Digital photo frames are way better than you think, and these are the best ones to buy

Screen size: 15 inches | Resolution: 1,600 x 1,200 | Storage: Cloud (unlimited) | Touchscreen: No (touch bars) | Orientation options: Landscape/portrait | Motion sensor: Yes | Dedicated email address: Yes

Unlike many of Aura’s frames, the Walden model looks fairly plain: Just a basic black edge and white matte surrounding a roomy 15-inch screen.

But that screen is glorious, one of the brightest and sharpest I’ve seen, and Aura is still a top choice if you’re looking for a gift: You can upload photos in advance and even set it up for use with the recipient’s Wi-Fi network. That makes it great for gifting to grandparents or anyone who’s not super tech-savvy. (This works a little differently depending on whether you purchase from Aura proper or a retail partner like Amazon; be sure to read Aura’s gifting page to learn more.)

Setup is guided and quite easy overall. The Walden can accept photos from your phone and iCloud and Google Photos accounts — but not Facebook, Instagram or other services. The Aura app is one of few that flags photos you’ve already sent, handy for avoiding duplicates. Friends and family can use that app as well, or send photos directly to the frame’s dedicated email address. 

A built-in motion sensor not only detects when people are present, but also adjusts screen brightness depending on the room’s ambient light. (On occasion, however, it flaked out, keeping the screen dim no matter the lighting. The only remedy was rebooting the frame by unplugging it.) Weirdly, there’s no manual brightness adjustment available on the frame or in the app.

This is the rare frame that doesn’t have a touch screen. All settings are managed in the app, though there are touch bars embedded on the top and side edges; you swipe these to page through your photos. I thought this a bit inconvenient at first, but it actually makes sense: It keeps the screen free of fingerprints.

Because the Walden relies solely on cloud storage, it requires a full-time Wi-Fi connection. If there’s an outage, or you try setting this up somewhere without a Wi-Fi network, you won’t be able to see any photos.

That’s not a huge deal, but this is: Aura doesn’t allow you to retrieve your photo library; you can only migrate it to another Aura frame. And there’s no global “fit to frame” setting, a forehead-smacking omission.

Those gripes aside, the Aura Walden is an excellent choice for yourself or as a gift.

Screen size: 10.1 inches | Resolution: 1,280 x 800 | Storage: 16GB (expandable) | Touchscreen: Yes | Orientation options: Landscape/portrait | Motion sensor: No | Dedicated email address: No

Amazon is home to dozens of off-brand photo frames like this one, with prices typically ranging between $60 and $100. I’ve chosen this model as representative of those “generics” — the frames that all look pretty much the same and offer similar specs. The YunQiDeer is one of the better deals for a frame of this size, and it’s been around awhile; it’s less likely to suddenly vanish from Amazon.

I was pleased to find a complete, informative instruction manual in the box. And it’s not just for the frame; it also focuses on the Frameo companion app, which is used to upload photos. (Friends and family will need this app as well if they want to share their pics, but it’s admirably simple to add them.)

More of a nitpick: You’re limited to uploading 10 photos at a time — unless you upgrade to Frameo+, which also nets you cloud backup and support for videos up to two minutes long. (Without it, the limit is 15 seconds.)

I know: another subscription. But Frameo+ is only $1.99 monthly or $16.99 for an entire year. Pretty cheap. And definitely optional; the benefits are all nice to have but not critical.

The frame itself is nicely styled in basic black, and it supports auto-rotation: Just turn it to switch between portrait and landscape viewing. There’s 16GB of onboard storage; you can add another 32GB by way of a microSD card.

I like that it can do two important things that some more expensive frames can’t: Auto-size photos (either globally or individually) and export all your photos to external storage.

All told, I’m pretty impressed by what you get for the money here. The YunQiDeer frame originally sold for $120; it’s now priced at $70 most of the time, but I’ve seen it dip to just $40 repeatedly throughout the year. So unless you’re in a hurry, wait for a sale.

