honorable mentions
, Skylight 10-inch frame for $170, This frame was an honorable mention earlier, 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).
, Kozilla Frame, We tried a few from this brand. Photo quality was great and it had solid features like showing only photos that match the current orientation of the frame. However, I found the app disappointing, and it comes pre-loaded with unnecessary art images. You could hide them from your frame, but there was no obvious way to remove them from the app completely. If you find one at a super discount, grab it, but other than that, I'd wait for updates.
, MyFirst Frame Doodle for $129, This frame is for kids, it lets you draw pictures on its cover and has an app feed that family members can use for sharing photos and chatting. But it is very expensive according to 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.
Photograph: Nena Farrell
• Pexar 2K Digital Picture Frame by Lexar for $160, This frame can rotate into portrait or landscape mode, and has a small stand that attaches via magnet for any position. It has a nice frame, but the screen isn't as good as those at a similar price. Pexar is made by Lexar, but it uses a third-party app, Frameo, which works fine but has a weirdly Instagram-like uploader that's limited to 10 photos.
, Simply Smart Home 8-inch Frame for $160 And Aizo 9-inch frame $110, These will work, but their apps aren't as streamlined as their more expensive counterparts. They're better than the etat below, but, like Kozilla, they cross the $100 threshold. If you can spend a little more, the $150 Aura is a better buy.
, Monster 8-Inch Digital Frame for $70: We used to recommend the Monster as the best cheap option, but as of this publication, it's no longer available. The touchscreen was plenty sharp, and the 1280p screen gives you sharp images. You can also use Google Assistant or Alexa with it. It had a limit of 4,000 photos, whereas Aura offers unlimited storage, but still a large amount of photos to display.