Aura Carver vs. Skylight: Which Digital Photo Frame Is Better

The Aura Carver is one of the popular digital photo frames known for its minimalistic look and high-resolution photo quality support. It’s easy to set up and compatible with several photo services. Another digital picture frame that is climbing up the popularity ladder is the Skylight digital picture frame. Like its competitor, it’s also known for its high-quality picture support and chic design. Plus, they are ‘almost’ in the same price bracket.

More importantly, the Aura Carver and the Skylight digital photo frame make amazing gifts, especially during the holiday season. After all, you can mix old and new photos to relive your prized moments.

Hence, this brings us to an important question—which digital photo frame is better between the Aura Carver and the Skylight photo frame? Are the features of the Skylight photo frame enough to justify its price tag? Or, is it the other way around?

Well, that’s what we will find in this post, as we compare the Skylight with Aura Carver to see which digital photo frame is better.

So, without further ado, let’s get going. But first,

• Here are the best digital picture frames for seniors and elderly
• These are the things you should check when buying a digital photo frame
• Check out these digital photo frames with Google Photos support

1. Design & Resolution

The Aura Carver is known for its sleek and minimalistic look. The sleek and elegant design makes it apt to place anywhere, and the odds are high that it will blend seamlessly into any place. Its back has a pyramid-like design, making it easy to prop up, minus any kickstand. However, this feature also ensures that you can only use the Aura Carver in the landscape mode.

The screen lacks touchscreen support. But it packs a sleek touch-sensitive strip at the top to let you control the photos. There’s no physical button or power switch. It’s worth noting that the strip is convenient to use. We have had no issues with the same.

There is no port to hook any USB drive. The lack of a touchscreen has its upsides. For example, you won’t have a fingerprint-ridden digital photo frame on your mantlepiece.

The Aura Carver has a resolution of 1920 x 1200 pixels, and the 10.1-inch screen is wide enough to let you view your memories clearly. Note that the photos are displayed edge-to-edge.

On the other hand, the Skylight digital picture frame carries a 1280 x 800 pixel resolution. Unlike the one above, it doesn’t need a continuous Wi-Fi connection and can even display photos when not connected to the Wi-Fi. It looks every bit like a modern photo frame, all thanks to its sleek design.

However, the feature that sets it apart from its counterpart is the matte board on the sides. The mat ensures that the photo frame blends well with conventional photo frames.

At the same time, it has a nifty kickstand at the back that you can prop up.

It’s a touchscreen photo frame, and you can swipe on the photos to change them. Interestingly, both Wi-Fi digital frames let you like a photo. The touchscreen lets you zoom in on the photo to view it in all its glory.

And like its competitor, the Skylight frame also doesn’t have USB ports. All you need to do is connect it to a power source to power it up.

2. Storage

Gone are the days when digital photo frames used to run on USB flash drives and memory cards. ‘Tis the age of cloud storage, and the Aura Carver is no different. As long as it’s connected to your home Wi-Fi and you have uploaded the photos, it should display them all right. The only downside is that it must be connected to your home Wi-Fi network at all times.

It doesn’t support external devices like memory cards, camera cards, or USB drives. You’ll need to upload photos using the Aura app or the web interface. Also, the photo frame saves all the uploaded photos in the cloud. Aura claims that the cloud service is safe and secure. At the same time, using the app is easy. Plus, you can also create a network of frames, or add family members to the frame.

Apart from the app, it supports Google Photos and your phone’s gallery. Plus, it supports smart assistants like Alexa and Google Assistant.

The Skylight digital photo frame has a slightly different approach. It lets you create a unique email ID when setting up the frame. All you need to do is send the photos to this email address, and the photos will appear after some time. The good news is that if you forget to upload any photos for some time, the frame will remind you to add some.

You can share the email address with your close friends and family to let them email their photos directly to the frame. Of course, you will have to ensure they do not spam the frame with irrelevant and unwanted photos.

Other than that, you will have to subscribe to the paid Skylight Plus plan to unlock all the features, like sending and playing videos, adding captions, or creating photo albums. This subscription starts at $3.35 a month, which will add to the cost in the long run. You also get the advantage of a companion app. Naturally, uploading an image via the app is much more convenient than email.

Lastly, there’s no Google Photos or Apple Photos support. Plus, it does not support Alexa or Google Assistant.

3. Photos, Videos & Image Quality

Let’s talk about an essential function of a photo frame—Image Quality.

The Aura Carver’s HD display delivers colorful, bright, and true-to-life photos. As long as your photos are sharp and clear, it’ll do its best to display them at their best. The brightness automatically adjusts as per the ambient lighting, and there is no additional option to adjust the color or the brightness. Hence, you must take utmost care to upload your best photos. Moreover, the viewing angle is wide, and you can see the photos from the sides.

Interestingly, there isn’t any limit on the number of photos you can upload. The photo frame will do the job of cycling through them. The best part is that the built-in algorithm also plays a big role in displaying the photos. For one, it will group all the similar photos.

Secondly, it will remove any duplicate photos from getting displayed, even when you upload them by mistake. Thirdly, it will transform any two vertical photos side-by-side so that no screen real estate gets wasted.

But at the end of the day, the Aura Carver frame can only be used in landscape mode. As such, all your vertical photos will be paired with a similar vertical photo. This is a boon and bane. For instance, no single frame can enjoy its limelight. On the other hand, you can rest assured that the frame doesn’t waste screen space by displaying bands on the sides.

Like most digital photo frames, it comes with an ambient sensor. It shuts off the display when the room is dark. You can also set the time when you want the frame active.

As opposed to the algorithm-backed vertical image feature of the Aura Carver, the Skylight frame adds bands to the sides of vertical photos. While the feature in itself doesn’t look bad, it means that you end up wasting some precious screen space. For the record, it can only display photos in a 16:9 aspect ratio.

Aside from that, the Skylight digital picture frame delivers clear, crisp, and vivid photos. There is no significant pixelation. As long as the uploaded photos are sharp, you should see them as such. And yes, it doesn’t let you set the brightness levels. But it has a cool setting that lets you adjust the timing of individual photos from a 5-second to 240-second delay.

4. Ease of Use

How do the Aura Carver and the Skylight photo frame measure up regarding ease of use? Thankfully, both photo frames are extremely easy to use. The setup process is easy and simple. All you need to connect the frames to a power source and your home Wi-Fi, and they will walk through the rest of the setup process.

The only thing you will need to consider is that if the photo dump is huge, the frames will take time to sort through the dump. It is especially true in the case of the Aura Carver frame and when you connect it to photo services like Google Photos.

That said, if you are about to start with just a couple of photos, it won’t take you long.

Aura Carver vs. Skylight

So which digital frame should you choose? If you want a simple photo frame that easily displays photos, you can check out the Skylight photo frame. A simple email will do the trick of uploading the photos. Plus, the picture quality is not bad.

However, if you want app support, a high-resolution display, and frills like grouping together vertical photos, then you should go for the Aura Carver frame. It displays sharp photos. Plus, there are no added costs. Win-win, right?