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Aura Aspen: review
The Aura Aspen is a 1600 x 1200 11.8-inch digital photo frame. Sitting slap bang in the middle of the market, it retails for $229 (around £175) – while it’s currently only available in the US, the company has confirmed it will launch internationally later in 2025. In return, it offers a polished performance, neat design and unlimited cloud storage, making it a pretty reasonable investment.
Setting up the Aspen could not be more straightforward. Once you’ve downloaded the Aura app, you just need to tap +New Frame and plug in the frame. To connect your frame to Wi-Fi, simply enter the numbers displayed on the frame into the app, and it’ll connect to your home network. You’ll then be able to add users to the frame or just get on with adding photos.
And that could not be easier. You can navigate through the app – just tap Add Photos and pick an unlimited number of snaps and videos from your gallery – or use the built-in share button in most photo apps to share directly with the frame. After a quick upload, they’ll start appearing on the frame’s screen.
Once they do, you’ll immediately see how impressive the Aspen’s screen is. While its display isn’t the highest pixel density we’ve seen – at 11.8 inches and a 1600 x 1200 resolution, it sits at around 170ppi – its images subjectively look about as crisp as we’ve seen from any of the best digital photo frames. However, it does occasionally overstep the mark (it was pretty unforgiving of the artificial bokeh on some of my iPhone 16 Pro snaps), making me wonder if it subtly sharpens images to give them that extra-well-defined look.
One area it absolutely nails, however, is color reproduction. Whether it’s the marbled turquoise and azure of the Ionian Sea or the riot of peach and magenta of rhododendrons in full bloom, the Aspen made every hue in my photos look rich and enticing. And it never strays into looking artificial; it’s steadfast in its accuracy, not once overstepping the mark into that lurid oversaturation that some screens are susceptible to.
To top off this strong performance, the Aspen also has a pretty decent feature set. Alongside the ability for friends and family to share their shots to your frame, the Aspen automatically detects the orientation of the frame and rotates images accordingly. Unfortunately, while you can manually crop images to center them according to your preferences, you can’t crop them differently for landscape and portrait, or select which images you’d rather appear in either orientation. Still, few digital photo frames I’ve tested handle this perfectly, so I can absolutely forgive this here.
And the Aspen has some innovative features that few other frames offer. Perhaps the most attention-grabbing is its colorization feature, which adds color back to black-and-white photos. The results are, inevitably, a bit hit and miss, as it tends to default to the most conventional colors for everything. For example, it rendered the rock and sand of Fuerteventura in drab khaki and dull beige, rather than their true colors of ochre and gold. Meanwhile, its in-app scanner allows you to ‘digitize’ – read ‘take photos of’ – existing physical pictures. Both of these are a lot of fun to play with, even if I suspect you won’t end up using them that much.
When it comes to controlling the Aspen, you can, of course, use the Aura app. However, for those who prefer a more tactile method of control, the frame has two touch-capacitive bars that sit on top of the frame in either orientation. These allow you to swipe left and right to select photos from your playlist, tap to hide photos or double-tap to see image info. While this is less futuristic than the Netgear Meural Canvas II’s touchless gesture control, it also feels much more intuitive and foolproof. Put simply, it’s one of the best control mechanisms I’ve ever used when reviewing digital photo frames.
And this kind of pragmatic yet refined styling is a design language the Aura Aspen seems fluent in. Its white 1.4-inch (35mm) bezels have a matte, textured paper effect, making them feel convincingly like an authentic mounting board. Meanwhile, rather than the flimsy stick some digital photo frames rely on, its stand is a sturdy arrowhead shape fashioned out of weighty metal, meaning I never had to worry about it tipping over. The device showcases this kind of dependable, considered build quality throughout, making it feel suitably premium.
If you’re already convinced and ready to pick up the Aura Aspen, I doubt you’ll be disappointed. For those on the fence, there is one more factor to consider: its price. Yes, at $229, it’s marginally pricier than the similarly impressive Pexar 11-inch Digital Picture Frame, which retails for $159.99 / £149.99 and offers a slightly higher 221 PPI pixel density. However, the Aura offers a more premium-feeling build and unlimited uploads and storage, so which frame edges out the other is a matter of your biggest priorities.
