Can the Aura Mason digital picture frame work without Wi-Fi?
The Aura Mason digital picture frame cannot work without Wi-Fi as there is no internal storage, photo-email feature, or USB and SD card support. The only way to load photos to Aura Mason is through downloading and using Aura’s mobile app. Here you can send a handful of pictures to the frame’s cloud. Aura then streams these photos to the Mason frame for slideshows. Photos are not held locally on the Aura Mason digital picture frame.
This isn’t very common as competing frames like the Pix-Star offer extensive offline functionality. For example, Pix-Star offers 8GB of internal storage, offline availability of settings, photo-mail, and USB and SD card support. With Pix-Star’s frames, all incoming photos are saved to the cloud (Pix-Star offers free-for-life cloud storage) and to Pix-Star’s internal storage.
We generally recommend getting a digital picture frame that doesn’t work without Wi-Fi. If Wi-Fi connectivity drops for any reason or the frame’s servers are down, you won’t have access to your photos. Frames like the Pix-Star give you the best of both worlds with cloud functionality and offline slideshows, settings, file explorer, etc.
Can the Aura Mason digital picture frame play videos?
The Aura Mason digital picture frame cannot play videos or audio files. It’s worth noting that there isn’t any internal storage or USB/SD card support on Aura Mason frames, meaning you can’t store files locally on the frame, or source them from a USB drive – something that many competing frames offer.
For reference, several other high-end digital picture frames offer features like video and audio support. Pix-Star’s frames let you send and play 2-minute video clips and audio recordings. You can send these clips using the Pix-Star Snap mobile app. While 2-minute clips may not seem like much, it’s more than almost all competing frames. For instance, Dragon Touch only lets you play 30-second clips, and Skylight and Nixplay require a monthly subscription to play 1-minute video clips.
Do Aura Mason digital picture frames charge monthly fees?
Aura Mason digital picture frames do not have any extra or recurring fees, unlike Nixplay and Skylight frames, which charge a monthly, quarterly, or annual subscription fee. Nixplay and Skylight Plus subscriptions are required to unlock features like cloud storage, multi-frame control groups, video and audio playback, access to the mobile app and web interface, etc.
Compared to non-subscription-based digital picture frames like the Pix-Star, Aura’s frames are quite limited. Aura Mason doesn’t offer internal storage, USB or SD card support, multi-frame control groups, remote configuration support, photo imports from social media (usually referred to as web albums), video and audio playback, and more.
By contrast, Pix-Star’s frames offer all of the above features without charging any extra fees. When you consider that the Aura Mason is more expensive, smaller, and more limited than Pix-Star’s 10-inch frame, you can see why Pix-Star is so popular.
Does the Aura Mason digital picture frame support USB and SD cards?
Aura Mason digital picture frames do not support USB or SD cards. Additionally, Aura’s frames do not offer internal storage space. As such, there is no way to hold photos locally on the frame or to play slideshows from a connected USB or SD card. Other digital picture frames that don’t offer USB or SD card support include Skylight and Nixplay.
For comparison, digital frames like the Pix-Star and Dragon Touch do offer USB/SD card support. With Pix-Star’s frames, you can play slideshows directly from a connected USB or SD card without having to copy its content to the frame’s internal storage first. Pix-Star doesn’t limit the maximum size of compatible USBs and SD cards, giving you essentially limitless storage space for your photos.
Why is the Aura Mason digital picture frame so expensive?
Aura’s digital picture frames are widely regarded to be some of the most expensive frames in their size category. The Aura Mason 9-inch digital frames cost around US$179 (though this price may vary), compared to Pix-Star’s 10-inch frame which costs around US$155. It’s worth noting that some of Aura’s frames can cost as much as US$400, namely the Aura Smith frame.
Can I remotely update the Aura Mason digital picture frame?
A remote update feature lets you manage your digital picture frame from anywhere in the world via a supported mobile app or web interface to adjust their settings, start slideshows, manage cloud storage, etc. Aura Mason digital picture frames do not support remote configuration.
For reference, Pix-Star’s frames offer arguably the most robust remote configuration feature – and it’s getting even better. You can use the Pix-Star web dashboard for your single-frame, or the multi-frame control group to adjust each frame’s settings, start and change slideshows, manage cloud storage, update their firmware, import photo albums from social media, update web albums, and much more.
Currently, Pix-Star offers a remote configuration with their web dashboard only. This feature will soon be available with the Pix-Star Snap mobile app and is under development at the time of this writing.
Can the Aura Mason digital picture frame show photos from Facebook?
Aura Mason digital picture frames do not offer a web album feature that lets you import photos directly from social media sites like Facebook, Instagram, etc. With Aura frames, you have to download the photos to your phone and send them to Aura Mason using Aura’s mobile app.
Some top digital picture frames like the Pix-Star offer a robust web album feature that lets you import photos directly to your Pix-Star frames from a dozen external sources. Supported sources include social media sites such as Facebook and Instagram, photo-sharing sites like Google Photos and Flickr, and online storage platforms such as Google Drive and Dropbox.
Pix-Star’s web albums save both locally on the frame and to the cloud. You can remotely manage these linked web albums using Pix-Star’s web interface, set them to update and sync automatically whenever you add new photos, and even start slideshows from saved web albums – no matter where you are in the world.
