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Last year at IFA, SwitchBot announced the AI Art Frame, which seemed like a product that would get lost in the shuffle. We’ve all seen smart picture frames before, right? And at first glance, that’s what SwitchBot has here. But that’s not entirely accurate.

This is an Art Frame that uses AI to create pictures, stylize your own photos, and it also uses e-Ink for the picture. Which allows it to last quite some time on a single charge. In fact, I’ve had mine hung up in my living room for a couple of months now, and it’s only down to 87%.

The SwitchBot AI Art Frame starts at $149, so let’s find out if it’s worth the price in this review.

What’s in the box?

In the box with your AI Art Frame, you of course get the AI Art Frame, along with several additional mats, four adhesive wall mounts with metal hooks, a USB-C charging cable with power adapter, a small bag of screws and anchors, and a bubble level to help you make sure it’s level. There is also the user manual, which you likely won’t need, as setup is pretty simple.

Setup is very easy, just load up the SwitchBot app and tap on the plus sign in the corner, then tap on ‘Add Device’. Choose the AI Art Frame, and from there, the app will walk you through setting it up. It’s pretty simple, though. Keep in mind that it only works on a 2.4GHz network.

Currently, SwitchBot sells three sizes of the AI Art Frame. There’s the 7.3-inch model, the 13.3-inch model, and the 31.5-inch model. They are also sold in 2- and 4-packs if you want to get more than one. There is also a pretty huge jump in price from the 13.3-inch to the 31.5-inch. Now, yes, it is about 3x the size, but it goes from $349 to $1,299.

The SwitchBot App

Setting up and switching out photos is actually pretty easy in the SwitchBot app. So once you have your AI Art Frame set up, tap on the frame in the app to enter the Settings. From here you’ll see a number of options, including “Gallery” which is currently a beta option that offers a bunch of different paintings you can use. There is also the “AI Studio” where you can create an AI photo from scratch, or use AI to stylize your existing photo for the AI Art Frame. This works pretty well, though I do still prefer to use unedited photos in my photo frames. Which is also possible here.

To add your own photos, tap on “Album”. From here, you can add a number of photos that you can also cycle through whenever you want. Perhaps you want to change out the photo being displayed every few weeks or so. This makes it easy to do that. SwitchBot does also allow you to use this as a Slideshow and have it switch photos at different intervals from 15 minutes up to 24 hours. Or just stick to Static, and you can change it on your own – this is what I have it set to. Obviously, the slideshow option is going to increase battery usage. Luckily, it is just a USB-C port for charging, so it’s not too bad.

Once you’ve chosen the photo you want to display, you can change the orientation of the frame, add filters, crop it, and much more. If you’re like me and don’t want to make any edits other than changing the orientation, then tap on ‘Next’. Then tap on ‘Sync’ to start syning it to your AI Art Frame. This will take a bit of time to transfer, but it shouldn’t take more than a minute.

The larger Art Frame works better with details

SwitchBot did send over both the 7.3-inch and the 13.3-inch AI Art Frame, which I have in different rooms in my home. And the big thing I noticed is that with the larger AI Art Frame, it is able to show details a lot better.

The gallery below shows the exact same picture, same cropping, editing and everything, on the 7.3-inch model, then on the 13.3-inch model. It’s still not as crisp as you’d probably expect – this is E-Ink Spectra 6 after all – but there is a noticeable difference. This picture came from Gwen Stefani performing at the Sphere following Lenovo Tech World at CES last week. So, the details would likely be even better on the large 31.5-inch model.

Of course, you could also use pictures with less fine detail. For the past month or so, I’ve had a picture of my dog on the larger model, which looked pretty good. The color temperature was off a little bit, but if I weren’t in this industry and paying a lot of attention to the colors on photos, I likely would not have noticed.

Overall, the experience is quite good. The AI Art Frame does connect over Bluetooth, so transferring photos to the frame does take a little bit of time, but it’s not painfully slow. And the only other issue that I’ve seen really comes back to it being E-Ink Spectra 6 technology.

Battery life will last years, not months

SwitchBot says that the 2,000mAh capacity battery inside should last about 2 years on a single charge. Obviously, I have not had it that long to really confirm that charge cycle. But I will say, after two almost three months on the larger 13.3-inch model, I am only down to 87%. So I think that two-year estimate is pretty accurate. It’s also using USB-C for charging, so it’s very easy to recharge.

Part of the reason for using E-Ink Spectra 6 here instead of a regular color display is so that the battery can last quite a long time on a single charge. It also helps reduce burn-in, especially if you plan to keep the same picture on the AI Art Frame for months or years at a time.

Should you buy the SwitchBot AI Art Frame?

I really like the AI Art Frame, and I’ve liked it since I first saw at IFA in Berlin last year. But I do still struggle with the price, as far as recommending it to people. I think the sweet spot is the 13.3-inch model, since the mat isn’t quite as thick as the 7.3-inch model, but that does cost $349. Which is quite pricey. I’d say if you’re already invested in the rest of the SwitchBot ecosystem, then it is definitely worthwhile.

The 31.5-inch model is a really tough sell, since you’re paying over $1,299 for an art frame. But the good news here is that these are also compatible with the Ikea RODALM Frames, so you can really customize how the frame looks. It’s also very simple to replace the frame, if you wish to do so.

However, the fact that you can do basically anything you want with these frames, makes it very versatile. Say you want to show off some more festive photos or artwork during the holidays, or show off your latest vacation photos in a slideshow, the AI Art Frame can do that better than basically any other option on the market today.

Currently, the AI Art Frame is only available from SwitchBot’s website – not Amazon, at least not yet.