The best digital photo frames offer a great way to showcase your favorite photos. Instead of being limited to a single printed image, you can upload a selection of shots and enjoy them in rotation. A major advantage over traditional frames is the ability to instantly display new images – no more waiting for prints, and no need to buy a new frame for each update. Whether you're displaying pictures of family and friends, vacation memories, wedding photos, or even short videos, there's a digital frame that suits your needs.
Today’s top digital frames are incredibly user-friendly. Unlike older models that require USB sticks or SD cards, all the frames in this guide are Wi-Fi-enabled and some store images in the cloud, allowing you to manage your gallery through a smartphone app. They all feature a touchscreen or touchbars to make navigation easy, too.
So how do you choose the best digital photo frame? There are numerous styles to pick from, but you’ll also want to consider factors like screen size, storage capacity, and support for video and sound. If it’s a gift, think about the recipient too – some frames can even be preloaded with images without opening up their box.
Adam is the Guides Editor at Digital Camera World and has been working as a photography journalist for the past 15 years. He's long advocated that photographs need to be proudly displayed rather than hidden on hard drives and loves how easy digital photo frames make it to show off your best shots.
The Quick List
With a super-sharp screen that shows your photos at their best and easy ways to add photos, this is a digital frame with class.
For a very affordable price, this frame shows off your images nicely and has loads of storage for adding more photos.
Adding photos via a smartphone app is the only method this frame offers, but the build and image quality are first-rate.
Its 11in screen packs in a super-hi-res 2K display that shows the entire 100% Adobe sRGB color gamut, so your images really shine.
Not only is this a capable (if small) photo frame, it also streams music and video, has an AI assistant, and sits in the center of your smart home.
Most digital photo frames are about 10 inches on the diagonal, but this one goes 50 per cent bigger, really showcasing your images on a big screen.
Best digital photo frames
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Best premium photo frame
✅ You like to connect: this works with Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa and can play music while displaying images
✅ You want to work in any orientation: images are auto-flipped and adjusted to work in any orientation
❌ You want built-in storage: this only connects to could-services and via its own app to display images
❌ You want a touch screen: while this screen is 2K resolution it lacks the smarts for swiping gestures
Aura makes some of the most stylish digital photo frames around. The Aura Mason Luxe comes in two colors, pebble and sandstone, both of which have a speckled effect. And it's the perfect gift, because you can add pictures to it without having to open the packaging.
This is an especially handy feature if you're giving it to someone slightly less tech-savvy. All you need to do is scan a QR code on the box and use an app on your phone to choose which pictures you want it to display, which adds an extra element of surprise.
The Mason Luxe is able to play videos with sound thanks to its built-in speaker. Its 2K resolution means that both photos and video will be displayed in high quality, and the screen is slightly larger than the standard Mason frame. You can adjust the slideshow speed so that images change as fast or slow as you want or alternatively, you can manually flick through images using the interactive touch bar.
This is a great frame if you can't decide whether you want it for portrait or landscape pictures, because you can do both! An upgrade to the basic Aura Mason frame, it's not the cheapest on our list. But it is one of the best-looking, and it even lets you email photos to it.
Read more: Aura Mason Luxe review
Quality | Top-notch 2K screen and images intelligently fill the frame no matter their orientation | 4 / 5 |
Features | The ability to upload pictures without opening the box make this great for gifting to loved ones | 4 / 5 |
Value | It might cost more than most frames but this is a top-quality product and offers good value for its feature-set | 4 / 5 |
Best budget photo frame
✅ You're on a budget: this is a well-specced frame for not a lot of outlay
✅ You want to share: family (or friends) can upload images too
❌ You want to show pictures in all their glory: the display is merely average
❌ You want a luxurious frame: this feels a bit cheap, but not too nasty
Among the better-known brands of digital photo frames, there are dozens of cheap and cheerful frames available on Amazon, eBay, and other marketplace websites, so how do these budget alternatives compare with their big-name counterparts?
The Aeezo Portrait frame has a standard 10.1-inch frame size and can upload images over Wi-Fi as well as from SD cards and USB memory drives. The LCD panel is surrounded by a black plastic bezel with a textured feel to it, which doesn't look particularly luxurious but doesn't look tacky either.
Sure, there are higher-resolution digital photo frames with larger screens around, and with more upmarket finishes, but I'm seriously impressed with the feature set that this budget frame offers for a very competitive price. Images are displayed crisply, the touchscreen is responsive, the 32GB storage is generous, and it's easy to adjust photos to fit properly within the frame. You can also add videos up to 15 seconds long, with sound played through its internal speakers, and it can be used in either portrait or landscape orientation – whereas some pricer brand-name frames are strictly for horizontal viewing only.