Aura Aspen review: price & release date
- Launched April 16, 2025
- Retails for $229 (around £175)
- Currently only available in the US
Launched on April 16, 2025, the Aura Aspen is available in the US now. Customers elsewhere in the world will have to wait a little longer for it, as according to Aura, its international rollout is currently pencilled in for ‘later in 2025’.
The Aura Aspen retails for $229 (around £175), positioning it slightly above the $159.99 / £149.99 Pexar 11-inch Digital Picture Frame and far more than budget options like the Aeezo Portrait 01, which you can currently pick up for as little as $39.99 / £53.19 from Amazon. The Aspen is subscription-free, however, and that price includes unlimited transfers and cloud storage, so there aren’t any hidden costs or upgrade fees included.
It’s available in a single size, but offers two colorways: Ink, the charcoal-hued frame we tested here, or Clay, a neutral beige color.
Aura Aspen review: specs
|
Dimensions |
12.7 x 10.1 x 1.1 inches (323 x 257 x 28mm) |
|
Display size |
11.8-inch |
|
Resolution |
1600 x 1200, 170 pixels per inch |
|
Aspect Ratio |
4:3 |
|
Touch Screen |
No |
|
Sound |
Built-in speaker |
|
Orientation |
Portrait or landscape |
|
Storage |
Unlimited cloud storage |
|
Connectivity |
Wi-Fi |
Should I buy the Aura Aspen?
|
Attributes |
Notes |
Rating |
|---|---|---|
|
Features |
From a streamlined, user-friendly app to innovative features like photo recoloring, the Aspen has a decent feature set. |
4/5 |
|
Design |
Excellent build quality meet gorgeous aesthetics – it’s a work of art in its own right |
5/5 |
|
Performance |
Colors are vibrant yet faithful, the screen is bright and glare-free and the resolution is decent, even if bokeh occasionally looks a little sharp. |
4/5 |
|
Value |
Not the cheapest frame on the market, but its sturdy build and excellent finish more than justify the price. |
4/5 |
Buy it if…
Don’t buy it if…
Aura Aspen review: also consider
| Header Cell – Column 0 |
Aura Aspen |
Pexar 11-inch Digital Picture Frame |
Aura Walden |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Dimensions |
12.7 x 10.1 x 1.1 inches (323 x 257 x 28mm) |
7.4 x 11.2 inches (18.9 x 28.4cm) |
15.7 x 12.7 x 1.2 inches (399 x 323 x 30mm) |
|
Display size |
11.8-inch |
11-inch |
15-inch |
|
Resolution |
1600 x 1200, 170 pixels per inch |
2000 x 1200, 212 pixels per inch |
1600 x 1200, 133 pixels per inch |
|
Aspect Ratio |
4:3 |
5:3 |
4:3 |
|
Touch Screen |
No |
Yes |
No |
|
Sound |
Built-in speaker |
Built-in speaker |
Built-in speaker |
|
Orientation |
Portrait or landscape |
Portrait or landscape |
Portrait or landscape |
|
Storage |
Unlimited cloud storage |
32GB |
Unlimited cloud storage |
|
Connectivity |
Wi-Fi |
Wi-Fi, SD card, USB-A, USB-C |
Wi-Fi |
How I tested the Aura Aspen
- Tested the product over multiple weeks
- Uploaded a wide variety of photos
- Have many years of experience working with photography
I tested the Aura Aspen over several weeks. First, I used its app to set up the frame, upload images, and explore its various features. I tried sending both individual snaps and bulk uploading whole folders to see how it coped in terms of transfer times.
I uploaded a variety of shots, from brilliantly hued blossoms to detailed monochrome compositions designed to help assess resolution and color performance. I also tried the frame in a range of settings to help assess its capabilities at different angles and distances, and in different light levels.
When it comes to experience, not only have I tested a wide range of digital photo frames for TechRadar, but I’m an experienced photographer, having taken over 40,000 photos on cameras from my Canon DSLR to my iPhone 16 Pro. I also spent many years working in print publishing, giving me a keen eye for image resolution and color accuracy.
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josh.russell@futurenet.com (Josh Russell)
