As February approaches, those in a relationship have to contemplate Valentine’s Day. For some, this day is like any other and no heed is given to the masses of presents and cards that become available in shops.
For others, Valentine’s Day is a sacred date – it is a time to shower your loved one with gifts and go that extra mile to show how much you value them.
Choosing a gift can be a nightmare, however – there is that much to pick from! To help, in this article, we look at an alternative type of present – A personalized gift from Photobox. We hope you enjoy our Photobox Valentines gifts review.
👉 Editors Note: Photobox is currently only available in the UK and Germany. They do ship to the US, but it costs +£10.00 extra (+£15.00 for priority shipping). US visitors may want to have a look at the Snapfish Valentines Gift Ideas.
The Woes of Choosing a Valentine’s Day Gift
Selecting a Valentine’s day present can be a chore. There are so many different things you can buy! How do you pick something that is meaningful and worthwhile? Or do you simply go for the easy option and purchase some chocolates?
Do You Play it Safe and go for the Traditional Chocolates, Flowers, And Teddy?
The above are clichéd Valentine’s gifts – flowers and a cute teddy bear for the lady, and chocolates for the man. This is easy. This is a copout and requires little to no effort – but most of us are guilty of doing it! We can literally walk into any mall or card shop and have our beloved’s gifts purchased in 5 minutes – who could ask for more?
Why Not Give Your Loved One a Gift That Has Meaning Instead?
If you want to go the extra mile and buy something different you have come to the right place. This year, why not ditch the obligatory flowers, chocolates, a cuddly toy and purchase a gift that is personalized and meaningful.
Photobox is a superb company that specializes in photographic products and gifts. If you have a passion for photography as I do, you can order some amazing items from their website.
I use Photobox, for example, to purchase Polaroid prints for my travel display board. Aside from standard photo gifts and prints, they also do a cool range of valentine’s presents. To give your loved one something different why not look at our Photobox Valentines gifts review?
Photobox Valentines Gift Choices
In this section of our Photobox Valentines gifts review, we will discuss the actual available choices. I thought the list of available gifts was brilliant – there are some superb ideas, all that involve photos and personalization:
Valentine’s Gifts for Him
This category of gifts is for the male partner. I feel there is a good selection and I certainly wouldn’t mind receiving some of these presents!
- A4 & A3 Personalized Photo Books
- Lite Simple Canvas
- Love Mug
- Photo Block
The photo books are fantastic – you can customize them and add your own photos to each page. They are available in either A3 or A4. The simple canvas prints are great for those treasured moments – you can order them in a myriad of thicknesses and sizes.
I am not too keen on the love mug idea, but it can make a cool present – you can choose a selection of different designs. Finally, the photo block makes either a great stand-up ornament or a hanging piece for your walls.
Valentine’s Gifts for Her
As with the gifts for him, there is a great selection to choose from. As you will find out below, I chose the standard retro prints!
- Square Lay Flat Photo Books
- Themed Mug
- Lite Collage Canvas
- Standard Retro Prints
The photo book and mugs are pretty much the same as the above. The collage canvas is a cool spin on a standard canvas – you can select a myriad of photos and arrange them in an awesome collage. Finally, the retro prints are what I chose – you can read more about them below.
Related Post: Photo Ideas for Valentines (10 Tips)
Valentine’s Gifts for Boyfriends
The basic premise for these gifts is the same as the gifts for him, but there is a few different items available:
- Color Mug
- A4 Wall Calendar
- Love Book – Special Edition
- Cushion
The mug and love book is slightly different spins on the photo books and mug previously mentioned. I like the idea of a personalized cushion – it’s a little cheesy, but you can design how it looks and change the colors too. I also like the idea of the wall calendar – if I were to create one, I would use photos from our travels together!
Valentine’s gifts for Girlfriends
Finally, we have gifts for girlfriends. Again these provide a couple of other cool ideas:
- Retro Canvas
- Mounted Art Print
- iPhone Tough Case
- A4 Pantone Photo Books
The new items here are the retro canvas, mounted art print and iPhone case. The retro canvas is amazing! It’s basically like a large Polaroid print with a caption!
The mounted art print loos superb too and allows you to print a series of individual framed photos. Finally, the iPhone case is available for several different models and can contain a personalized photo!
Photobox Valentines Gifts review – Retro Polaroid Prints – order process
I chose to order my girlfriend a set of retro Polaroid prints – I aim to make them into a framed display that we can hang in our flat. Out of the above gifts, I thought she would appreciate this one the most. The photos I chose are either snaps of us as a couple, or places we have traveled to together – something meaningful to us both! As part of our Photobox Valentine’s gift review, we will look at the order process I had to follow and see how easy it was:
Step 1 – Selecting a category of gift
As mentioned I chose the retro polaroid prints – I thought these would be a nice personal gift for my girlfriend. The first step is simple – you must select which category of gift you want. The presents are split into four different categories – gifts for him, gifts for her, gifts for boyfriends and gifts for girlfriends. I simply scrolled down to the relevant section and selected the option I wanted – standard retro prints. This process was straightforward and the website had fantastic loading times.
