Digital photo frames are a high-tech way to share and cherish memories. Unlike fancy smart speakers and displays, they don’t play movies, check your email, or talk to you. Instead, these frames melt into your interior design to display a slideshow of beloved family photos and videos.
Extra features are starting to creep into digital photo frames, but there's still a huge gap between them and the best tablets you can buy. They’re not multipurpose devices meant to be carried with you, but designed to be left on a stand or wall-mounted. This means some can be used as calendars or digital chore lists, as it seems somehow wrong to leave that screen, with all its hidden potential, displaying a static image.
Sizes are also edging up. It’s possible to find surprisingly large frames, which can display family photos and even digital artwork at a size and brightness that really shows them off, especially when hung like a painting. They’re not always easy to find a home for, however, especially as digital photo frames often require a power source, so there are plenty of smaller, free-standing frames that can be conveniently located on a shelf near a power socket.
After assessing a range of digital frames on image quality and ease of use, among other features, the Aura carver digital photo frame came out on top. However, I’ve found frames that display lifelike oil paintings, keep you organised with list-making features, and much more, so I’ve tested plenty of good options.
How I tested
I set up and used these frames all over my home for weeks. During the tests, I assessed each of the frames on the following criteria:
- Assembly: I considered how easy it was to get the frames from the box to display, whether I was positioning them somewhere or hanging them up on a wall.
- Set-up: I assessed how straightforward it was to upload my images from my device and onto the frames. This could have been via a paired phone app, USB connection to a PC, or a microSD card.
- Image quality: I noted the resolution, vibrancy, brightness in different lighting conditions, and reflection, especially when viewed from different angles.
- Extra features: Beyond how easily and clearly the frames were able to display my photos, I also looked for other notable features. These included organisational features, from calendars to list-making functionality (you may need a subscription for these).
- Value for money: As always, price was a factor in choosing my top pick overall.
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Ian Evenden is a writer and editor specialising in gaming, computing, science and technology. He has been contributing to IndyBest since 2021, recommending the best Cloud storage platforms, VPN services and more. For this review, he used and scrutinised the features of these photo frames to bring you his full and unfettered verdict on each.
The best digital photo frames in 2025 are:
- Best overall – Aura carver digital photo frame: £149, Amazon.co.uk
- Best budget option – Frameo wifi digital photo frame 112K: £42.13, Amazon.co.uk
- Best for displaying art – Vieunite textura: £599, Amazon.co.uk
- Best for family organisation – Skylight calendar: £290, Amazon.co.uk
Aura carver smart HD digital photo frame
Best: Digital photo frame overall
Screen size: 10in
Resolution: 1,280px x 800px
Image sources: Wifi
Internal storage: Unlimited (cloud storage)
Orientation: Landscape
Wall-mounting: No
Power source: Wall adapter
Weight: 730g
Why we love it
- Easy to set up
- Sharp, bright image quality
- Free, unlimited photo storage
Take note
- Requires wifi connection
The carver is a dark grey, bevelled photo frame that sits in a landscape orientation. The Aura Frames app seamlessly guided me through set-up, and I found that I didn’t have to consult the user manual for extra help. If you’re gifting the frame to a loved one, you can also load photos, videos and a personalised gift message, which they’ll receive when they unbox the frame.
The photos on display were beautifully bright, displaying sharp detail with no visible glare. Landscape photos fill the frame, while portrait photos are side by side. It was easy to customise the time between photos (from 15 seconds to 24 hours) and the order in which they display using the Aura app. There’s no touchscreen, but I could flick through the photos by lightly swiping the top of the frame.
Keep in mind that the frame relies on a wifi connection to display photos, as there is no internal storage option. However, as photos are stored on the Aura app, with free, unlimited cloud storage, you’ll never have to limit the selection of images on display. Plus, there’s the option to invite friends and family to add their photos on the Aura Frame app, making this a lovely option for a family home.
Buy now £149.00, Amazon.co.uk
Frameo wifi digital photo frame 112K
Best: Budget digital photo frame
Screen size: 10.1in
Resolution: 1,280px x 800px
Image sources: MicroSD, USB, wifi
Internal storage: 32GB
Orientation: Landscape and portrait
Wall-mounting: Yes
Power source: AC adapter
Weight: 770g
Why we love it
- Easy to use
- Decent display
- Doesn’t cost too much
Take note
- Reflective panel
- Plastic build
- Fiddly microSD card slot
This is a basic 10in rectangle, the same size as many tablet computers, and a good size to place on a shelf among analogue photos or other ornaments, though it can also be wall-mounted using screws supplied in the box.
