large digital photo display screens free sample

It"s a great time of year for deals on all kinds of tech, including digital photo frames. We"re on the cusp of some big shopping events coming up, and many of the frames in this list are contenders for price drops.

Put your best memories on display with the best digital photo frame. Using an LED display, digital photo frames showcase digital versions of your snaps in a slideshow format, so not only are you displaying several photos in one frame, but you"re also saving money on prints. Plus, you can change the images on the display as often as you"d like.

Sharp, chic and easy to use, the leading models put your personal snaps front and centre. And, they"re a terrific (and economical) way to show off your family photos, vacation pics, and photography masterpieces.

What’s the best digital photo frame for most people? We highly recommend the Aura Mason Luxe, which boasts a neat look, slick interface, and detailed display. Alternatively, if you want an option which also supports for video calls, Facebook’s Portal is worth considering. But, if you’re looking for a great value alternative on a tight budget, the 8-inch Nixplay Nix ticks a lot of boxes for not a lot of money.

Whether you want a simple panel or a smart display, we have comprehensively tested the best options then gathered all the best ones here, covering models across a range of price brackets. We’ve also included some useful buying tips to keep in mind when deciding which frame is the best fit for your home.

From affordable frames to premium screens, here are the best digital photo frames available and ranked in the list below. Once you’ve found your favorite frame, you’ll find links beneath each entry that take you straight to the best deals available right now. Need some more in-depth advice? Also check out our guide on how to buy a digital photo frame.

The Aura Mason Luxe is a clear cut above most other photo frames. It’s stylish, has greater character to its design and, most important of all, the screen is excellent in most respects.

Its 4:3 aspect display is perfect for not just adding some color to your room with your photos, but to actually get an up-close look at them. Pixel density is so high they look sharp and detailed even when you get your face right up to the screen. We found that color is natural-looking and well-saturated too, so you can be sure you’re seeing a fair representation of the photos you fling its way.

Nixplay’s 2K Smart Digital Photo Frame features one of the sharpest screens on the market. With a resolution of 2048 x 1536 pixels, the display offers detail for days – and it’s vibrant, too, with impressively deep blacks and more than enough brightness to beat the screen’s reflective coating.

At 9.7 inches, the display also strikes an excellent middle ground: with a flexible stand setup that can support the frame in portrait or landscape orientation, the Smart Digital Photo Frame will fit on almost any shelf, while also giving images enough real estate to really be seen and enjoyed. Handily, it can also be wall-mounted.

One of our favourite things about this frame is that loading up photos via the partner app is a straightforward process. Create, populate and organise multiple playlists using photos from your smartphone, or sync with Google Photos to display AI-generated smart albums. You can also connect with friends to easily receive snaps and assign them to your frame.

Classier than most competitors, the Aura Carver stands out with an embossed border and angular, free-standing design. Its 10.1-inch display isn’t as sharp as the slightly pricier Carver Luxe, but we found its 1280x800 panel fine in testing, with pleasant colors and good viewing angles. It helps that the screen can adjust automatically to ambient conditions and go impressively bright, helped by a semi-matte finish.

We think Aura frames have the slickest software out there, and the Carver is no exception. It doesn’t have a touchscreen, but the subtle touch panel on top makes it easy to flick between photos. Other settings are found in the similarly streamlined smartphone app, although customisation options are limited. Friends and family can contribute to your slideshow, but there’s no support for albums.

A cheap and cheerful photo frame, the Aeezo Portrait 01 is more flexible than its price tag suggests. Its no-frills, plastic build won’t win any design awards, but it’s neat enough, even if the simple stand has limited stability.

We were largely happy with its photo reproduction in our review. Color depth isn’t exceptional, but the 10-inch display strikes a good balance when it comes to detail: hard edges aren’t too soft or too sharp. It is less bright than other frames in the same price bracket, though.

The Netgear Meural isn’t quite like other digital photo frame. By the standards of this category, it’s a pretty high-end buy, but it"s actually the entry-level model in Netgear’s series of art displays. They scale all the way up to a 21.5 inches.

This is a 15.6-inch photo frame you can orient in portrait or landscape. It’s a large canvas for your photos, and the Meural app offers access to a huge library of paintings and other art works. They can inject some culture into your home. You have to pay for a subscription to get full access, but a good few handfuls are available without one.

With a generous border and glass facade, the Skylight Frame is one of the more attractive photo frames we’ve tested. It’s larger than most 10-inch models, but its white surround and classy design give it real presence on a shelf. In use, its responsive touchscreen feels quite a lot like a tablet: you can pinch to zoom and swipe to switch photos. It’s not sophisticated, but it works smoothly and makes it easy to find specific images.

Facebook is phasing out its Portal devices for consumers, but right now that makes this 10-inch display excellent value at its new low price. Meta will continue to provide support for existing customers and its core functionality will continue unaffected.

While it"s primarily device for calling friends and family, Meta"s social screen does a side-gig as a slick digital photo frame. Styled like a floating box frame with neat lines and a quality finish, it’s an attractive fit for contemporary shelves – provided there’s space for the supporting leg. The stand can prop the Portal in portrait or landscape, but it sticks out by 12cm – and the power cable exits from its end, so it can’t sit flush against your wall.

Up front, the 10-inch display is vibrant and responsive, with good detail and color reproduction. The panel is quite reflective, but there’s enough brightness to counter glare – though this dips when viewing from a 45-degree angle.

Setup is straightforward and the slick touchscreen interface is matched by the polished partner app. which particularly impressed us. Photos can be sourced from Facebook, Instagram or your smart device, then sorted into albums which can be individually enabled.

The Nixplay Touch 10 passes for a traditional photo frame at arm’s length. Its back is heavily sculpted, but this will usually be hidden away from view. While its slot-in stand didn’t feel especially sturdy in testing, the frame itself isn’t heavy enough to make this a problem.

Its plastic display surface softens reflections, and photos generally look good. We liked the color temperature during our time with the Nixplay, finding that it could produce rich tones, even if its LCD panel lacks the depth of OLED. We were less impressed by its sharpening, which caused edges to appear pixellated.

