How many pictures can the Aura Carver Luxe digital picture frame store?
The Aura Carver Luxe digital picture frame cannot store any pictures locally on the frame as it does not have internal storage. To counter this loss, Aura offers unlimited cloud storage for all of your photos. Here you can store 10,000+ photos directly in the cloud.
An important issue comes up here, as cloud-based digital frames aren’t very practical. Each slideshow requires that photos stream directly from the cloud, giving you little control over their play order and which photos are to be included.
To add to Aura’s problems, they don’t support USBs or SD cards. Many competing digital picture frames like the Pix-Star offer extensive USB/SD card support, letting you use any USB or SD card size, insert it into the frame, and play slideshows directly. This gives you unlimited offline storage and full control over which files and folders to include in slideshows.
With the Aura Carver Luxe digital picture frame, you need a constant and strong Wi-Fi connection to simply view your photos. If the Aura servers go offline or are taken down one day (as happened with Memento digital art frames), you’ll be left with a frame that doesn’t work.
It’s a key reason why we recommend digital frames with internal storage, extensive USB and SD card support, and a plug & play feature. We don’t recommend cloud-only digital frames like Skylight and Aura.
Currently, Skylight digital frames are subscription-based and don’t have internal storage or USB/SD card support. Who knows, Aura could switch over to this model in the future and you’d have no choice but to pay up in this hypothetical situation.
Is the Aura Carver Luxe digital picture frame worth buying for families?
Aura Carver Luxe digital picture frames probably aren’t the best frames for families. They are missing several crucial features such as multi-frame control groups, remote configuration & management, offline storage, web albums (importing photos from social media and photo-sharing sites), and the Aura mobile app isn’t quite versatile enough.
Families need to be able to share photos in bulk to several frames at the same time. Video and audio playback are bonus features that not all family-focused digital frames offer. Additionally, cloud storage should be automatic and the frame’s interface should be elderly-friendly.
For example, Pix-Star’s mobile app (Pix-Star Snap) lets you send up to 250 photos to several Pix-Star frames at the same time. You can send 2-minute video clips and audio recordings right from your phone from anywhere in the world.
Pix-Star then goes on to offer a great web interface. Here you can remotely manage and configure up to 25 Pix-Star frames from anywhere in the world. You can adjust their settings, manage their local and cloud storage, update their firmware, import new web albums, and even start/change slideshows.
Finally, Pix-Star’s web album feature makes them arguably the best frame for families in 2022. Here you can import photos directly from a dozen external sources to your Pix-Star’s internal storage. They’re available offline and can be included in slideshows remotely.
Web album support includes Facebook, Instagram, Flickr, Dropbox, Google Drive, Google Photos, your computer, and more. Once linked, a web album can automatically stay up to date, syncing photos to all linked frames as you add them.
When you combine Pix-Star’s remote configuration feature with their web album support, you get what’s probably the best setup for families on the market. You can automate photo sharing and control almost every aspect of all your frames from anywhere in the world.
Do Aura Carver Luxe digital picture frames play video?
Aura Carver Luxe digital picture frames cannot play video or audio in slideshows or individually. Aura does not support video and audio playback. Instead, Aura’s frames are designed to be ambient displays for photo slideshows, not media hubs or video-capable frames.
This missing feature makes the Aura frame one of the only high-end digital frames to not support video and audio playback. Skylight digital frames (subscription-based digital frames) also don’t offer video support with their free-to-use version. If you pay for the Skylight Plus subscription, you can unlock video playback support for video clips up to 60-seconds long.
If you want a digital frame that supports both video and audio playback, Pix-Star’s digital picture frames are an excellent choice. They’re quite a bit more affordable than the Aura Carver Luxe digital picture frame and let you play 2-minute video clips and audio recordings.
With Pix-Star, you can send video clips via the Pix-Star Snap mobile app and USB or SD card. Pix-Star lets you include video clips in slideshows, set them to play muted by default, and play audio files (from a USB or SD card) over slideshows.
How much does the Aura Carver Luxe digital picture frame cost?
The Aura Carver Luxe digital picture frames cost just under US$180 on both Amazon and Aura’s online stores. This is quite a high price for a 10-inch digital frame, especially considering that Pix-Star’s frames are almost US$30 cheaper, yet offer a lot more in terms of features and functionality.
Read our comparison between Pix-Star vs Aura digital picture frames to help you get the best possible value for money on your next digital picture frame!
Aura’s digital frames are widely known to be some of the most expensive in their respective size categories. While they aren’t subscription-based like Nixplay and Skylight, they’re quite expensive for the features and functionality they offer – especially when compared to popular digital frame brands like Pix-Star and Dragon Touch.
Can I use my Aura Carver Luxe digital picture frame without Wi-Fi?
The Aura Carver Luxe digital picture frame does not support offline usage. For Aura’s frames to function properly, you need a steady and strong Wi-Fi connection at all times.
All of Aura’s digital picture frames are purely cloud-based. They have no internal storage, no USB/SD card support, and no way to send pictures to the frame while offline.
This means that without Wi-Fi, you cannot use the Aura Carver Luxe digital picture frame, view your photos, make changes to cloud storage, use the mobile app, etc.
We rarely recommend cloud-based digital frames that don’t offer USB/SD card support and internal storage for these reasons and several others. Learn more about cloud-only digital picture frames to avoid making a common mistake!
