May 2, 2024 11:00 AM

Share Your Memories With Our Favorite Digital Photo Frames

Get your pictures off your phone and in front of your friends and family with these WIRED-tested digital picture frames.

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Featured in this article

Aura Carver digital picture frame showing pictures of children

Aura Walden digital picture frame mounted on a wall

Digital picture frame with wooden trim sitting on a wooden dresser with a rotary phone and plant in the background

4 / 9

Most of us have hundreds, if not thousands, of photos just sitting on our phones and computers that we rarely get to revisit in a polished way. I make photo albums, but some deserve to be more on display, and there are just too many to frame. That's why I love digital photo frames.

If you're thinking of the tacky, pixelated digital frames of the early aughts, you're in for a nice surprise. They've come a long way. They're nice to have around the house, and they also make great gifts. You can set them up for others and push your latest vacation photos straight to them, so your parents or grandparents can always stay up-to-date. Most require a Wi-Fi connection, but we have a pick that doesn't. These are the best digital picture frames (and the worst).

Don't have enough pictures? Check out our many other buying guides, like the Best Compact Cameras, the Best Mirrorless Cameras, the Best Photo Printing Services, and the Best Camera Gear for your Phone.

Updated May 2024: We've added the Wi-Fi-free Familink Frame and Vieunite's Textura Digital Canvas as a pick for art pieces. We've also updated the competition section.

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Before You Buy

Photograph: Aura Frames

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.

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.

Photograph: Aura Frames
Best Overall
Aura Carver
There's no beating Aura when it comes to digital frames. All of them have high-quality displays and unlimited photo storage. Plus, they're dead simple to set up, use, and share with family and friends. Everything is controlled with the app, so there's no laggy touchscreen to futz with—you can scroll through or heart photos using the touchbar on top. This 2022 version of the Carver drops the price to $149—from there, styles go up to $300, though they're often discounted. The Carver is landscape only, but some other Aura models, like the Mason, can work in portrait too.
Maybe the best part is that Aura frames don't look like shiny computer screens. Several guests have said they didn't realize it was a digital screen until the photo changed, which is exactly what I want. You can use Google Assistant or Amazon Alexa to control some features, but you still need Aura's app, which is straightforward to use. There's a scan feature to help better display physical photos or your kid's drawings.
$149 at Amazon
$150 at Target
$149 at Aura
Photograph: Aura Frames
If You Want to Hang Your Frame
Aura Walden 15-Inch Frame
Recently, it seems that every digital frame brand is releasing extra-large versions meant to hang on the wall. I don't particularly like the idea of a cord hanging down, but if you don't mind it or can find a way to hide it elegantly, Aura's newest 15-inch Walden is the best option. It works in portrait or landscape orientation and has a white, textured mat around it for a more polished, professional look. It gets all the other Aura pros, like super easy set up and use. If you just want a large frame and don't want to hang it, it comes with a metal stand.
$299 at Amazon
$299 at Aura

Photograph: Nixplay
Runner-Up
Nixplay 10.1-inch Touch Screen Photo Frame
Nixplay frames are comparable to Aura, and if you can get one on sale for cheaper, you'll be happy with it. I typically prefer frames without touch screens because they tend to be low-quality and frustrating. Nixplay is better than the cheaper touch-screen frames, and it's nice to not have to keep track of a remote like some of the brand's other options.
Nixplay frames have additional perks, like a small clock you can add to the display, though that does make it look less like a real photo frame and more like a smart display. Google Assistant can only control power to the frames, but Alexa has more capabilities. As with the Aura, you still need to use the Nixplay app. Nixplay plants a tree for every frame bought, in partnership with Trees for the Future.
$155 at Amazon
$200 at Nixplay
Photograph: Medea Giordano
No Wi-Fi Needed
Familink 10-Inch Digital Photo Frame
Digital photo frames are a great gift for family members to keep them up-to-date on your lives, but not all our parents or grandparents use Wi-Fi. Familink's frame works with or without an internet connection, thanks to its 4G SIM card. Someone will need to set up an account on the website or app (iOS, Android) so that family members can send photos (or even chats) to the frame. It's more expensive than our favorite Aura, and there's no slideshow feature—the most recent addition shows automatically, and you can manually scroll through. But the screen still looks good, and I love the wood frame.
With 4G service, the frame can receive 10 photos per day. You'll get three months free and will then need to pay a monthly fee (about $6.30) to keep it running. If you are using Wi-Fi, there's no monthly fee and you can send unlimited photos.
$190 at Amazon