The Nest Hub Max is both a hub for smart devices and a portal for accessing Google Assistant at home, but it also does well as a digital photo frame. Styled like a 10-inch tablet attached to a fabric-skinned speaker, it forms a neat free-standing package with a small shelf footprint – even if the screen’s plastic shell and bezels don’t feel particularly premium.

The fixed stand setup means you can’t adjust the display angle from its default upward tilt. While this will be an issue if you want to place the frame on a higher shelf, the viewing angles are otherwise good, with decent saturation and plenty of brightness – provided you’re fine with a reflective panel.

At 1280x800, the resolution of the touchscreen could be higher, but we found that there’s still good detail with no noticeable pixellation – and it makes controlling the Nest Hub Max a cinch. Swipe between photos or tap the pop-up controls to hide, star or share particular images, or do the same thing with voice commands.

The Nest Hub Max can display art backgrounds, a full-screen clock or a selection of snaps from your Google Photos account. It supports Live Albums, features the option to show portrait pics in split-screen and offers time, weather and image data overlays – but you can’t manually change the slideshow order. And because it only works with Google Photos, the Nest Hub Max makes sense mainly for those already invested in the company’s cloud backup service.How to pick the best digital photo frame for youWhere will you place it?Most digital photo frames include some kind of stand, but not all can be wall-mounted. Similarly, some only work in one orientation, while others can switch from portrait to landscape. It pays to consider placement, including how a frame’s finish will fit with your decor.

What screen size do you need?Screen size can vary substantially, from 8 to 13 inches. Frames with smaller displays can be easier to place and are sometimes sharper. Larger options offer more space for your snaps but won’t always have a higher resolution. The sweet spot is usually somewhere around a 9-inch Full HD display.

How will you add images?Many of the latest digital photo frames rely on cloud storage to host your slideshow, letting you add photos directly from different devices. Others feature social media integration. But if your images live on hard storage, consider something with a memory card or USB input.

How much control do you want?Some digital photo frames offer seamless simplicity, while others allow you to adjust every setting – from brightness to sleep schedules. It’s worth checking what a given frame lets you tweak, especially if you’re particular about color balance or slideshow transitions.

How smart does it need to be?More than passive panels, several of the best digital photo frames in 2021 are actually fully fledged smart displays. That means voice control, media streaming and smart home integration. Whether you need this additional functionality will depend on the other devices already in your abode.What is the best size digital photo frame?Digital photo frames are available in a wide range of sizes. Which dimension is right for you will depend on your available space, as well as your own personal preference. Smaller digital photo frames are more compact and easier to place in your home, but offer less canvas space for your digital images. Larger photo frames give your treasured snaps room to shine, but require a larger footprint – and the biggest screens risk dominating a room.

While you can find digital photo frames with screens as small as 5 inches, we think the smallest you should realistically look at is 8 inches. A frame such as the Nixplay Nix Digital Photo Frame 8-inch benefits from a small footprint that’s easy to place almost anywhere, while still giving your images enough room on screen to be clearly visible. Any smaller and you risk having to squint to see your snaps.

The largest digital photo frames feature displays to rival your average laptop. The Nixplay Seed Wave, for example, ships with a 13-inch panel. This puts your pictures clearly front and centre, but it’s not exactly subtle. It risks looking like a small TV and blends less well into the background – although it certainly makes your shots unmissable.

We think the best size digital photo frame is between 9 inches and 10 inches. Models like the Google Nest Hub Max, Aura Carver and Facebook Portal all feature screens which measure in at around the 10-inch mark, while our favorite digital photo frame right now – the minimalist Aura Mason Luxe – has a 9.7-inch display. These hit the sweet spot for visibility and flexibility. A display at this size will also provide better pixel density than a much larger screen, improving clarity and sharpness (especially with Nixplay’s 2K frame, which features a high-resolution 9.7-inch screen).

Digital photo frames are unique devices with a range of specific factors to test. We put each frame through a range of scenarios to ensure each one is worthy of a recommendation.

We place each digital photo frame in a series of similar viewing scenarios to assess the sharpness and brightness of its display. This will usually include a dark environment, a daylit room and a bright spot in direct sunlight. Using an identical set of photos, we look at the accuracy of color reproduction, the clarity of each image and the viewing angles of the frame. We also take into account the proportions of the display and whether any cropping is likely to affect standard-sized digital images.

You might not think that photos count as sensitive information, compared to a bank account statement or your Social Security number. But it can be devastating to find photos of loved ones used for nefarious or unsavory purposes.

This is why we prefer frames from reputable companies like Aura and Nixplay over cheaper ones with less clearly defined privacy and security practices. Nixplay offers reasonable security measures, like encrypting your photos during transmission, and Aura offers the option to delete metadata, like the location where a photo was captured. However, both say they may disclose personal information if court-ordered or subpoenaed, and neither provides safety guarantees against hacking.

Some digital frames can connect to voice assistants like Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant. By doing so, you give these companies more access to search through your entire photo album. For example, you can connect an Aura frame to Google Assistant and ask it to find a photo from a specific event; the Aura app will search your camera roll for what you’ve specified.

If you"re concerned about security, you can avoid connecting to third-party services, but your most secure option is to just download several photos on a tablet and disable all internet connectivity.

Unlike a traditional photo frame that requires you to have a paper-based print made of your favorite image before you can display it, a digital photo frame allows you to transfer images directly from your smartphone, digital camera or computer and then display them—either one at a time or as part of an animated slideshow. The best digital picture frames come in a wide range of sizes, but best of all, most now come with their own email address and connect to your home’s Wi-Fi network for easy sharing.

This makes it possible to send images to the frame—from anywhere in the world—via email. As a result, these frames make a great gift for non-tech-savvy people who are not active on social media, but still want to see photos of family and friends. Using one of these 12 best digital photo frame options in 2022 offers you an easy way to showcase your favorite photos at an affordable price.