The Aimor app that powers the frame is perhaps not as well-rounded as some of its competitors, but it's perfectly functional and enables sharing from multiple users. For a fully featured frame with an affordable price tag, you really can't go wrong.
Quality | It feels plasticky and its stand design is clunky, but it's inoffensive enough | 3 / 5 |
Features | Suprisingly well-specced, with 32GB memory, Wi-Fi connectivity and a touchscreen display | 4 / 5 |
Value | The screen is only average, but considering the price, you really can't complain | 5 / 5 |
Best Wi-Fi photo frame
✅ You want high quality: strong plastic and high-density screen make this a joy to display your images
✅ You want some smarts: intelligently crops to focus on the subject and auto-dims in bright light
❌ You want to display in portrait: only works in landscape orientation but displays vertical side-by-side
❌ You don't have good Wi-Fi: not best suited for rooms that have weak signal or for those that live off cellular data
The latest update to the Aura Carver – Aura's budget-friendly digital photo frame doesn't even really feel like a cheap option. It has the same high-quality finish and feel as the Aura Mason Luxe, and comes beautifully packaged, complete with braided cable and a set of three different plug adapters.
The one downside of the Aura Carver is you can only use it in landscape mode – but that doesn't mean you can't load portrait photos onto it. Thanks to its Photo Match technology, the Carver frame will automatically pair portrait photos together and display them two at a time. Other smart features include automatic dimming, the ability to remove unwanted photographs using the frame, and the option to pre-load photos onto it, which is especially helpful when giving as a gift.
For the price, this is a high-quality, great-looking frame and the fact you can't use it in portrait mode isn't a huge issue. It does need a Wi-Fi connection to work, so it is not best suited to rooms with weak reception.
Read more: Aura Carver review
Quality | Excellent build quality, images are displayed clearly, but it can only be used in landscape mode | 4 / 5 |
Features | Easy setup, high quality display and good-sized screen | 4 / 5 |
Value | Attractive pricing for a top-quality frame | 5 / 5 |
Best high-resolution photo frame
✅ You want a hi-res display: packs 2.4MP into its 11-inch screen for super-crisp detail with 100% Adobe sRGB color gamut
✅ You want easy sharing: ideal if you have a big extended family or trustworthy friends and need plenty of storage for images
❌ You want to use a computer: while it's easy to upload images from a phone, it's much more of a faff from a Mac or PC
❌ Money is tight: there are cheaper alternatives though they're not nearly as nice
There's a lot to like about the Lexar Pexar 11in digital photo frame. Perhaps the most important aspect of such a device is the quality of its screen, and this is an absolute cracker; packing 2.4 megapixels into 11 inches of real estate displays your images in beautifully crisp detail, while the full 100% sRGB color gamut ensures they are wonderfully vibrant too.
The 32GB storage should be enough for pretty much everyone and is oodles more than most other frames on the market, ensuring enough storage space for even the most trigger-happy photographer. But if that's still not enough, then SD card and USB-A and USB-C slots enable up to 1TB of storage.
The frame is Wi-Fi enabled, and it's a breeze for family members to share their shots via the Frameo app, no matter where they are in the world. There's no provision to upload files from a computer wirelessly though – you'll have to do it the old-fashioned way using a USB memory drive.
It's very well priced considering its feature set. Be aware that there's a choice of two models, the other having a marginally smaller 10.1-inch screen but at a much lower-res 1.02 megapixels. The price difference is minimal though, and I'd go for the 11-in version every day of the week.
Quality | It's a nice-looking frame if minimalism is your thing | 4 / 5 |
Features | Great 2K display, 100% sRGB color gamut and ginormous 32GB of storage | 5 / 5 |
Value | A well-specced frame for the price, but keep an eye for discounted deals | 5 / 5 |
Best photo frame for smart homes
✅ You are a big Google smart home user: if you're already immersed in the Google ecosystem, this links seamlessly with other Google devices
✅ You want something versatile: it's a smart speaker and home assistant with the bonus of a digital photo frame
❌ You want to display big pictures: the 7-inch screen is much smaller than most frames
❌ You have a lot of portrait-orientation images: it's a landscape orientation device, although it can display portrait shots side-by-side
It's best to think of the digital photo frame abilities of the Google Nest Hub as a nice extra, rather than its primary function. The 7-inch screen is much smaller than most dedicated photo frames but it is nevertheless bright and punchy and the pictures look good – just a bit small. It's a bit of a pain to set up initially, with a lot of hopping between apps required, but that's soon forgotten once you've got it working.