Screen size: 10.1 inches | Resolution: 1,200 x 800 | Storage: 32GB (non-expandable) | Touchscreen: Yes | Orientation options: Landscape/portrait | Motion sensor: No | Dedicated email address: Yes

Photo frame to go? That’s the unique promise of the PhotoSpring Charge Pro, the only model here with a rechargeable battery. You can not only use it at home, but also take it to, say, a party and run a photo slideshow as part of the celebration. 

That’s the standout feature in an otherwise basic frame, which looks a little dated and has software to match: The app is pretty rudimentary, offering few frame- or photo-management options; nearly everything is handled via the frame itself, which has an agreeably simple touchscreen interface. You can use a web portal to upload batches of photos, but it limits you to 500 at a time — a pretty major inconvenience if you have a large library to add.

What’s more, although you can link to a Google Photos account, that’s the extent of PhotoSpring’s integrations: no Facebook, Instagram or the like. But I did notice that the Charge Pro is smart enough to detect and ignore duplicate photos, something I wish more frames did.

If you’re looking for a photo frame that’s intended to stay put, it’s hard to recommend this one over others that have better software. However, if battery-powered operation is at the top of your list, the Charge Pro is your best — arguably only — choice.

Screen size: 10 inches | Resolution: 1,920 x 1,080 | Storage: 16GB (non-expandable) | Touchscreen: Yes | Orientation options: Landscape only | Motion sensor: No | Dedicated email address: No, instead has a dedicated phone number for texts

Every frame here can accept new photos via app; some also have dedicated email addresses, which simplifies things a bit for friends and family. The Loop relies on an app as well, but instead of email, it has a phone number, meaning you can actually send photos via text message — arguably the simplest solution of all.

Less simple: Frame setup, which was more complicated than it should have been owing to some conflicting instructions between the setup guide and the app. Thankfully, things went smoothly after that, and, in fact, the Loop proved one of the more novice-friendly frames I’ve used. The app and onscreen settings menus are simple and straightforward, allowing you to set up different albums and tweak things like photo transition time and sleep mode.

However, there are some limitations to consider. The frame works only in landscape orientation and doesn’t have a motion sensor. It can display two photos side by side but doesn’t offer any transition choices beyond a basic fade. Finally, although you can configure the Loop for gifting, you have to go all the way through the setup process first; you can’t preconfigure and preload the frame like you can with Aura’s.

My main complaint is that the app doesn’t flag photos you’ve already uploaded to the frame, meaning you might accidentally send the same ones, resulting in duplicates. (Unfortunately, this is true with a lot of frames.)

These gripes aside, I like the screen’s brightness and the Loop’s overall simplicity. And it’s the only frame that lets you text new photos. That option alone may make it the preferred choice for some buyers.

Screen size: 10.1 inches | Resolution: 1,280 x 800 | Storage: 8GB internal / unlimited (cloud) | Touchscreen: Yes | Orientation options: Landscape/portrait | Motion sensor: Yes | Dedicated email address: Yes

Nixplay has been in this biz as long as I can remember, so it’s no surprise the company makes a damn fine frame. The current-gen 10-inch model looks lovely, with your choice of bezel and trim colors and even a stylish, patterned backside in case you display it somewhere you can actually see the back (like on an end table).

In my tests, I found the Nixplay frame easy to set up, thanks to simple onscreen instructions that eventually lead you to the Nixplay app. Unfortunately, the app takes some learning, as it’s heavily playlist-oriented and not super-intuitive overall. Even so, I think if you’re looking to outfit not only yourself but one or more family members with a smart photo frame, this is a top choice. The app lets you set up “family circle” playlists for easy sharing between frames, plus you can pull photos from social networks like Facebook, Instagram and Google Photos.

I also like the frame’s variety of display modes, which include fit-to-screen, pan-and-zoom and snapshot (which digitally frames each photo like a Polaroid and lays them down in a virtual, ever-growing pile). Most of these modes include nearly a dozen nifty transition options (push, wipe, cross-fade, etc.), including one that’ll randomly cycle through them all.

Your frame purchase includes unlimited cloud service for your photos, though that means you need an active internet connection to see your full slideshow. Without one, the frame displays only your most recent additions, which are stored in local memory.

Of course, no frame is perfect, and I believe Nixplay’s model makes a great choice for far-away families that want to easily exchange photos.