One of the most versatile and full-featured photo frames you can buy, the Pix-Star, offers just about every imaginable way to share photos and connect with friends and family.

For example, using Wi-Fi, it connects to online photo sources, including Facebook, Instagram, Dropbox, OneDrive, Flickr, Google Drive, and Google Photos. However, it also has 8GB of internal memory, along with slots for USB flash drives and SD memory cards, so you can load it up with a photo collection for offline viewing.

Another great feature is that you can easily email photos directly to the frame, which means family members can send photos that within a minute or so simply appear on the frame with no extra steps.

The operation of this 10-inch digital photo frame could not be easier. Simply plug it into any electrical outlet and link it with your home’s Wi-Fi. Then, using the frame’s own unique email address, start sending it photos to display as an animated slideshow from your own computers and mobile devices.

The great thing about this frame is that you can share its email address within specific friends and family, so they can send pictures to the frame as well. So, if you have an elderly parent or grandparent who is not tech-savvy and who is not active on social media, you can set up the Skylight frame in their home and then send photos to it from anywhere in the world via email. All the person who owns the frame needs to do is look at it to see the new images that are shared by others.

The Skylight also has its own proprietary mobile app that allows you to customize how the frame displays images and manage the images stored within the frame’s internal 8GB of storage.

Thanks to its low price, nice appearance and ease of use, the Skylight is one of the best deals when it comes to photo frames that are suitable for any home or office.

The Google Nest Hub is designed to be a versatile smart home assistant with a seven-inch touchscreen display and built-in Google Assistant. You can verbally ask the Nest Hub questions, control smart devices within your home, have the hub display steaming video content, stream music on-demand, plus handle a wide range of other tasks.

As its screensaver (when it’s not being used for other tasks), the Nest Hub can also access your favorite photos that are stored online within a Google Photos folder, and display them as a customized animated slideshow.

At just $100, it makes sense to set up these hubs in multiple rooms within your home. However, if you want to see your images displayed on a larger, 10-inch display, consider the Nest Hub Max ($229).forbes.comBest Buy Coupons | 10% Off In March 2022 | Forbes

Amazon continues to be a pioneer in voice-controlled digital assistants with its smart speakers, home hubs and smart devices that support Alexa. The Amazon Echo Show 15 is designed to be a versatile smart home hub with a stunning 15.6-inch touchscreen display that gets hung on a wall.

When the screen is not being used for other tasks, it’s able to display your favorite collection of digital photos as an animated slideshow. The Amazon Echo Show will pull images from your Amazon Photos albums or Facebook, for example.

What sets the Echo Show 15 apart from other Amazon hubs is the size of its display. The Echo Show 5 (with a 5.5 inch display), Echo Show 8 (with an eight inch display), and Echo Show 10 (with a 10.1 inch display) are also available from Amazon, and all can serve as a digital photo frame.

Nixplay’s family of digital photo frames stands out for a number of reasons, not the least of which is its sharp screen. The 9.7-inch Nixplay has a 2K resolution (2048x1536 pixel) display. Unlike many other frames, it’s wall-mountable, so you don’t have to display it on a shelf, desk or nightstand. It also has a remote control that cleverly snaps to the back of the frame with a magnet. A motion sensor tells the screen to go dark when nobody is around, preserving the display and saving power.

The frame comes with 8GB of on-board storage, but using Wi-Fi, the frame can easily pull images from cloud services. You can also send photos to the frame via email, plus control the frame with voice commands via the built in Alexa digital assistant.

Netgear’s Meural line of photo frames has a fun feature you don’t see in a lot of other frames—hands-free gesture control. Most digital photo frames run their slideshows at a fixed speed, but with this Meural frame, you can pass your hand in front of its sensor to scroll forward and backwards faster. This is handy—and much better than a touchscreen—because you don’t wind up getting fingerprints all over the photo display.

The 15.6-inch display is full HD resolution and it comes with a kickstand, although the frame itself can also be wall-mounted. It has 8GB of internal storage, and you can send photos to the frame from its proprietary mobile app from your phone or via cloud-based photo sharing services. The app is especially versatile in that you can curate photo playlists and schedule them to play at specific times of day or on special occasions.

Aura Carver is a simple photo frame that, while it doesn’t offer a lot of capabilities, is a budget-priced option that might make a good gift for someone who doesn’t need a lot from a digital photo frame.Unlike most other frames, its 10.1-inch full HD display is limited to a landscape orientation, so you can’t stand it vertically. It does, however, connect to cloud services, like Google Photos via Wi-Fi, so you can send photos to the frame using a mobile app. Unfortunately, the frame offers no on-board storage or memory card slots. You’ll need a reliable and always-on Wi-Fi connection for it to work.

The Meural Canvas II is unlike most any other digital photo frame; while you certainly can use it to display your personal photo collection, that’s not its main purpose. The Canvas II is designed to display digital art. It works best with a subscription to Meural’s art membership service, which gives you access to more than 30,000 pieces of fine art that you can turn into slideshows to display within your home, making your living room feel like an art gallery. In fact, when you’re standing a few feet from the display, you won"t be able to tell that you’re looking at digital reproductions of famous paintings or illustrations, for example.

Of course, if you have a favorite piece of artwork, you can display it continuously, or select different pieces to display at specific times during the day or evening. One awesome feature of the frame is that with a single finger, it can rotate on the wall, so you can switch between a portrait and landscape perspective and have the selected image take up the entire display.

Between its larger size display and high resolution, the Meural is rather pricey. You’ll pay around $600 for the frame plus about $70 per year for the art subscription. But few other devices give you quite the same access to so much fine art in your home so easily. You also get up to 20GB of personal cloud storage to add and then display your own digital photos (or digital versions of your child’s artwork), and you’re able to invite friends and family to add images to your frame as well.

The Canvas II frame is available in two sizes—16 by 24 inches and 19 by 29 inches. Both are full HD, color-accurate displays which you can control from a mobile app or using motion gestures in front of the screen. The display is designed to be hung on a wall and replicate a framed piece of artwork.