It comes with a spacious 32GB of storage, and you’ll potentially be able to store many thousands of images on the frame if you’re careful with your file sizes.
The 16:10 aspect ratio is a little different to the 4:3 images produced by most phone cameras, so photos can be cropped, but the app gives you control over how this happens, and there's a switch in the settings to ensure they fill the frame.
Images can be added in three ways: via a USB connection to a PC, using a microSD card (which can be a bit fiddly), or, easiest of all, with the Frameo app. Setup is a simple case of connecting the frame to your wifi, then allowing it to update itself and giving it a name – you’re not required to set up an account.
A system of friend codes controls who can send photos to the frame, which pings a notification when one appears, and you can control how long each image appears before being replaced, the brightness of the frame, and whether it displays captions and things like the time and local weather information over the image.
The frame’s touchscreen panel makes it easy to change settings, which include a sleep mode so it switches off at bedtime and comes back on in the morning. The IPS display has a good viewing angle and is bright enough to see clearly in daylight (although it is slightly reflective in well-lit rooms),
It’s not as robust as the other frames on this list, and the only real drawback is that there's no internal battery, so it needs to be plugged into mains power all the time.
That said, this is an excellent value photo frame for family snaps.
Buy now £42.13, Amazon.co.uk
Skylight digital picture frame
Best: Touchscreen photo frame
Screen size: 10in
Resolution: 1,280px x 800px
Image sources: Wifi
Internal storage: 8GB
Orientation: Landscape and portrait
Power source: USB adapter
Weight: 680g
Why we love it
- Easy to use
- Good image quality
- USB powered
Take note
- Screen slightly reflective
This 10in frame has a larger border around it than the Frameo (£42.13, Amazon.co.uk), and as a result feels larger. It’s more expensive, but it provides a smooth and responsive interface and is easy to fill with photos. The 8GB of internal storage may sound small compared to others, but it’s still enough for thousands of photos, especially those taken by phone cameras.
The power adapter has a USB-A port on it, meaning you can use the supplied cable with other chargers and power sources if they’re more convenient – it even worked powered by the port on the front of a PC. Setting up the frame requires you to connect it to wifi and create a Skylight account, from where you can log into the phone app, send photos to the frame via its unique email address, or pre-load it with images if you’re sending the frame as a gift.
The Skylight phone app allows you to easily choose photos from those stored on your device, and you can even send doodles you tap out on your phone screen, so it’s important to only give access to friends and family you trust. There's a micro-USB port on the back of the frame, too, but it doesn’t seem to be used to feed the frame with images.
The screen is glossy and colourful, though it can be reflective if displaying dark images, and its touchscreen is well implemented with the ability to zoom photos by pinching, just as you would on a tablet, as well as easily access settings for things like brightness and sleep mode.
Buy now £159.00, Amazon.co.uk
Dragon Touch calendar photo frame TM15
Best: Multi-functional photo frame
Screen size: 15.6in
Resolution: 1,920px x 1,080px
Image sources: Wifi
Internal storage: 32GB
Orientation: Portrait and landscape
Wall-mounting: Yes
Power source: Wall adapter
Weight: 1.5kg
Why we love it
- Both photo frame and digital calendar
- Motion sensor
Take note
- Quite expensive
- No offline connections
Calendar photo frames are a great way to get more functionality out of a digital photo frame without turning them into a tablet. This one from Dragon Touch is robust and comes in multiple sizes all the way up to a huge 32in model. The model I tested is about the same size as a 15in laptop screen, and is a decent upgrade over 10in models while still being small enough to prop on a shelf. A strong metal stand is included, along with screws for wall mounting and even a screwdriver.
There are a physical on/off switch and volume control on the edge of the frame rather than on the back, which makes them easier to access, but there's nothing on the back of the frame apart from the mounts and two different places to plug in the power adapter, allowing portrait and landscape orientation – no USB or microSD slots to use for adding photos. A motion sensor on the front means it will turn off when it detects an empty room, which is a great feature for preserving battery life.
