SwitchBot AI art frame hands-on review: Bringing the world of art home

The SwitchBot AI art frame turns walls into ever changing galleries, offering famous paintings, classic illustrations, and AI generated pieces, and its display uses no power between image changes.

Its resolution and color gamut, however, fall short of monitors and photo prints. The frame also requires the smartphone app and a 2.4 GHz Wi Fi connection for changing images, making it unsuitable for RVs, cabins, boats, and other remote locations.

Even so, art lovers can enjoy fresh, personalized works daily without swapping physical frames. Businesses can use it for café signage, and students can load reference charts and tables.

The SwitchBot AI art frame is available from SwitchBot for $149.99 for the 7.3” size, $349.99 for the 13.3” size, and $1,299.99 for the 31.5” size.

The SwitchBot AI art frame displays an endless stream of famous and AI-generated artwork as well as any uploaded image with ultra-low power consumption.

The package comes with a USB-C and charger, two sets of mounting clips, a bubble level, three paper mats, a quick start guide, a user manual, a support card, and three safety leaflets.

The 13.3-inch SwitchBot has a simple design that looks like an ordinary framed artwork from afar, with an E Ink Spectra 6 display, which has a matte surface to reduce light reflections, mounted within the aluminum frame. The frame can be wall-mounted or placed on desks thanks to a fold-out stand. The USB-C charging port, connection button, and LED status light are on the back, which means the frame must be taken off the wall for charging or setup.

The frame has a rated runtime of two years when the image is changed weekly. A week of testing, including two days of 15-minute timed image changes, dropped the battery level to 64%. Three replacement paper mats are included, but the battery is not user-replaceable.

The art frame requires Bluetooth and Wi-Fi connections, along with the app, for setup, preventing its use at a remote cabin, boat, or other area with no Wi-Fi.

The software is easy to install, and adding the art frame requires only a simple press of the rear control button to activate pairing mode.

Users can sync images from their photo album, the free classic artwork gallery, and the AI art gallery. Up to 10 images can be uploaded and set to change at a set time or interval.

The AI Studio can automatically create art in 11 different art styles or users can prompt the AI according to their wishes. A $3.99 per month subscription is required to use these features, with billing done through the app stores.

The AI is poor at generating factually correct text, maps, and calendars, fairly reliable when creating to-do lists and menus, occasionally unreliable when creating well-known figures, and quite decent at creating cartoon-like art, relaxing nature scenes, or a crowd of cute golden retrievers. Hallucinations can occur during prompted art generation, such as a train riding on a river or an incorrect object shown.

Personal images and free classic artwork can be edited, then uploaded in a minute, during which the displayed image will flash and invert several times. Up to ten images can be stored in the art frame for timed slideshows.

Perceived image quality varies depending on lighting and viewing distance, but expectations must be tamed.

DAYLIGHT

The E Ink display produces a dark purple-black rather than a charcoal black, which is especially noticeable under direct sunlight. Unlike glossy monitors, it remains perfectly viewable under sunlight.

DAYLIGHT – SHADED WINDOW

Most artwork, including classic oil paintings and watercolors, looked good from afar under shaded daylight, but some works with low contrast, certain colors, or a dark appearance did not.

DAYLIGHT – SHADED WINDOW – CLOSE-UP 

The absolute image quality is lower than those of a 4K OLED art frame TV or a photo print. The panel offers just 65,000 colors and a low resolution, so individual pixels are apparent up close.

DISPLAY VIEWING ANGLE

E Ink panels reflect light similar to printed material and are perfectly visible at any viewing angle.

PHOTO PRINT COMPARISON

A comparison against a Photodisc test target photo print highlights the limitations of the E Ink Spectra 6 panel. The background is not pure white, constricting shadow detail and maximum contrast. The color gamut is also limited, especially in the greens and blues.

CEL ART COMPARISON

The limited blue gamut is visible in a side-by-side comparison against actual cartoon cel art.

RAINY DAY - WALL CALENDAR COMPARISON

Although the SwitchBot images looked good under shaded daylight, the art appeared a bit dim during an overcast, rainy day due to the inability of the E Ink panel to display a pure white.

MAPS, CHARTS AND MENUS

The SwitchBot art frame can be used for more than just displaying artworks since it can be loaded with any digital image for study, reference, or signage. A train system map and periodic table of the elements looked decent, although the smallest text was just barely legible due to the limited panel resolution, while a café menu using large text looked good.

The SwitchBot AI art frame delivers a convenient, fun way to decorate a home with a world of art, while eliminating the need to store or swap artworks.