. The panel itself is a work of technological art.

Paired with your WiFi network you are able to then plan what you want to show.

For an annual fee you can get access to a full membership library of content, which includes classic artworks as well as editorially curated collections.

These might be famous brush paintings, or beautiful photos.

Plus, you can add your own images to the device. A photo take on iPhone looks great, a more professional shot just stands out.

Controlling what you see, and the settings is all done with a magic gesture control. Waving your hand gently up, down, left and right just in the middle of the base of the Meural is all you need to do.

Took a while to get used to, as the actual movement of the hand doesn’t need to be the full width of the frame, just small movements is fine, and it’s much more natural.

You can create your own playlists with your own content, or set it to play a curated playlist such as “The Louvre Museum: Curated Picks” – honestly, this is an amazing way to continue or commence an appreciation with great art.

Likewise, it’s a great way to enjoy a theme – for example it’s “Space Month” and we’ve been showing some amazing photos of the journey to space from NatGeo.

All bloody spectacular, but be warned, the price is epic. You might want to sit down for this. Meural is at Harvey Norman for $1199 (Black or White frame), the Walnut frame is an extra hundred at $1299.

The only other thing you need to realise is that this whole thing requires mains power, so there’s going to be a power cord there, unless you go to the trouble of cutting a hole and running power in through the wall like you might for a Wall-Mounted TV.

Regardless, it’s beautiful – and epic.