Christmas has come early in the form of a digital photo frame we love. If you missed the sale during Black Friday and Cyber Monday, you can get the Aura Carver at the same $129 deal price ($20 off)—exclusive for WIRED readers—using the promo code WIRED. The deal runs through December 18.
Aura’s photo frames are some of the best gadgets I’ve used in the last few years. I can share my pictures with my parents’ digital frame, despite being halfway across the country, so they’re always caught up on my adventures. On my own frame, I can cycle through the thousands of images I routinely capture that are otherwise wasting away in my phone’s photo library.
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Why We Like the Aura Carver
A good digital frame displays your memories without looking like the tacky, shiny frames of yore. I don’t want it to look like a computer screen, I want it to look like a picture that you wouldn’t even notice is digital until it changes. The Aura Carver is our top choice in our Best Digital Frames guide and has the most natural look of all the models we’ve tested. I’ve had people comment that they didn’t notice it was a digital screen until the image switched to another.
The Carver is the cheapest of Aura’s lineup and comes in black or white (I think the black is nicer). It has the lowest resolution of the bunch at 1280 x 800-pixel resolution, whereas the other frames have a 1920 x 1200-pixel resolution, but my photos still look great. You’d only really notice if you have two side by side, or if you put your face right up in the screen’s face. I’ve tried cheaper frames, and you just won’t find something this good for this price.
The Aura app makes it easy to add and manage images, and there’s a scan feature so you can include drawings or old photos. You really don’t need to be tech-savvy to be able to work it. If you are gifting an Aura frame to someone, there’s a gift setup process you can do beforehand and you can continue to be a member of the frame if your giftee wants so you can add photos to their frame forever. Whether you want to spoil yourself or someone else, I think these make nice gifts.
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