Step 2 – Choosing type of print
Once I had chosen standard retro prints, I then had to select the quality and quantity of prints I required. Photobox offers two different types of Polaroid print – standard and premium.
The main difference is the quality of the print and casing. Simply click on one of the options and a description of the product will appear. The below is some more info about both types of print:
Standard
- 3” x 4”
- Gloss finish with white backing
- Can order up to a total of 261 prints
Premium
- 3” x 4”
- Extra-gloss finish with textured feel printed on high-quality paper
- Can order in sets of 12, 24 or 36
It also shows delivery information and the product price. Again I found this section to be extremely easy to navigate, Everything was clearly labeled and loaded quickly. The whole process was intuitive and user-friendly. For me, this was an important aspect of our Photobox Valentines gifts review.
Step 3 – Uploading Photos
After selecting the type of retro Polaroid print, you must then upload the photos you wish to use. Before doing this I would strongly recommend that you ensure the photos are a high resolution and saved as either a JPEG or PNG file format.
If you upload a small resolution photo, the quality of the end-print could be pixelated. The photos I uploaded were all at least 1024×768 resolution at 72dpi – this should be a sufficient resolution to create high-quality prints.
You can either upload photos from your own device, or from your Photobox albums. If you create an account with Photobox, you can create albums and save them – this is useful if you want to re-order prints or use certain photos again. I have saved a host of albums for my Polaroid prints for example so I know which images I have already used. I chose to upload the photos from my computer – all you have to do is find the location, and highlight the photos.
Once they are uploaded, you will be taken to a different screen that shows thumbnails of the photos you have chosen. Simply click on the next button to proceed to the editing stage.
Step 4 – Adding text and editing photos
Next is the stage where you can add text to your prints and edit them or add more photos if needed. Each photo you have uploaded should display as a recreation. All you have to do is click on the text box beneath your photo – you can then type in the message or caption you require.
There is also a toolbar beneath the text where you can edit the style and alignment of the text. You can change the horizontal and vertical alignment, the size and color of the text, and the font type.
I thought the options were fantastic and there was a great range to choose from. You can personalize each print too so your selection of photos can be truly individualistic. Once you have made the changes, just click on the “apply” button and a preview of the text will display on your image thumbnail.
I thought this section was unbelievably easy to use. The point and click interface is fantastic and I like how you can see a preview of your photos – you can then see if the image quality looks good and if the text matches for example. If you get stuck, there is also a live chat you can use too – a customer support rep will help you if you are struggling with using the edit screen.
Step 5 – Checkout and Payment
Finally, if you click on the orange checkout icon in the top right-hand corner, you are taken to the delivery and payment section. I would advise that you double and triple check that you are 100% happy with the images – once you have proceeded to the checkout and made payment, you cannot change the prints!
There is three stages of the checkout process – basket, payment, and confirmation. In the first stage, you can simply confirm what is in your basket and select the delivery method. There is a range of delivery options and Photobox can deliver practically anywhere in the world. I chose the standard delivery which is 3-5 working days (this was plenty of time before Valentine’s Day).
Next, you must enter the delivery address, billing address, and payment details. You can pay using PayPal, or a debit/credit card. This process is extremely easy – I completed the whole payment and delivery process within a few minutes. Finally, once you have done that, you simply have to review and confirm the order and that’s it! You will receive an email confirmation with an order number.
Summary of our Photobox Valentines Gifts Review
So what did I think of the service and order process? The order process was excellent – every aspect was easy to use. I didn’t experience any issues at all and completed my order in around 10 minutes. The website is well-built and runs like a dream.
The quality of the retro standard prints is awesome too. The actual print quality is superb – the photos are crystal clear with no pixilation (remember that this is partially due to the quality of the original photo you choose too!).
Furthermore, the frame and backing of the photo are sturdy and made from quality material. I only ordered the standard quality prints and these look exceptional – I can only imagine that the premium prints are out of this world. Finally, the packaging that the photos arrive in is a nice touch too – you don’t even have to wrap them up as they are presented in a nice wrapped envelope.
I will certainly use Photobox again, and I have already started ordering more prints for my travel collage!
In terms of delivery, I received my gift within a few days of ordering it – there was no issue with the courier. I like how there is a range of delivery options available and that they have excellent international coverage.
I will certainly use Photobox again, and I have already started ordering more prints for my travel collage! The following are my ratings of the Photobox print service I used:
- Ease of use – 5 star
- Product quality – 5 star
- Delivery – 5 star
I hope you have enjoyed this Photobox Valentines gifts review – why not give the service a try and buy your loved one a personalized photo gift this February?
