I was recently mailed what I believe is the world's most expensive digital picture frame, the InkPoster Tela 28.5. This is different than almost every other digital frame on the market, but can it possibly be worth $2400?
What is it?
The InkPoster Tela 28.5 is different than every other backlit, LCD digital picture frame on the market. This panel is powered by the world's largest "E Ink" display. This technology is the same that can be found in E-readers but with the highest ever resolution (2160 Ã 3060), dynamic range, and color rendition. This type of display only uses power to "activate" the colored pixels, and once the image has been made, it no longer requires power. This means that this display does not require a power cord, and the internal battery will last a year before needing a charge.
What's Wrong With Back Lights?
Almost every other digital picture frame on the market, and the Samsung Frame TVs, use standard backlit LCD panels. Most of these screens glow brighter than the ambient light in a room, and therefore they don't look like printed art, they look like a glowing TV screen.
My Samsung Frame TVs use ambient light sensors to try and match their backlight to the natural light in the room. When this works it's incredible, but for some reason my older (2020) Frame TVs seem to have wildly incorrect brightness 50% of the time, which kills the illusion.
What's Wrong With E Ink?
E Ink panels do not require a backlight and instead reflect ambient light, just like "real" art. This solves the "glowing screen" problem, but they have new issues. Historically, E Ink panels have had significantly lower resolution, dynamic range, and contrast to LCD panels. E Ink panels are also extremely slow to refresh. Your average TV can create 60 unique images a second. This picture frame requires a full minute to refresh 1 time.
What Makes The InkPoster Tela 28.5 Special?
I believe the InkPoster Tela 28.5 is the largest, and most expensive E-Ink picture frame in the world. It's powered by a E Ink Spectra 6 (with Sharp IGZO technology). It has a resolution of 2160 Ã 3060 and a DPI of 131. These specs are unheard of in the realm of E Ink, and maybe, just maybe, this technology is finally good enough to replace printed art.
Opening The Box
This frame is big, and at 15.5lb, quite heavy. You are asked to charge the internal battery first, using an included USB-C power cable, and in about a minute, the frame generated an image of an antique poster. Although my expectations for image quality were tempered, I was very impressed by the quality of this first image.
Using The App
To change images on the frame, you'll need to download the InkPoster app. Although I heard past reviewers were having constant problems with this app, I am happy to say that after days of playing with this frame, I have not encountered a single problem. The app is fast, intuitive, and reliable.
In the app you choose a vertical or horizontal hanging position, and then the app will show you which included artwork will fit. Updating the images is a slow process that takes around 1 full minute to complete. This isn't a problem for me, but you probably won't want this frame automatically changing images (and flashing for a full minute) throughout the day.
Image Quality (Included Art)
For the most part, I was very impressed by the image quality that this frame could produce with the included artwork. Yes, the images lacked contrast and saturation, but most of the included art was historic and faded naturally. You don't expect pure white in a 300-year-old painting, and this frame cannot produce pure white, so it works.
Image Quality (Photography)
As a professional photographer, I was most excited to upload my own images to the InkPoster, but I had realistic expectations. I knew the limitations of this panel, and InkPoster's marketing team had warned me that it wasn't the best with photos.
As expected, the results weren't great. My photos were dark, desaturated, and low resolution. The frame really struggles to produce smooth gradations, and of course, that's a huge element of most modern photographs. No matter what changes I made to brightness, contrast, or saturation, I couldn't get any of my color photos to look presentable.
Black and white photos were another story. Most of the problems I had with the panel replicating color photos weren't as big of a problem with black and white images. In fact, some of the artifacts the panel created ended up looking like film grain. Although black and white photos looked much better on this panel, it's important to realize that they still lacked contrast and brightness because the panel cannot produce "white." The brightest color it can produce is a yellowish grey.
In the photo below I uploaded an image that is one half pure white, and one half pure black. Although this panel can produce a dark black, you can see just how far away from "white" the left side of the image is.
Final Thoughts
The InkPoster Tela 28.5 is an amazing piece of technology, but it still needs improvements before it can become mainstream. The included artwork can look quite impressive, but the panel's low color and dynamic range make it an unlikely choice for photographers. And of course, the biggest problem for most people will be the price. At $2400, you could pay to print and frame art for your entire house and still have money left over.
That being said, we should all be thankful this technology exists at all. This product had to come out first, and overtime the technology will improve and prices can come down. I truly believe this will be the future of displaying art, but for now, the InkPoster Tela 28.5 will be for those who are willing to pay a premium for bleeding-edge technology.
If you're interested in this type of technology but don't want to spend $2400, remember that InkPoster has smaller sizes. Their 13.3-inch version is a much more reasonable $500.
4 Comments
A 7:10 aspect ratio? Why?
Presumably because that works best with the art that they have already loaded onto it. If it sucks for photos, then it seems like it's pretty much just for displaying the art that comes with it, and isn't really good when you try to load your own files onto it. So if 7:10 works best for manufacturing purposes, and works best with the art that come with it, that would be why they chose that aspect ratio.
I was quite disappointed with my eInk picture frame for many of the same reasons you mention. The resolution is low, the color palette is limited, and both contrast and saturation fall short. It is not well suited for photography. From my experience, results are only acceptable with warm toned images and even then they work best when viewed from a distance.
The low bit depth is really strange as it gives a crushed posterized effect even though there have been a number of color e-ink displays on the market that can deliver smooth gradients, including full motion e-ink monitors and smartphones as well as tablets that use color e-ink.