This digital photo frame is so lifelike, you’ll think it’s a real picture

The Aluratek ePaper 13.3 inch Wifi Digital Photo Frame stands apart from its competitors. Unlike every other digital photo frame, it uses an ePaper display — sorta like a supersized Kindle — which means it uses very little energy, so you can hang it up on your wall, no wires needed, and not need to recharge it for up to two years.

However, that comes with some caveats. Because it’s ePaper, it’s not as bright or vivid as a traditional photo frame, and it can’t display videos or play music. At $349, it’s also more expensive than most of the best digital photo frames. But, if you’re looking for a photo frame that looks every bit as nice as the pictures hanging on your wall, this could be a solid option.

Aluratek ePaper 13.3 inch Wifi Digital Photo Frame: Price

The Aluratek ePaper 13.3 inch Wifi Digital Photo Frame went on sale in mid-2025, and sells for $349. That’s on the high end for digital photo frames, most of which can be found for less than $200.

Aluratek ePaper 13.3 inch Wifi Digital Photo Frame: Design

Not only does the Aluratek have a bigger display than most, it also comes in a frame with a very large matte border, which makes it look more like a regular picture frame than pretty much every other photo frame I’ve tested. In fact, it even fooled my wife.

I like that Aluratek ships it with a white and a black matte border, so you can change it to best suit your decor. The only indication that this is an electronics device is the small panel that contains a USB-C charging port, a power button, a button to change photos, and one to reset the device. Aluratek says the frame’s battery should last for up to two years between charges if you only change the image once a week.

Aluratek ePaper 13.3 inch Wifi Digital Photo Frame: Setup

The Aluratek can be wall-mounted, like a picture frame (either in portrait or landscape), and even comes with a mounting kit — screws and anchor, and even a small screwdriver and template so you know where to drill holes into your wall. Should you not want to put it on your wall, you can pop it out of its frame and prop it up on a shelf using the included acrylic stand.

I installed the Aluratek app on my phone (it’s available for both Android and iOS), connected to the frame via Bluetooth, and then connected it to my Wi-Fi network.

You can only add one photo at a time via the app, so it can be a bit tedious at first if you want to load it up with lots of images. The app also lets you set a schedule for how often it will cycle through your photos. You can set a time period (from every 30 minutes to once a week), or at a specific time.

It’s also important to know that the frame only has storage for about 10 photos, so you can’t really load it up with a ton of photos. The company says it’s designed to only rotate through new photos occasionally - say, once a week - so that you don’t need to recharge it as often.

Aluratek ePaper 13.3 inch Wifi Digital Photo Frame: Picture quality

The frame and image is of such quality that when my wife first saw it, she thought I had printed an actual photo and bought a frame for it. A photo I took of a street in Lisbon with rainbow umbrellas suspended overhead showed up particularly well — the many colors of the umbrellas popped in front of a blue building in the background.

Other photos I uploaded, such as one of my daughter sitting among a field of flowers, also looked great. The whites and pinks of the flowers really stood out among the verdant grass.

Still, as it’s an ePaper display, you have to set your expectations for what your photos will look like. Colors aren’t as vivid or bright as traditional digital photo frames, and high-contrast photos don’t show up well at all.

One image I took of my daughter on a sunny day wearing a bright pink dress in front of a dark blue and white wall was disappointing. The reds were almost brown, the blue of the wall was much paler, and the image lacked the overall brightness of the original.

Also, this is not a frame designed to cycle through photos on a constant basis. For one, it’ll dramatically shorten the battery life. And, when it changes photos, it takes about five seconds for all of the colors to fill in, and the frame flashes in different colors during that time.

Aluratek ePaper 13.3 inch Wifi Digital Photo Frame: Verdict

At first, I was a bit skeptical that Aluratek’s ePaper display could do as good a job as the best digital photo frames in showing off my images. While ePaper displays are well-suited for the best Kindles, I wasn’t sure if they could be as faithful to photographs.

With some exceptions, it does its job well. High-contrast photos won’t look great, but for most others, you — and anyone else who casually walks past it — would be hard-pressed to recognize it as anything other than a real photo.

Perhaps the closest competitor to the Aluratek is Netgear’s Meural WiFi Photo Frame, which is also intended to be a sort of gallery wall, though it doesn’t include a subscription to a virtual gallery.

The Aluratek ePaper 13.3 inch Wifi Digital Photo Frame isn’t for those who want to show off an endless gallery of pictures. Rather, it’s for someone who wants a digital photo frame that looks like an actual photo frame, and doesn’t want to advertise the tech in their home, And to that end, it succeeds.