Aura Carver Digital Picture Frame review

Key Takeaways

Aura Carver digital picture frame is a fantastic way to relive memories and share them with loved ones easily.
The app is user-friendly, the design is sleek, and the frame can display videos, live photos, and stills.
While not the sharpest display, the frame’s functionality, simplicity, and unlimited photo storage make it worth it.

A little over a year ago, my wife and I had our first child. It was a whirlwind of a year that went by incredibly quickly while feeling like the longest year of my life at the same time. There were so many amazing moments I want a chance to relive and watch my daughter grow up again. Luckily, I’m able to do that every day with the help of a digital picture frame.

I received the Aura Carver digital picture frame as a gift this year and can’t say enough about how much fun it’s been to have in the house. Digital picture frames allow you to upload your favorite memories to an app and display them on a rotating loop wherever you want in your house. Rather than utilizing our Amazon Echo Show 8, which you can upload photos to, having the Aura prominently displayed in our kitchen lets us peek at a time in the past year throughout the day.

I’ve been using the picture frame for over six months now and every time I walk by it, I smile. Here’s more on how the Aura Carver digital picture frame can improve your home.

Aura Carver WiFi Digital Picture Frame

Recommended

A fantastic digital photo frame that allows you to keep loved ones up to date with new photos easily.

Pros

App is simple to use
Sleek design
Can play videos, live photos, and stills

Cons

Touch buttons not as easy as could be
Display not as sharp as other versions

How to turn your Amazon Echo Show into a digital photo frame

These simple steps will have your Echo Show lighting up the room with your favourite photos.

Price, availability, and specs

The Aura Carver digital picture frame retails for $149. The version that I have is a solid frame, rather than a matted one, which will cost you more. It is available from Aura and is also sold on Amazon, Best Buy, and at other retailers. It’s readily available, and you can usually buy it any time of year.

The 10.1-inch display features a resolution of 1280 x 800, which is crisp enough for many photos. But if you’re looking for a sharper display, you will have to pay for the Aura Mason or the Aura Walden which feature Full HD 2K displays. The Carver is larger than the Mason but smaller than the Walden.

It connects via your home Wi-Fi, so you’ll need to download the Aura app and sync your frame with your home’s Wi-Fi. The fabric power cord stretches up to 6.5′, providing you with versatility on where you want to plug it in.

Aura Carver WiFi Digital Picture Frame

Display Size: 10.1″
Storage: Unlimited
Connective Technology: Wi-Fi
Brand: Aura
Display Resolution: 1280×800

What I Like About the Aura Carver Digital Picture Frame

It’s simple to set up and use

The Aura Carver picture frame with a photo

It takes almost no time to set up your Aura Carver frame. After you take it out of the box and plug it in, it prompts you to connect it to Wi-Fi. You first need to download the Aura app and after a few prompts of syncing up the frame, it will show up in your app. You need to create a profile before you can add photos because this allows you to send out invites to others who you want to have the ability to add photos to your frame. Sending an invite to someone to join your frame is as simple as adding in their email address to the app.

You need to create a profile before you can add photos because this allows you to send out invites to others who you want to have the ability to add photos to your frame.

From there, you’re able to choose which photos in your photo library you want to add to your frame. My family already had a shared album of photos of our daughter, so I was able to integrate all the photos from that shared album into the Aura app. It wasn’t a hassle to upload them, and there’s even automation settings — when we add a photo to the shared album, Aura will pull it into the app, and it will then populate automatically on our frame.

You’re able to set up different albums and then choose when they’re displayed on your frame. You can choose to have them shuffle through the photos or play them straight through. There are settings for how many seconds your photo shows before changing to the next one, so you can play around with that and choose how long it stays. Arguably the best feature about the Aura is that there is unlimited storage for your photos. Since it’s cloud-based, you can upload as many photos as you want to be cycled through on your frame.

Arguably the best feature about the Aura is that there is unlimited storage for your photos.

If you are uploading videos, it will play the entire video rather than stick to the allotted seconds limit. There is a speaker in the back that plays the sound from the videos. It’s not incredibly loud, but it does the trick.

On the top of the picture frame is a touch bar. While the screen itself is not touchscreen, you’re able to toggle through options on the bar. If you want to go to the next photo, you swipe to the left. If you want to return to the previous photo, you swipe right. If you want to like a photo and save it in your liked photos album, you double-tap the bar. You can also keep your finger on the bar and a menu will pop up. It shows you a Power button, which will let you turn off the display. It also has an Exclude button, which will let you get rid of a photo from the slide show. The Replay button will replay the photo again, and then you can close out of the menu with the Close button.

If you tap the bar once, it will show you info from the photo. This reveals when the photo was taken, where it was taken, and who uploaded it to your frame. Other great features include automatic brightness adjustment, photo cropping, and automatic nighttime turnoff.

How to set a sleep timer for your Netflix show or movie

This setting was ideal if you were sleepy and didn’t want to leave Netflix on all night. Sadly, it’s not available any more.

What I Don’t Like About the Aura Carver Digital Picture Frame

Minimal complaints

While it may have been easier to have the display be touchscreen, like a digital hub, the touch bar works fine. But I do forget about it sometimes, so I go to swipe on the screen to go to another photo. As mentioned before, if you’re looking for the sharpest photos, this isn’t the frame for you. But you will have to pay more if you want crisper images and videos. There are no smart home integrations, so you won’t be able to link up your Aura with a smart display.

0:43

Why this digital photo frame is designed for picky photographers like me

The Arzopa Frameo Digital Picture Frame’s quality display makes it easy, efficient, and exciting to show off my photos.

Verdict: Should You Buy the Aura Carver Digital Picture Frame?

A resounding yes from me

The Aura Carver digital picture frame turned on

Every time I walk by the ledge in my kitchen that we have our Aura Carver on, I stop and look at what photo is on it. The image is clear enough from anywhere in the room that you’re able to see the photo. The 10.1″ display is large enough for both vertical and horizontal photos to be seen clearly. The fact that a lot of the photos we take are Live Photos adds to the enjoyment as the frame shows mini videos from those pictures.

This will not set you back as much as some of the top digital picture frames on the market. But I can’t imagine that they offer you much more than what this delivers. The app is simple to use and anyone you invite can add photos easily. This digital picture frame has been a great addition to my home, and it will probably be for yours, too.