You’ll need the free eCalendar daily planner app on your phone or tablet to sync up your appointments to the calendar display, and to choose photos from your phone’s camera roll, too, though it didn’t appear as a sharing option from Google Photos on my Android phone. You can set up one-way syncing, where the frame displays events from your chosen calendar (Google, Outlook and iCloud are supported, but you’ll need to give the eCalendar app access) or two-way, where you can use the Dragon Touch frame to add events that sync with your phone.
The lack of any offline method of adding photos means you’ll need to prepare a folder of images on your phone before transferring them over, but it’s a quick process, and the frame is responsive, switching between calendar and photo modes with a few taps of its touchscreen. If your images don’t fill the screen, you can set them to be zoomed in a couple of ways, including a pan that moves across the image, and you can pinch-to-zoom, too.
In short, this is an effective, helpful frame, if much pricier than the picks above.
Buy now £249.99, Amazon.co.uk
Vieunite textura
Best: Digital photo frame for art
Screen size: 27in
Resolution: 1,920px x 1,080px
Image sources: Wifi
Internal storage: 32GB
Orientation: Landscape and portrait
Wall-mounting: Yes
Power source: USB-C
Weight: 5.4kg
Why we love it
- Huge display
- Lots of free art
Take note
- Very expensive
- Tricky app
- Needs to be wall mounted
At 27in across, this is the largest photo frame on test. It’s sold as a digital art frame rather than a photo frame, but the sharp 1,080px panel will do justice to your photos and videos.
The Vieunite app provides access to hundreds of digital artworks. Some are free and some are paid, but all of them can be sent to the frame if you fancy changing up the style of your room, and you can send your own photos and other images to it too. Paintings look incredible. It’s one of the most elegant applications of the digital photo frame concept out there.
Unfortunately, it can be fiddly to use. It doesn’t show up as a sharing option from something like Google Photos on Android in the way apps from Frameo and Skylight do, so you have to use the Vieunite app to scroll through your camera roll, which can’t be searched by face or location. From there, you add the photo to an album associated with the textura, and then send it to the screen. It’s no huge issue, but if you’re used to sharing straight from your camera roll, it seems overly complicated.
But the textura makes up for it with its image quality. It displays photos and artworks well, even in a brightly lit room, and you get a good impression of the textures of oil paint. You'll need to crop your images to fit the frame to avoid bars at the sides, as there are no fit-to-screen settings in the app itself and the screen isn’t touch-sensitive, but it’s worth putting in the effort.
Even though a 27in panel is a familiar size from computer monitors, you can’t mount this on a desk or bookshelf; the textura insists on being wall-mounted. It comes with a clever plate that screws to the wall – and there's a template and a spirit level included to get it in the right position, portrait or landscape (and many of the artworks are portrait), though you need your own screwdriver.
You then plug the USB-C power adapter into the plate, and twist the frame onto it so it all connects. It’s a little tricky getting it on, but you’ll know when you’ve got it right as it clicks nicely into place, and feels well connected after that, with little wobble.
It’s fiddly, but in the end it’s worth the effort. Photos and artwork alike look brilliant on this frame. But while it’s worth the effort, you may not think it’s worth the money. £599 is a lot to spend on a frame like this, even if the results are exceptional.
Buy now £599.00, Vieunite.com
myFirst frame live
Best: Digital photo frame for kids
Screen size: 10.1in
Resolution: 1,280px x 800px
Image sources: Wifi, USB, microSD
Internal storage: 32GB
Orientation: Landscape and portrait
Wall-mounting: Yes
Power source: Wall adapter or USB-C
Weight: 689g
Why we love it
- Motion sensing
- Anti-reflection coating
- Responsive
Take note
- Needs app account
The myFirst frame is a bit of an enigma. It has some of the best hardware of all the frames on this list, coming with a chunky, good-looking wooden surround, a good strong stand, and an anti-reflection coating on the screen itself. The OS, which, like most of the frames on this list, seems to be some version of Android, is responsive, and there's a motion sensor so that it saves power by turning the screen off when no one’s around.
Then there's the software. The myFirst frame is tied into a social network called myFirst circle, and you’ll need that app on your phone as well as an account to use it. Setting this up requires you to give the app your phone number, so it can send you a confirmation text message, then scan a QR code to link the frame to your account.