The reason why The Frame made it onto this list, however, is that the thin TV display is surrounded by your choice of picture frame options, so it can match the decor within your home.

When you subscribe to Samsung’s digital artwork service, The Frame can be set up to display any of more than 1,400 famous works of art whenever the TV is not being used. However, you can also load in your own digital images and have them displayed on the screen as a customizable animated slideshow.

Thanks to its 4K resolution display that offers a wide viewing angle, your digital images will appear vivid, clear, and showcase extreme detail when they’re presented on your wall within The Frame. Oh, and your favorite TV shows and movies will look amazing too.

This digital photo frame from Monster is very similar to the Skylight frame in that they both feature a 10 inch touchscreen display with a 1280 by 800 pixel resolution. Both frames also come with their own email address, so images can be sent directly to the frame from any Internet connected smartphone, tablet or computer.

These features make this frame the ideal gift for someone who is not at all tech savvy—perhaps an older parent, in-law or grandparent—who is not active on social media. Once this frame is set up and connected to a home’s Wi-Fi, anyone with the frame’s unique email address can send photos to the frame from anywhere. The person viewing the frame can just sit back and enjoy the photos.

When setting up the frame (which can be placed on a desk using its built in kickstand or hung on a wall) the speed and transition style used to display the photos is customizable. The frame can also be set up so only specific people can share images with it.

For added convenience, this digital frame has a memory card slot built in and is compatible with both Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant. It conjunction with your images, it’s able to display a digital clock and has an alarm function. The 16GB of internal storage is enough to hold about 4,000 images. Using the cloud, transfering up to 100 images at a time to the frame is simple.

As you can see, the newest digital photo frames come in a wide variety of styles, with varying prices. When it comes to choosing which option is best for you (or for the person you’ll be gifting it to) first consider the size of the display and whether it’ll fit on a desk, nightstand, dresser or wherever you intend to place it. Next, consider the frame’s resolution. This will determine how much detail you’ll see within each image, plus impact the clarity and vibrancy of the photo’s colors.

You also want to figure out what additional functionality, if any, the digital photo frame offers. For example, does it also serve as a smart speaker with a built-in digital voice assistant? It’s also important to determine if the frame itself has internal storage for your favorite digital images, and if so, how much? Keep in mind, 8GB of internal storage is enough to hold thousands of digital images or hundreds of short video clips.

If the frame does not have its own internal storage, does it have a memory card slot that allows you to transfer your favorite images to a memory card and then insert it into the frame, or does the frame connect to your home’s Wi-Fi and stream images from Apple iCloud, Google Photos, Microsoft OneDrive, Dropbox or another cloud-based service?

Other nice features to look for include whether or not the frame measures the ambient light in the room and then auto-adjusts its brightness, and whether the frame continuously stays on and allows you to customize the frequency and format used to display your favorite images.

Next, consider the frame’s appearance and determine if it’ll look good within your home or office. Finally, consider the price. The pricing for digital photo frames continues to drop as the technology improves, so for between $100 and $200, you can be confident that you’ll be able to purchase a really good quality digital photo frame that will make your favorite photos look great.

The biggest advantage to using a digital picture frame is that one frame can hold thousands of images. It can then be set up to continuously display just one of your favorite images, or create and display an animated slideshow to showcase many of your favorite images.

When you load up a digital picture frame with images of your loved ones, pets, friends and memorable moments in your life, throughout your day, looking at the frame will put a smile on your face as you reminisce about who is featured in the photos, as well as when and where each image was taken. Thus, these digital frames are ideal for a living room, TV room, bedroom or home office, for example.

Using a digital picture frame to showcase a collection of images is much more convenient than creating and then having to flip through the pages of traditional photo albums, photo books or scrapbooks, for example.

The Aura Carver combines attractive hardware and simple software to create a digital photo frame that is the easiest to set up and operate, and at a great price. We found the quality of its screen to be on a par with that of pricier frames. You go through the setup process on your Android or iOS device, no clunky remote required. If you’re primarily a phone photographer, you should be able to have your pictures up on this frame in a relatively short amount of time.

The setup was the simplest of the frames we tested. Once you download the Aura app, pair your phone to the frame, and connect it to your Wi-Fi network settings using your phone, you’re all set. (I did have to wait for the frame to power up and download a recent update, but it hasn’t needed any other software updates since, and I was still able to get the frame up and running in about five minutes.) One of the few steps between turning on the device and adding photos is the option to send invitations to family members and friends via text so they can upload their own pictures (you can also set up the Carver as a gift for someone else; more on that below). In addition, you won’t have to do anything on the frame itself with a remote control 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. And the Carver frame’s slim top makes it easier to find the touch bar compared with the Aura Mason.

The Carver’s resolution is a little lower than the Mason’s—1280×800 versus 1600×1200, respectively—but I 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, the 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. The Carver has a 16:10 aspect ratio, but I found that the wider ratio meant the entirety of my wedding photos always fit on the screen, so no guests were cut out. It also meant that when two vertical photos were displayed, they had a 4:5 aspect ratio. The automatic light sensor worked well in our trial runs, cranking up the screen’s brightness to combat sunlight. It also tended to pick up light from a different room better than the Mason’s sensor; when these frames were in my dining room, for example, the Carver stayed on with light spilling in from the kitchen, but the Mason did not.

Compared with a lot of other products in this category, with their plastic frames and borders that often look closer to a tablet than a decorative photo frame, the Carver has an aesthetic that combines form and function quite well. The frame has nifty features, such as touch-sensitive strips that let you mark favorite photos and go forward and backward with a swipe. (The strips take a little patience to work—we recommend moving slowly when using them.) Yet 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, its thicker base makes it more stable, and there’s nothing to assemble beyond plugging in the power cord.

