Digital photo frames are nothing new, there have been plenty of LCD ones on the market for years. E INK frames? There are hardly any that are available for the English speaking crowd, most of the low rent stuff comes out of China and the apps are not readily available, which is how you load pictures on them. Does this mean for people in the Western world don’t have any options? Not quite, there are a few options available.
Frame Labs is a European company and they developed three different frames in late 2020. They use E INK Carta technology. The frames are constructed out of black anodized aluminum and can be installed with landscape or portrait mode. E INK only draws power when the image changes, and the company has said the battery is good for 7,000 image changes before you need to recharge it with a Micro USB cable. In order to change images on the frame, you just have to use a free web-app, which makes it easy and intuitive to load in pics from your computer. They have three different screen sizes. The offer six inch model has a resolution of 800×600 with 166 PPI. This one retails for 349.00€. The next one has a 9.7 inch E INK display with a resolution of 1200 x 825 pixels and 150 PPI. This one one retails for 449.99€. The 13.3 inch variant, which is the largest one they sell, has a resolution of 1600 x 1200 pixels and 150 PPI. You can buy it today for a staggering 899.00€
Ionnyk is the best looking and premium E INK photo frame that money can buy. They have an online portal that you get access to when you buy one of their products, it is run by Visionect, the same company that makes the meeting room displays. The company also has their own app for Android and iOS. You won’t have to just rely on loading in your own images, but you get free access to 10 renewing art pictures per month when you buy your IONNYK frame. Get access to an exclusive and prestigious gallery to buy limited edition photographs and add them to your private collection. They also have a subscription program, for $12.99 per month, and choose from hundreds of different high quality art works.
There are two different models to choose from. Jane is 50cm x 40cm and made of black aluminum and has a 4:3 aspect ratio and retails for 1350€. Linn is the larger of the two, 100cm x 70cm and also made of black aluminum. The aspect ratio on this is much better, with 16:9, so you will be able to get some excellent resolution on landscape images. But you will pay through the nose, it costs a staggering 3250€.
Color E INK Frames/strong>
If you are looking for something to repurpose your Onyx Boox Nova 2 Color, Onyx Boox Nova 3 Color, Pocketbook Color, Pocketbook InkPad Color or one of the Chinese ones such as the iFlytek C1, you can do a few things. You can simply take it to a professional framing shop and get a really nice black wooden frame and mount the reader with 3M double sided mounting tape or other method. It will look stylish in your home and you can easily sideload in hundreds of nice pictures and set a slideshow. Everything but the Pocketbook line of devices is running Android, so you can easily install Google Photos or another app to control the pictures on the screen with an app. If you spend the $50 to $100 on a really nice frame, it will look stunning in your home, using a device you already have.
Michael Kozlowski is the editor-in-chief at Good e-Reader and has written about audiobooks and e-readers for the past fifteen years. Newspapers and websites such as the CBC, CNET, Engadget, Huffington Post and the New York Times have picked up his articles. He Lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
