The 3 Best Digital Photo Frames of 2025

The Aura Carver combines attractive hardware and simple software to create a digital photo frame that is especially simple to set up and operate, and quite reasonably priced. The quality of its screen is on a par with that of pricier frames, and the setup process — which you perform entirely via smartphone — is as simple as can be, no clunky remote required.

Setup is a snap. In our tests, setting up the Carver (and other Aura frames) was simpler than with any other frames we tried: You download the Aura app (iOS, Android), pair your phone to the frame, and connect it to your Wi-Fi network using your phone.

One of the few steps between turning on the device and adding your photos is the option to send invitations to family members and friends via text so that they can upload their own pictures. (You can also set up the Carver as a gift for someone else; more on that below.)

The app also performs automatic firmware updates for the frame, which may slightly delay the initial setup.

Its physical controls are minimal. You don’t need to futz with a remote in order to control this frame, because there isn’t one. Aura frames have touch bars on top of the device that let you control basic functions, while setup and other controls are found in Aura’s smartphone app.

The display looks great. The Carver’s resolution is a little lower than the Aspen’s or Walden’s — 1280×800 versus 1600×1200 — but we didn’t see an obvious drop in image quality. It still looks sharp, has excellent contrast, and displays colors well.

From older digital-camera pictures to professional wedding photos, our test images looked as great as we’ve ever seen them on a digital screen, without the typical blue undertone that you’ll find on a tablet or other digital frames we’ve tried.

Its aspect ratio is slightly wider than standard. The Carver has a 16:10 aspect ratio, but we found that the wider ratio allowed the entirety of the professional wedding photos to fit on the screen, so no guests were cut out. And when two vertical photos were displayed, they had a 4:5 aspect ratio for minimal cropping.

The automatic light sensor works well. In our trial runs, the sensor cranked up the screen’s brightness to combat sunlight. It also tended to respond to light from a different room better than the some others we tried. When these frames were in a dining room, for example, the Carver stayed on even with light spilling in from the kitchen, while others did not.

It has a more interesting look than many frames. Compared with a lot of other models in this category, which often look more like tablets than decorative frames, the Carver has an aesthetic that gracefully combines form and function.

The frame has nifty features, such as touch-sensitive strips that let you mark favorite photos and go forward and backward with a swipe. They take a little patience to work, so we recommend moving slowly when using them.

The grooved, textured plastic makes the Carver look like a nice frame you might buy for a print photo. Instead of relying on a flimsy stand to prop itself up, it has a thicker base, which makes it more stable, and you have nothing to assemble beyond plugging in the power cord.

It presents photos cleanly. On its default settings, the Carver behaves more like a real picture frame than a digital one — the only giveaway is when it switches to side-by-side mode. You’ll find no cheesy animations between photos as on other frames we’ve dismissed, only simple fades and swipes.

It crops images intelligently to fit the frame. The Carver does a better job than most models of automatically cropping photos to fit on the screen, ensuring that the subjects are nicely centered. You can also easily re-crop an image within the app if it doesn’t automatically focus on your favorite part, or choose to display all of it with black borders above or on the sides. In our experience, you won’t need to do this very often.

The Carver’s Photo Match mode — which places two portrait-orientation photos next to each other to fill the landscape-oriented screen — did fairly well in pairing similar shots. Occasionally the pairings felt random, but we didn’t find that too bothersome.

It handles video (and even sound), too. All Aura frames, including the Carver, can play videos, and you can upload them the same way you add photos. The only limitation is that auto-upload doesn’t work for video.

The Carver puts vertical videos into Photo Match mode, placing them side by side with another video or a portrait-orientation photo. It has a built-in speaker that can play a clip’s audio track, and in our tests the speaker was loud and clear enough for us to hear both voices and background sound or music.

You control sound on a per-video basis, enabling it by tapping on the frame’s touch-sensitive strip. Once you’ve enabled it for a given video, all replays will include sound, but the next video the Carver shows will be muted (assuming that you haven’t already enabled sound for it). Aura remembers the volume level you selected, though you can also control the volume on screen or from the app when a video plays.

The result is that Aura frames never burst into sound and video when you’re least expecting it, unlike many competitors we tested.

It can play Apple Live Photos. Unlike every other brand of frame we tested, the Carver and other frames in the Aura family are compatible with Apple’s Live Photo feature. So you’ll see such images come to life for an instant when they first appear on the display, similar to the video experience.

It’s designed to be gifted. Aura’s software helps you easily set up the Aura Carver as a gift. Using the app, scan a QR code on the box to pair it with your account. That lets you invite family members to contribute photos before the gift recipient unpacks the frame and plugs it in. The recipient will need to have a Wi-Fi network in order to use the frame, so remember that when considering the frame as a gift.

You can also have the frame shipped directly from Aura and use the company’s email-setup process to associate it with your account while the frame is in transit. Though we didn’t try the gift-setup method ourselves, we do appreciate Aura’s focus on the gift angle. This is a feature that other frames don’t have — to replicate the experience on other frames, you have to prepare the frame yourself manually and then give it as a gift afterward.

You can choose from a couple of different designs. This frame also comes in a Carver Mat version ($30 extra), which has two frame layers that mimic the look of a mat picture frame like the Aspen and Walden. Whether the aesthetics are worth the slightly larger investment is up to you; in our tests the only difference we noticed between the two models is that the Carver Mat’s ambient-light sensor occasionally picked up light better than that of the standard Carver. Besides that, they’re identical in quality and experience.

Aura respects your privacy. The company’s frames, including the Carver and the other picks in this guide, display images that are stored on its servers after you upload them. Aura assured us that it doesn’t share or sell customer data for advertising purposes, and that photos are encrypted at all times. Any photos you delete from the app are also permanently removed from the cloud servers.

Aura’s Smart Suggestions feature uses facial recognition, but it’s processed locally — on the frame itself — and customers can opt out at any time.

We also appreciate that Aura includes a digest version of its security practices at the top of its privacy policy and offers guides explaining how to control your data and permissions.

Flaws but not dealbreakers

• We wish it had a 4:3 aspect ratio. In contrast to the Aura Aspen and Walden, the Carver’s aspect ratio isn’t our preferred 4:3, but we found that both landscape and portrait photos still fit nicely on the screen.
• There’s lots of pillarboxing on solo portrait images. If you don’t want to see photos placed side by side, you can turn off the Carver’s Photo Match mode in the app. But without it, portrait photos end up with large pillarboxing on either side. We also found that turning off this setting wasn’t instantaneous — the frame took several minutes to recognize the change.
• It doesn’t work without Wi-Fi. Like all of Aura’s frames, the Carver requires a Wi-Fi connection to function, so you won’t be able to use it in a home that doesn’t have a wireless internet connection.