Honorable mention
• Skylight 10-inch frame for $170: This frame was a previous honorable mention, and it’s still a solid frame. We like other frames better for the price, including the new Skylight Frame 2 (especially with its snap frame accessory).
Cozyla Frame: We tried something from this brand. Image quality was great and it had solid features like only showing images that match the current orientation of the frame. I found the app frustrating, however, and preloaded with unnecessary art images. You could hide them from your frame, but there was no obvious way to completely remove them from the app. If you find one on super discount, grab it, but other than that, I’ll wait for an update.
• My First Frame Doodle for $129: This frame is aimed at kids, with a cover you can draw on and an app feed that family members can use for photo sharing and chatting. But it is very expensive considering 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 coming back.
Photo: Nina Farrell
• Pexar 2K Digital Photo Frame by Lexar for $160: The frame can rotate in either portrait or landscape mode, and has a little stand that attaches via magnets for any position. It’s a nice frame, but the screen isn’t as good as some for the same price. Pixar is made by Lexar but uses a third-party app, Fremio, which works fine but has a weird Instagram-like uploader that’s limited to 10 photos.
• Bus Smart Home 8-inch frame for $160 And Aeezo 9-inch frame $110: These will work, but their apps aren’t as smooth as their pricier counterparts. They’re better than the ones below, but, like the Cozyla, they cross the $100 mark. If you can spend a little more, the $150 Aura is a much better buy.
Monster 8 inch digital frame for $70: We used to recommend Monster as the best cheap option, but as of this publication, it’s not available. The touchscreen was noticeably sharper, and the 1280p screen gives you crisp images. You can also use Google Assistant or Alexa with it. It had a limit of 4,000 photos, while Aura offers unlimited storage, but that’s still a large amount of photos to display.