Once the Carver is up and running, you have many display options to choose from. Working with its default settings, you get behavior that’s more suggestive of 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 like on other frames we’ve dismissed, only simple fades and swipes. The Carver does a remarkably better job than competitors at automatically cropping photos to fit on the screen, ensuring the subjects are nicely centered. It’s also easy to re-crop an image within the app if it doesn’t automatically focus on your favorite part (but based on my experience, you will need to do this very rarely). Its “Photo Match” mode—which places two portrait-orientation photos next to each other to fill the landscape-oriented screen—did a fairly good job at pairing together photos of my infant son or from my wedding. Other times the pairing was a little more random, but I didn’t find that too bothersome.

All Aura frames, including the Carver, can play videos, and you can upload them the same way you add photos (you can’t, however, use auto upload from a Google Photos folder; you can only add videos manually). The Carver puts vertical videos into Photo Match mode, placing them side by side with another video or a portrait-orientation photo. I noticed the frame often paired two vertical videos from my wedding, or a video of my son next to a portrait-oriented image of him. The Carver includes a built-in speaker to allow you to hear sound from your videos (if you choose to turn sound on), and the speaker was solid enough in our tests that we could hear both voices and background sound or music. You turn on sound manually for each video by tapping on the touch-sensitive strip, versus there being an on or off sound setting overall. If you don’t intervene, the video will play once silently and then freeze for the rest of its time on screen, unless you tap the touch-sensitive strip to replay it with sound on. All replays will include sound, but the next video the Carver shows will return to the muted auto-play setting. Aura will remember the volume level you selected, though volume can also be controlled on screen or from the app when a video plays.

A nice surprise about Aura’s frames: 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.

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 recipient unpacks the frame and plugs it in. 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 other frames don’t have (to replicate the experience, you have to prepare the frame yourself manually and then give it as a gift afterward).

The Carver also comes in a Mat version (it costs $30 more), which has two frame layers that look like a mat picture frame instead of the textured frame most other Aura frames have. It’s up to you if you think the aesthetics are worth the slightly larger investment; in our tests the only difference we noticed between the two is that the Carver Mat’s ambient-light sensor occasionally picked up light better than the standard Carver. Besides that, they’re identical in quality and experience.

Unlike the Aura Mason, the Carver’s aspect ratio isn’t our preferred 4:3, but we found that both landscape and portrait photos still fit nicely on screen.

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, there’s large pillarboxing on either side of portrait photos. We also found that turning off this setting wasn’t instantaneous—it took several minutes for the frame to recognize the change.

I have had the Nixplay Smart Digital Picture Frame 10.1 inch Wood-effect for 2 week now. It is like opening a new iPhone. The packaging was extremely high quality and instructions were well written. In looking for a photo album I wanted to avoid a cheap company with poor quality and, thankfully, that was not my experience with Nixplay. The finish of the frame is top-notch. There was a high quality bendable send on the back. The picture quality is crisp. The app is easy to use. It also syncs with Google Photos. The settings are abundant. You can edit the amount of time a picture is shown, how the photo fits in the frame, brightness, transition style, sleep hours, and more. Also there is a programmable motion sensor to save on electricity. I waited a long time to find a good picture frame and overlooked this one for a while due to uncertainty. I’m glad I picked this. It makes for a great gift. I would consider getting another for myself. I’m an amateur photographer and this is a great way to display my hobby.

nix-FamilyCircles allows you to create photo and video playlists that you can share with different family or friend groups. They can then play and add to them. Here are some cool Circle ideas:

nix-FamilyCircles allows you to create photo and video playlists that you can share with different family or friend groups. They can then play and add to them. Here are some cool Circle ideas:

Next login to your account directly at Nixplay store and enjoy 25% off the digital photo frames and you will notice the multi-shipping option is now available.

The walls of my house are covered in family photos, paintings, signed art prints and other various decorations. Yet we still have a pile of framed art that we don’t have room to hang — what do you do when you run out of wall space? Enter so-called “smart art,” a series of products designed to connect to your Wi-Fi and within which you can place dozens or thousands of photos and paintings — from the classic and modern art styles to vacation and wedding photos or even weekend adventures.From a smart digital picture frame to "smart art"

Digital picture frames, digital Wi-Fi photo frames, smart art displays — call them whatever you want, but they"ve been around for ages. And they’re now just one small piece of this burgeoning category known as smart art, which broadly includes:TVs that display paintings or photos when they’re off

It’s still a relatively new space, but things are heating up: This year, Netgear (which acquired the smart frame company Meural back in 2018) added a lineup of NFTs — or non-fungible tokens — to its art library. And in 2020, computer manufacturer Lenovo joined the smart frame market with a Google Assistant-enabled frame. On Aug. 3, Nixplay also added another digital photo frame to its lineup — the first to include touchscreen capabilities.Best digital photo frames and smart art displays

If you get tired of looking at the same couple of photos and paintings every day, a digital photo frame can bring more variety to your wall. They’re great if you’re just dipping your toe into the art world, or as a gift for your parents who are always clamoring for more pictures of your kids.

I can feel some of you already backing away, but hear me out: If you’re expecting the low-res, ugly digital frames of the early aughts, forget what you know — screen tech has come a long way, and digital photo frames are a lot better than they used to be.

Based on a decade of reporting on tech, including the emerging smart display space, here are some digital picture frames I think are worth considering right now.Digital picture frames

Nixplay is one of the bestselling brands of digital photo frames, with thousands of reviews on Amazon for different models — some of which drop the Wi-Fi for affordability, like the NIX Advance. Its most recent 2K-capable photo frame sports a 9.7-inch screen with a 2K resolution (that’s 2048x1536, or a bit sharper than 1080p). It connects to Wi-Fi so you don’t have to constantly copy new photos to an SD card or USB drive. Instead, you can cycle through photos from Facebook, Instagram, Flickr or Google Photos. That makes it especially great for gifting to less tech-savvy friends and relatives (think: Mother"s Day), since you can update the photos for them from wherever you are — no matter the distance. Nixplay sells frames up to 15 inches in size, and they can either stand on a table or hang on a wall, the most popular among them being the 10.1-inch Nixplay Smart Digital Photo Frame.

