I just tested this digital photo frame — and it's the one I'd give to my mom for Mother's Day

Are your parents constantly asking to see more pictures of their grandkids? If you're like me, you've got a phone full of photos, but you don't always feel like texting them pics every time your child does something cute.

Among the many digital photo frames we’ve reviewed, we’ve often praised Aura’s models for their design, display, and ease of use, and the new Aura Aspen is no exception. This frame has a large 11.8-inch screen with a crisp 1600 x 1200-pixel resolution and excellent viewing angles.

Just as important, it’s easy to set the frame up for yourself, or as a gift for your parent or grandparent, and it comes with unlimited cloud storage for all your images.

I do have a few quibbles with the Aura Aspen after testing it for a week, but read on to see why I think this is the best digital photo frame for most people.

Aura Aspen: Price and availability

The Aspen, which went on sale on April 16, 2025, costs $229 at Aura, and is Aura’s middle-range photo frame; below it (both in terms of size and price) is the Aura Carver ($149), which has a 10-inch, 1280 x 800 display. On the other side is the Aura Walden ($299), which has a 15-inch 1600 x 1200-pixel display. All three have speakers for video playback, but only the Walden can be wall-mounted.

The Aspen will be available in the US first, then roll out to other international markets later in 2025.

The Aspen will replace the Aura Mason in the company’s lineup but the Mason will continue to be sold until inventory runs out.

Aura Aspen: Design and display

The highest compliment you can give to a digital picture frame is that it doesn’t look like a digital picture frame; the Aura Aspen is as close as you’ll come to a frame you’d buy from Bed, Bath & Beyond (when that store was still around).

The Aura’s display is surrounded with a white matte edge that’s slightly textured and beveled in towards the center of the frame. Surrounding it is a black border that also has a slightly rough texture.

Around the back, the frame is held up by a sturdy aluminum stand, which can be turned so that the display is either in portrait or landscape mode. However, the back of the Aspen is slightly beveled, and there’s no way to mount the frame on a wall.

Along the top edge (when it’s in landscape mode) is a small smooth touchbar that’s unnoticeable until you slide your finder along the top of the frame. You can slide your finger to advance to the next photo, tap once for more details, double tap to “like,” the photo, and press and hold to play audio for video.

I was really impressed with the Aspen’s 11.8-display; its high resolution (1600 x 1200) made all of my images look wonderfully sharp and colorful. I also liked its excellent viewing angles; I could sit nearly 90 degrees to one side of the frame, and all of the colors remained true.

My kid likes to wear very colorful outfits, so I was pleased to see that all the yellows, reds, oranges and purples in her dresses, shirts, and bathing suites really popped on the frame.

You can also upload and play videos on the Aspen, but they’re limited to 30 seconds, which is probably a good thing. Videos that have a lot of motion — like one of my daughter skiing — were a bit jumpy. Audio was passable, though.

Aura Aspen: App and setup

In order to set up the Aspen and load images on the frame, you’ll need to install the Aura app (Android and iOS) on your smartphone. Following a very painless setup — it took me less than five minutes to connect the frame to my Wi-Fi — the app prompts you to upload images from your phone.

To help the process, the Aura app can search through your photo library for familiar faces, to make it easier for you to add photos of friends and family. It quickly determined that the bulk of my photos had either pictures of myself, my wife, or my child — I wish it could also do the same for pets.

The Aura app can monitor specific shared folders in iCloud and Google Photos, so if you add photos to those folders, they’ll automatically be added to the frame. You can also upload photos via email, so if you want other family members to share their images, they can simply email it to the frame.

Pleasingly, Aura gives you unlimited cloud storage for all your photos. However, there's no onboard storage, so if the Aspen loses its connection to the cloud, the frame won't show any photos.

By default, the Aspen fills up the screen with a photo, which can mean more vertically oriented pictures get cropped; a picture of my kid hugging Stitch at Disney managed to slide off the top of the character’s head.

In order to show the entire photo, you have to go into the app and change the setting for that particular image; unfortunately, there’s no way to tell it to automatically fit every image, nor is there a way to change how the image is displayed from the frame itself.

Aura Aspen review: Verdict

My wife and I have often used Mixbook and other photo book services to make albums of family trips and other life events for ourselves and our parents, but there's still thousands of photos we can't include.

Although it’s on the pricier side for a digital photo frame, the Aura Aspen delivers a great way to share all those pictures. It looks great, has a wonderfully sharp and bright screen, and makes it easy to upload images. Best of all, it has unlimited cloud storage for your photos.

The Aura Aspen is replacing the Aura Mason — our former top pick among the best digital photo frames — in the company’s lineup. The Aspen has the same resolution but a larger display than the Mason, but also costs $30 more. If you want something under $200, pick up the Mason while it’s still available, but you won’t be disappointed with the Aspen.

More from Tom's Guide

• Best photo books
• Best photo calendars
• Best photo storage