Photograph: Loop
You Can Text Photos to This Frame
Loop Family Frame
Loop's touchscreen display was among the best of the options I've tried, and photo quality is solid. You can text photos to the frame instead of having to do it in-app, which is nice if your family member is sending photos to your frame and you don't want them to see your entire slideshow. A few frame options offer the ability to email photos. Vertical photos can be shown side-by-side, auto-stretched, or letter-boxed. For the latter, the background is a blurred image of the photo, but Loop says a black or white option is coming as an app update. I was also impressed by the quality of the rose gold metal stand, which adds an extra element of style.
But there are some quirks that I think can be improved upon. I don't like that you have to do some of the signing-up on the frame and some on the app—and if you want to remove a frame, you have to do a factory reset on the device itself, and then remove it from the app, where your photos will remain. I think it should be app only.
$160 at Amazon
$160 at Loop
Photograph: Vieunite
For Displaying Art
Vieunite Textura Digital Canvas
Vieunite's Textura Digital Canvas is beautiful for displaying professional art. It's bright and high-def enough that you don't lose the integrity of the original painting. I tried the walnut frame, which added another beautiful element to the setup. There's a large library with the likes of van Gogh and Monet, as well as modern artists curated by the company.
However, it's extremely expensive so most of us won't be able to get one (even if it cheaper than buying an actual Van Gogh). While most of the library comes with the frame, some images cost extra. It's also heavy. You can upload your own photos like a regular digital frame, but for this price, I'd stick to the ones that need intense clarity to shine.
$613 at Vieunite

Photograph: Skylight
An Honorable Mention
Skylight Frame
The 15-inch Skylight Frame looks sleek and expensive sitting on my shelf—it should, it costs $300 (the 10-inch frame is $160). Upon closer inspection, you'll see that image quality suffers a bit, especially for the pictures I took on my iPhone. They lose a little bit of detail, but photos taken with a professional camera looked better. The Skylight frame adjusts images to fill the entire screen, but you can zoom out with two fingers like you would on a phone or tablet.
When you create your account, you can set up a custom email address to send photos to or handle everything in the app, as you would on the other frames we like. Like the Aura Walden, there is a wall mount if you want to hang it, and you can install it in either landscape or portrait orientation. If you have a Fire device, like a Fire TV, you can display your images there too. There's an optional subscription, but it doesn't seem worth the money.
$160 at Amazon (10-inch Frame)
$160 at Skylight (10-inch Frame)
$300 at Amazon (15-inch Frame)
$300 at Skylight Frame (15-inch Frame)
Photograph: Google
You Could Use a Smart Display …
Google Pixel Tablet
If you already have a smart display, you can set it to cycle through your photo albums when it's idle. They're more expensive but you'll get more for your money, plus a voice assistant to control your smart home products and helpful additions like walking you through recipes while you cook. On the downside, smart displays don't blend into your decor the way digital frames are designed to. They can also be tricky to navigate for those who aren't tech-savvy, and built-in microphones and cameras come with privacy concerns.
We think smart displays are becoming less necessary, and we're not sure how long they'll be around. Google has stopped providing updates to some third-party displays, and we suspect more companies will follow. That being said, the Pixel Tablet is our favorite, since it can transport like a tablet but sit on its dock like a smart display. The Google Nest Hub Max is a nice cheaper option from the same brand and the third-gen Echo Show 8 is good for fans of Alexa.
$499 at Amazon
$499 at Best Buy
$499 at Target

Photograph: Simply Smart Home
More Frames We've Tried
The Competition
Cozyla frames: We tried a few from this brand. Photo quality was great and there's solid features like only showing photos that match the current orientation of the frame. I found the app to be frustrating, however, and it comes pre-loaded with unnecessary art images. You can hide them from your frame, but there was no obvious way to remove them from the app entirely. If you happen to find one at a super discount, grab it, but other than that, I'd wait for an update.
myFirst Frame Doodle for $129: This frame is aimed at kids, with its cover you can draw on and an app feed that family members can use for photo sharing and chatting. But it's too expensive for the quality. It was slow and not as straightforward as Aura and no matter how many times I deleted photos from the library, they kept returning.
Simply Smart Home 8-inch frame for $115 and Aeezo 9-inch frame $110: These will do the job, but their apps aren't nearly as streamlined as their pricier counterparts. They're better than the Atat below, but, like Cozyla, they cross the $100 threshold. If you can spend a little more, the $150 Aura is a much better buy.
Atat for $62 and Jeemak (which is not currently available): I thoroughly investigated cheap digital frames, but none could compare. These two have a ton of extra features, like calendars, alarm clocks, and music, but the bargain touchscreens reminded me of my first touchscreen phone—that is, they are buggy. If you want more features, spend a bit more for a smart display instead. It'll save you headaches in the long run.
Monster 8-Inch Digital Frame for $70: We used to recommend the Monster as the best cheap option, but as of this publication, it's not available. The touchscreen was noticeably faster, and the 1280p screen gets you crisp photos. You can use Google Assistant or Alexa with it too. It had a limit of 4,000 photos, whereas Aura offers unlimited storage, but that's still a huge amount of photos to display.

Medea Giordano turned her shopping problem into a career as a product writer for WIRED. She covers a little bit of everything but loves health, beauty, and pet tech. Prior to WIRED, she was an assistant editor at Wirecutter and an assistant in the newsroom of The New York Times.... Read more

Writer and Reviewer

TopicsShopping Photography buying guides household

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