Nixplay’s newest release is the 10.1-inch Nixplay Smart Photo Frame Touchscreen. It works like all of Nixplay’s other digital picture frames, but instead of being controlled by a remote, you can just walk over to the frame and control everything right from the screen. With an HD screen resolution of 1280x800p, the Touchscreen model can play HD video clips as well as display photos, and friends and family can upload sentimental moments to the frame from all over the world.

In August 2020, Meural entered the smart frame market with a 15.6-inch Wi-Fi frame. The frame features a Full HD display (which means it has a display resolution of 1920x1080p), and you can either upload your own photos through your smartphone or sign up for Meural’s art membership (which costs $9 a month or $70 annually) to gain access to over 30,000 images, including NFTs, Van Gogh paintings and more.

Lenovo entered the smart art market in 2020 with a 21.5-inch frame that can be mounted on the wall or perched on an easel. It has an anti-glare display with a Full HD 1920x1080p resolution, and you easily sync it up with Google Photos to rotate through your most precious moments. Not only can you control the frame with Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant, but you can also flick your hand to tell the screen to move on to the next photo.

Digital photo frames can cost a pretty penny, but there are affordable options out there. This touchscreen frame from Dragon Touch retails for $130 and features 16GB of storage (meaning it can hold around 40,000 photos) and an HD resolution of 1280x800p. The frame automatically adjusts from portrait to landscape and vice versa when you flip it, and you can share photos via email and the Dragon Touch app, as well as with an SD card or USB drive.

Aura’s Mason Luxe digital photo frame, one of the brand’s newest releases, offers both photo and video display options and unlimited storage for both. The 9.7-inch frame offers 2K resolution (2048x1536) and you have the ability to adjust the speed of your photo slideshow, choose how you want your photos to be displayed and upload photos from your phone.Smart art frames

If you want to display larger pieces, there are standalone frames that are designed to show photos and paintings in a more wall-friendly size. They all work similarly:You hang the frame on your wall, sometimes with a swivel to toggle paintings in different orientations.

Most allow access to a limited collection of art for free, as well as the ability to upload your own photos — you can also purchase a monthly membership for access to thousands more.

Canvia is a relatively new smart art frame that is similar to the Meural in its general pitch: for a few hundred bucks, you can display paintings or photos in a large, wall-mounted frame. What sets Canvia apart is its larger free tier — about 2,500 pieces versus Meural’s 100 — with another 10,000 available through its subscription, which runs $10 a month ($80 a year). It also comes with a free yearlong subscription to the premium tier, which is a nice bonus.

If a standalone digital photo frame isn’t enough, Samsung’s The Frame pulls double duty as a TV when it’s on, and art when it’s “off.” Like other smart frames, it offers a small selection of paintings for free (a few hundred, by my count), and a larger selection for a monthly subscription fee of $4.99 a month. The screen doesn’t “pop” in quite the same way as, say, the Meural, and it’s more expensive than both the Meural and Samsung’s standalone TVs. But if you like the idea of having both TV and art in one frame, it’s a great alternative. (I personally own this TV, and I love having something other than a black slab to look at on my wall when the TV is off.)Smart assistants

Though smart displays aren’t solely designed to display photos and videos, most of the top models are now capable of playing photo slideshows when they’re not in use. As an added bonus, since these smart assistants are made by companies like Amazon, Google and Facebook, they feature seamless integration with some of the most popular photo-sharing platforms and websites.

The Amazon Echo Show 15, one of Amazon’s newest Echo offerings, has a 15.6-inch Full HD screen as well as a 5-megapixel camera to take photos and videos and video chat with friends. The smart display works with Amazon Photos and Facebook as a digital frame (and Prime members have access to unlimited photo storage). As a smart assistant, it can play music, pull up recipes and more.

If you do most of your video chatting and photo sharing on Facebook, then you might prefer the Portal, which can display photos directly from your Instagram and Facebook account on its 10-inch HD screen. When you want to video chat with family or friends, you can use your Messenger, WhatsApp or Zoom account, and you can control the smart assistant with Amazon Alexa.

The Google Nest Hub, a relatively affordable smart assistant at $100, automatically displays your favorite photos from Google Photos when it’s not in use. You can ask the built-in Google Assistant to stream your favorite TV shows, find you recipes, play music and even act as a sunrise alarm.Smart frames: Pros and cons

There’s also the matter of power cords: all of these have to be plugged into the wall to work, and most of the promotional photos cleverly hide this fact. While most attempt to disguise their cables as much as possible — the Meural uses a white, braided cable, and Samsung’s Frame uses a thin, clear cable going to its OneConnect box — they will be visible in most wall-hung scenarios. With a bit of help from an electrician, though, you could put a recessed outlet behind a smart art frame, or find another way to hide those cables within an extremely clean look.

The best digital photo frames are fairly simple: they’re a screen disguised as a photo frame. These frames let you change the image as often as you like, set up a slideshow, and even exhibit shared photos sent by loved ones. This offers a great way to enjoy up-to-date pictures of relatives and friends – no matter how far apart you are.

If, say, your parents live far away, you can connect to a digital frame and immediately upload new pictures of you and your kids to your parents’ frame for them to see. Want to send a virtual birthday card? Send it to your friend’s digital picture frame, so he or she gets it delivered without either of you having to go to the mailbox.

These high-tech frames are also great for displaying digital art in addition to photos. Whether you have a new favorite movie or you found a painting in a museum, you can immediately put up an image in your home with one of these digital frames – no need to hang another poster.

Before getting a new digital frame, there are a few key factors to consider. We chose a handful of the best-equipped frames, but you’ll want to pick one that’s best suited to your needs.

Photo Sharing Functionality: How you get photos is the specification that varies the most with digital frames, and subsequently the most important feature to consider. Some frames have an assortment of options for choosing photos, such as connectivity to major photo sharing sites like Facebook, Instagram and Dropbox. Others are more simple with a unique email address that you send images to, and then the images instantly pop up on the screen. If you’re buying a digital frame for less tech-savvy elders, for example, you’ll probably want a less complicated interface.