There are other limitations. It can only be set in landscape orientation, and you don't have any control over the way images are cropped. But in the same way that phones aren't the best cameras but are used to take the most pictures, the beauty of the Goole Nest Hub as a photo frame is that it's a highly practical device that's designed to take the knocks and shocks of busy environments such as kitchens, rather than tucked safely away on a shelf, and as such will probably be used to view more photos day to day.
And it is incredibly good value, considering everything else it does, from steaming music and video, tackling pretty much any questions you might throw at it, and sitting at the heart of a smart home system to control satellite speakers, turn down the lighting, show who's at the door, and even change channels on your TV.
Quality | It doesn't look too much like a picture frame and the white surround is plasticky, but it's very robust | 4 / 5 |
Features | It's a Wi-Fi connected assistant and smart speaker too! | 5 / 5 |
Value | Remarkable value for clever piece of home tech – as long as you use its other functions | 5 / 5 |
Best large photo frame
✅ You want a big screen: this large, stylish frame shows off images at their very best
✅ You want to gift it: it can be preloaded with pictures, and it's easy for additional users to share photos too
❌ You're a pixel-peeper: many other frames comfortably exceed the Walden's 133ppi density
❌ You're strapped for cash: it's undeniably expensive and there are cheaper options out there
When it comes to displaying photographs, bigger is almost always better, and the Walden Aura is a big frame that is big on features. The oversized 15-inch display shows off photographs in stunning detail and sits within a well-proportioned surround that is textured to look like a genuine photo frame and should look good in any home.
Features such as auto-diming enable the display to suit the ambient lighting so that images are clear to see but not overly bright. The swipe bars are another nice touch, offering the ease of use of a touchscreen to navigate through images without getting greasy fingermarks over your photographs.
It's super-easy to upload images from multiple users' phones, thanks to the companion Aura app, and the ability to preload photos for gifting is fantastically implemented. The pixel density perhaps could be a little higher, but a big frame demands admiring pictures from afar. It's undeniably expensive, but it's Aura's most luxurious frame and one of the best that money can buy.
Quality | It's an elegant, classically styled frame the suits modern decor | 5 / 5 |
Features | 15in display is beautiful to behold; swipe bars save the screen from grubby fingerprints; easy to upload images | 5 / 5 |
Value | A big display comes with a big price tag; this is Aura's priciest frame yet | 4 / 5 |
How to choose the best digital photo frame
The main factors to weigh up while you choose your ideal digital photo frame include screen size, orientation and aspect ratio, and connectivity.
Screen size: Most digital frames are around 10 inches (measured on the diagonal), but you can go smaller or larger to suit your space. Screens with higher resolutions will show off more detail in your photos.
Orientation and aspect ratio: Most frames can be set up in either landscape or portrait orientation to the way you shoot most of your images, but some only support landscape orientation. The aspect ratio is essentially the shape of the screen. Many digital frames are a relatively wide and narrow 16:10 or 16:9, similar to a TV: they’re a great choice if you want to showcase your smartphone photos, which most people shoot at the 16:9 default ratio. A few frames come in a 4:3 aspect ratio, which is closer to the 3:2 default ratio that most DSLR and mirrorless camera photos are shot in. Bear the chief source of your photos in mind when you pick your frame.
Connectivity: With smartphone photography in mind, most digital frames have a Wi-Fi connection and are able to link with a free smartphone app for transferring images. Some frames offer slots for plugging in physical storage, such as SD cards or USB sticks. Think about the method that best suits how you take and share your photos.
How we test digital photo frames
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✖️ Reviews and guides are unbiased – and never influenced by brands
Digital photo frames come in all shapes and sizes and cover a wide range of price brackets, but we fundamentally test them in the same way.
We see how easy it is to upload images onto the frame, from smartphones, computers and cloud services, and test all wireless and removable media options available. We see how easy it is to set up the frame out of the box, and try out all the functionality of inbuilt software and related apps.
Most importantly, we use a critical eye to determine how well it displays images, looking for faithful reproduction of colors, and checking for artifacts such as pixelation and banding. We appraise it in different ambient lighting, day and night, examining the display at a variety of viewing angles, to see how anti-glare coatings and matte finishes deal with reflections.
Finally, we look at the build quality and finish of the product and ask whether it's worthy of displaying your most treasured photographs while bearing in mind its purchase cost.
Find out more about how we test and review at Digital Camera World.
