Digital picture frames have been around for a long time. But none are as close to the actual print as the InkPoster that manufacturer PocketBook is showing at CES in Las Vegas. Even if you look closely, it is virtually indistinguishable from a printed image in a frame. Unlike almost all other digital picture frames, the InkPoster is not equipped with an LCD or OLED screen, but rather an E Ink display. The manufacturer PocketBook will sell it in three sizes: 13.3 inches, 28.5 inches and 31.5 inches.
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E-ink screens are barely reflective of ink posters and can hardly be seen as a display even at close range.
(Image: Heise Online, RBR)
Compared to LCD and OLED, e-ink screens have decisive advantages that make them ideal for use in digital picture frames. Once the page is installed, it remains in steady state, produces no flicker, barely reflects and requires no power. Bistable e-ink displays require power only when their image content changes. That’s why there are no annoying cables attached to InkPosters; They should last up to a year on a single battery charge with daily image changes.
The InkPosters only need to be charged once a year via an inexplicably hidden USB-C socket.
(Image: Heise Online, RBR)
But until now, E-Ink also had one decisive disadvantage compared to LCD and OLED: lower color depth. Monochrome e-ink cannot be used as an image display, but even the Kaleido 3, which works with a color filter, only manages 4096 colors which is somewhat weak Looks like. InkPosters use a new e-ink technology: Spectra 6. Four different beads are embedded in the cells of the panel: white, red, yellow and blue. This allows the representation of almost all mixed colors.
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With each image change, the colored beads in the Spectra 6 panel are pushed back and forth in the electric field until they line up in the correct order beneath the display surface and display the desired color. Each image change takes about half a minute, which is why the technology presented at Display Week 2023 plays no role for readers. However, for digital picture frames, the long image structure is irrelevant. It’s only slightly faster with the 28.5-inch model. For this the PocketBook works with Sharp and uses the IGZO backplane for sharp image production. It also has a particularly good resolution of 3060 × 2160 pixels. The 31.5-inch version has 2560 × 1440 pixels, the smaller picture frame has 1600 × 1200. The two smaller frames are equipped with screens in 4:3 format, the largest is shipped by PocketBook with a 16:9 panel.
PocketBook offers picture frames with an app that includes curated works of art with which you can decorate the picture frame. Alternatively, you can send your photos and paintings to the device. PocketBook wants to sell the InkPoster starting this summer and is asking $600 for the smaller version, with the larger model priced at $1,700 and the IGZO version priced at $2,400. Prices are before taxes, so Euro prices are likely to be higher.
Heise Median is the Official Media Partner of CES 2025.
(RBR)