Display Quality: As with any screen in your device arsenal, the display quality of a digital frame is important. All of our picks have high-quality screens, but some of the more pricey options have screens with full HD or even 2K quality. Which quality you pick depends on how much you (or the frame’s user) care about image quality and where the frame will be displayed. If it’s on a mantle, people might not get as close to the frame as they will in a hallway of family photos.

Size: Digital frame display sizes mostly hover around 10 inches, but you can find options as big as 15 inches. Obviously, the larger the screen, the more expensive. If you plan on putting your frame in a bigger room, consider a bigger frame size.

Nixplay is one of the best-selling digital frame brands in the States with a range of high-quality models and an easy-to-use companion app for connectivity. All Nixplay frames connect to your email, social media accounts, and cloud services, which can be controlled using Nixplay’s remote app.

The latest and greatest Nixplay digital photo frame is this 10-inch touchscreen model. The touchscreen obviously makes the display easy to interact with (even if you don’t have your smartphone remote handy), but the frame’s extra features are what make it stand out. A feature called niX-SenseMe, for example, recognizes when someone is in the room and wakes up the display (when you’re gone, it stays off to preserve the screen and battery). It also uses niX-SmartFace Framing, which uses AI to properly positions photos right when they’re uploaded to the frame.

The Echo Show 15 is Amazon’s latest screen-equipped Alexa smart home device, and it’s hands-down the best-looking Echo yet with a frame-like design. Basically, it looks like decor instead of a piece of tech. This makes it one of the best digital photo frames, but the Show 15’s real talent is as a widget display for news, reminders, lists, recipes, and anything else a family might need handy.

Plus, because its software is so robust, adding images to your slideshow is very easy, and much of the work can even be done with your voice using Alexa. We also like the large 15-inch display, which reading and interacting with the device all the easier.

This nine-inch Aura Mason frame works via a companion app that connects to your digital library. The app boasts unlimited cloud storage for endless photos and sends pictures to any frame in your Aura network. This means you can have a few frames around the house, or send images to family and friends on the same Aura network in different households for a shared library.

If you want a bigger display, check out this digital frame from Canupdog. With a 15-inch screen, the frame looks like a real piece of art — great for filling out large mantles or empty walls.

The Canupdog uses the Frameo app on your smartphone, where you can upload photos to the frame’s internal storage space. It holds up to 32 gigabytes of photos, which should be more than enough space for your collection. Once you’ve uploaded your photos, mount the frame on any wall and it’ll automatically recognize whether it’s horizontal or vertical. The display itself is full HD, so images will look crisp.

At a glance, you might never guess that this Skylight frame is a digital device. The sleek design and high-resolution 1280 x 800 display help the stylish frame blend in on any photo-packed shelf or mantle.

The Skylight has one of the easiest interfaces around, making it ideal for the elderly. Just email photos to the frame and then use the touchscreen to browse, select pictures, and create slideshows. This frame also doesn’t need 24/7 WiFi connectivity, so it’ll work just fine in households with spotty or inconsistent WiFi.

Skylight’s frame also has a cute heart function that lets you “love” a photo by tapping a heart icon in the corner. The Skylight will then automatically send an email to whoever sent you that photo to let them know you like it.

This best digital picture frame with wifi can quickly update your life moments with your loved ones wherever you are. The digital picture frame wifi cloud helps to stay close to your family members, the wifi picture frame for grandparents is a perfect gift for the elder to feel connected with the young generation.

Other than a traditional digital photo picture frame, battery-powered digital photo frame classic 10 can instantly receive photos and videos via a Wi-Fi network. You, your families, and friends can share the moments with the cheap digital photo frame with multi convenient methods, such as a phone App, sending an email, or turning the frame to be a local FTP server.

A high-quality Bluetooth digital photo frame has a 10.1"" touch screen display with 1280*800 resolution and 16: 10 aspect ratio that recalls your precious memories. Our wifi digital picture frame can customized sleep mode and the Auto-rotate setting supports your better viewing experience, you can place this frame in either portrait or landscape mode, or even mount the digital wifi picture frame on the wall.

This wifi-enabled digital picture frame user-friendly interface design makes it easy-to-use for all ages. Only a few steps to complete the setup and intuitive touch screen make the usage much easier than ever.

This digital picture frame wifi best buy offers you a huge storage capacity with built-in 16GB memory (around 40,000 photos of 300KB/pc). Best wifi picture frame also supports the SD card and USB drive connectivity to enable you to read the files and export the received photos and videos for better album management.

Digital photo frames have come a long way in the last two-three years… but now that there are so many to choose from, how do you pick the right one? Here with a handy guide on how to pick the right digital photo frame is our regular contributor Selin Tagmat! Enjoy!

I remember the days when I wasn’t quite convinced about digital photo frames. This sudden switch from nicely printed photos to a digital display didn’t feel quite right. The first digital photo frames weren’t very visually appealing either, but times change, and digital photo frame design and technology has progressed rapidly in the last few years.

Today, having a digital photo frame at home is one of the best ways to enjoy your memories. They also make perfect gifts for our loved ones. Considering the large variety of digital photo frames available on the market, the question becomes: how do pick the right one? We’ll attempt to answer that question with this post.

Before jumping into a long list of the available digital photo frames on the market, it’s always helpful to have a general idea about your needs and expectations. Below is a quick checklist to help you figure this out – write down your answers and match them up to find the correct frame!

Display sizes for digital photo frames for home use generally range from 7 to 21 inches. The size is measured diagonally, just like with all other digital screens. There are also a few other larger size options up to 65 inches. These are specialized products for hanging on your wall to display special memories, artistic photos, or digital artwork. Expect bigger price tags in the latter category.

The best choice depends on your intended use and available budget. If you need a handy frame to place on your office desk, then you might go for a smaller screen. If you intend to use it as a decorative aspect in your living room to view it from different angles, then it’s best to use a larger one.

