Aura Carver Review

Full Review

The Aura Carver is a landscape-only frame with a 10.1-inch widescreen display. The 1920 by 1200 resolution looks sharp. Colors are rich and accurate right out of the box.

What makes the Carver special is how it handles portrait photos. Instead of showing them small with black bars on the sides, it puts two portrait photos side by side. This fills the whole screen and looks great.

Setup is the same easy process as other Aura frames. The app walks you through WiFi connection, and then you start adding photos. Google Photos and iCloud sync work well. You can also invite family members to send pictures from anywhere.

The smart cropping feature does a good job. It finds faces in your photos and centers them so nobody gets cut off. Most of the time it works perfectly. Once in a while it makes an odd crop, but you can adjust it in the app.

Like all Aura frames, the Carver comes with free unlimited cloud storage. Every photo you add stays backed up forever. No subscriptions, no surprise charges.

The one drawback is the lack of video support. If you want to play short video clips on your frame, look elsewhere. The Carver is photos only.

At $160, the Carver hits a sweet spot between price and quality. The screen looks better than most frames in this range, and the free storage saves you money long term.