The myFirst ecosystem is designed for kids, so it will also want your date of birth to differentiate between child and parent accounts, along with an email address. It also asks for your location and to send you notifications, as well as wanting to constantly run in the background. There's no way to use the frame without setting all this up first, and you then send photos to the frame by posting them on myFirst circle’s Facebook-like feed, where you can also add friends who also use the service if you know any.
Alternatively, you can keep it all to yourself and just use it to send photos and videos through to the frame. The images stay in the cloud unless copied to its 32GB of internal storage, though it’s also possible to show images on the frame via the USB and microSD ports on the back without having to use the app at all.
Images shown this way often have blurred bars at either side where they don’t fit the frame’s aspect ratio, and you can’t zoom into them by pinching; the touchscreen is only used to play or pause the slideshow. A swipe down from the top of the screen accesses the menu, and from here you can open the settings, put it into night mode, where it dimly displays the time, and you can set an alarm, too.
So while this is a splendid frame which provides some top features and image quality, it can be finicky and complicated to use, especially for the less tech-savvy.
Buy now £129.99, Myfirst.tech
Skylight calendar
Best: Digital photo frame for family organisation
Screen size: 15in
Resolution: 1,920px x 1,080px
Image sources: Wifi
Internal storage: 16GB
Orientation: Landscape and portrait
Wall-mounting: Yes
Power source: Wall adapter
Weight: 3.7kg
Why we love it
- Sturdy build
- Bright, sharp screen
Take note
- Some assembly required
- Subscription for advanced features
The Skylight calendar is, as the name suggests, a calendar. I felt I had to include, as it works well as a digital picture frame, but that feature is incidental to its main function as a helpful family organiser.
If you want to use it as a digital photo frame (sending it images through the Skylight app on your phone in the same way as with the Skylight frame), you’ll need to sign up to Skylight’s subscription model, which also unlocks meal planning and what it calls ‘magic import’ – the ability to create calendar events from emails, files, images and PDFs just by forwarding them to the Skylight calendar’s email address.
It’s very clever, but the device’s basic calendar features – syncing with Google, Outlook and iCloud – work without the subscription, as does its list-making functionality, which syncs to-do and shopping lists with the phone app.
On top of that, the digital photo function works without a subscription, too. You can turn on a photo screensaver without one, displaying a simple slideshow with the time and date in the corner. This device flips the usual digital photo frame way of working, putting its calendar functionality first, but it’s well-made and has a sharp screen.
You’ll need to supply your own screwdriver to assemble the Skylight calendar, which comes with a two-part metal stand that must be assembled. It’s versatile, allowing the frame to be set up securely in either portrait or landscape, with a third metal bar for wall-mounting. It makes for a solid foundation for the frame, but means the whole thing is rather heavy and is perhaps over-complicated – luckily, there are instructions in a printed booklet and an online video for you to follow.
So, it’s far from perfect, but once it’s set up, this frame is a great addition to a kitchen. It offers neat, clear slideshows of family pictures and a ton of other handy features like shared calendars and shopping lists.
Buy now £290.00
Your questions on digital photo frames answered
What are the best digital photo frames?
The frames here are all easy to set up and use, but take different approaches to how they want to be used. The Aura carver frame makes it simple to get your photos – and those taken by other people you trust – onto the frame, and takes the top spot overall. Meanwhile, the Frameo wifi digital photo frame is a great option if you’re on a tighter budget, and the large Vieunite textura is a canvas for displaying all kinds of artwork.
Do you need wifi for a digital photo frame?
While most digital photo frames are smart and wifi-compatible, meaning you can upload photos directly from a cloud storage service such as Google or Dropbox or directly from the manufacturer’s app, you don’t necessarily need a wifi connection to use these types of devices. Most of the digital photo frames on this list have a slot for an SD card, so you can import photos to the device without an internet connection.
How do you load pictures onto a digital photo frame?
The easiest way to upload pictures onto a digital photo frame is to download and use the brand’s app. All of the brands in this review have their own individual apps that allow you to transfer photos from your phone’s library directly to the photo frame, over wifi. Most brands also have a browser uploader if you’d prefer to transfer photos from your PC or Mac, and the Frameo and myFirst frame photo frames have a USB and SD card slot, if you’d prefer to upload offline.
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