Theaspect ratiois the proportional relationship between the width and height of an image on the screen. Digital photo frames use a 4:3 or 16:9 aspect ratio.4:3 is the ideal aspect ratio for displaying photos taken with smartphones and cameras. If you want to display a good mix of photo and video memories, then 16:9 aspect ratio can be a good compromise for you.Most of the frames automatically stretch images to fit the screen size and that’s why it’s best to choose the right aspect ratio for your needs… you want your photos to look their best!

Having a digital photo frame with high resolution is key to enjoying your memories with a good image quality: You should have at least 480 x 720 resolution for a smaller size frame (like a 7-inch) while for larger frames, 1024 x 768 or above is a must (for 4:3 digital photo frames).

As we view digital photo frames from different angles, it’s always an added value to choose a digital photo frame with an IPS (in-plane switching) and anti-glare display technology, if possible. These technologies allow viewing images on a digital screen without having angle dependency or reflection problems.

In other words, the photo transfer possibilities of a digital photo frame depends on its connection features: Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, cable, USB and card slots, etc.

Digital photo frames typically have 4GB or 8GB built-in memory storage while with some models it’s possible to have extra storage thanks to an SD card slot or a cloud integration. The only that offer cloud storage often have a subscription-based business model.

It’s important to know thatsome digital photo frames support only the JPEG file format while others are more flexible and display BMP, GIF, PNG and TIFF files. This is an important criteria to consider; if you buy a digital photo frame which only displays JPEGs and all your photos are in another format, then you’ll need to change the file format of your photos with a graphic software beforehand. That could become very cumbersome.

It’s important to choose a product that offers an easy-to-use interface depending on the technical abilities and preferences of the user, especially for navigation among menu items, use of buttons and touchscreens, connection to internet and other services, using apps, and sharing options.

Today, you can choose from a variety of color and material options as well as matte or glossy screens. Your choice will mostly depend on your home decor preferences as well as light conditions. For example, if you have a lot of light in your room, then you’re better off choosing a matte display to avoid extreme reflections.

Another design aspect is whether you want to place your digital photo frame as a stand alone item or to hang it on the wall. Be sure to imagine beforehand how a digital photo frame would look when placed or hung in your space, especially if there’s a cable connection involved.

All digital photo frames need a power source (at least as of now), but there are some models that offer cordless use for up to four hours. Consider a cordless option if you want some portability. As organizers, we are always in favor of having less cords; that way, there’s less to tangle.

Some digital photo frames automatically detect landscape/portrait photos and orient them accordingly. This is a handy time-saver instead of rotating them manually.

Motion sensors and timers are very important features to look for in a digital photo frame to avoid continuous power use and reduce your environmental impact.

Other types of integrated functions, such as a clock, calendar and reminders can be interesting for those who want to use their digital photo frame as a kind of daily organizer as well.

There are plenty of digital photo frame options on the market, but here’s a well-research selection of good products addressing different types of needs, users, and budgets.

The list starts from the simplest products with basic features to more sophisticated products with advanced features. Wherever possible, a budget alternative is also mentioned. So, rather than a ranking, we aim to provide a wide range of digital photo frame examples from different categories.

NIX is a digital photo frame series by Nixplay with two main products: NIX Advance and NIX Digital Photo Frames. This series is characterized by simple but good quality digital photo frames, suitable for those who don’t need a Wi-Fi connection. Photos and videos are displayed directly by inserting a USB flash drive or SD card, so they have no internal storage either.

The NIX series offer different display sizes (8, 10, 13 and 15 inches), all with high resolution, and some of them with full HD. WhileNIX Advanceis designed as a standup frame to be placed on a surface,NIX Digital Photo Framescan also be mounted on the wall.

The NIX series is sold on theNixplay websitefrom $79.99 (8-inch) to ＄149.99 (13-inch). You can also find larger options (15-inch+) onAmazonfor $179.99. Watch for sales!

If you’re looking for a budget option without Wi-Fi, take a look at Tenswall’s line of frames. They have more or less the same features as the NIX series and will be a suitable alternative.In addition to that, they offer widescreen high resolution IPS display, support a larger number of photo and video formats, and has quite good customer reviews on Amazon.You can buy Tenswall frames on Amazon; the7-inch for $39.99and the10-inch for $69.99. Good quality for the price.

Want a simple and good quality digital photo frame with Wi-Fi connection? Well, Nixplay is the top brand for digital photo frames with handy features and a variety of size options.

Nixplay’s newest Wifi and cloud-connected digital frames are calledSmart Photo Frames. There are 9, 10, 13 and 15-inch options available, all with IPS display technology and 8GB built-in storage. The frame has standard speakers and can be used free-standing or wall mounted. The only limitation of the Nixplay frames is that the maximum duration for a video playback is 15 seconds.

Photos and videos can be uploaded through the Nixplay app from your smartphone, and it’s also compatible with Google Photos, Dropbox, Facebook, and Instagram. You can manage your albums with Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant.

If you want to go one step further and enjoy a few more cool features, check out Nixplay’s Seed Wave line of frames. It has all the features of a standard Nixplay wifi digital photo frame, and also comes with powerful speakers to allow music streaming from your Bluetooth devices. It’s also compatible with Spotify.The 13-inch Nixplay Seed Wave with full HD display is sold for $259.99 onthe Nixplay website. It includes 8GB internal storage and 10 GBs worth of cloud storage.

Digital photo frames are one of the best ways to keep the whole family connected, especially for our older loved ones. ThePix-Staris designed as a digital photo frame with features aimed at making it a companion to seniors. It’s an interesting option for the younger generation as well, especially considering its competitive price.

Pix-Star offers 10-inch and 15-inch high resolution display options with a wide range of connection possibilities: wifi, cloud, SD card, and USB. It works with Google Photos, Facebook, Instagram, OneDrive, Google Drive, Dropbox, Flickr and SmugMug. It comes with 8GB internal storage, as well as free unlimited cloud storage. It’s possible to upload photos by email, though the app, or online.

A Pix-Star digital photo frame allows its user to enjoy music, web stations, games for the brain, time & weather, calen