Looks like printed: E-Ink picture frame from Pocketbook

Digital picture frames have been around for a long time. But none come as close to real prints as the InkPoster, which the manufacturer Pocketbook is showing at CES in Las Vegas. Even on closer inspection, it is practically indistinguishable from a printed picture in a frame. Unlike almost all other digital picture frames, the InkPoster is not equipped with an LCD or OLED screen, but with an E-Ink display. Manufacturer PocketBook will sell it in three sizes: 13.3 inches, 28.5 inches and 31.5 inches.

Compared to LCDs and OLEDs, E-Ink screens have decisive advantages that predestine them for use in a digital picture frame. Once the page is set up, it remains static in position, does not flicker, hardly reflects and does not require any power. The bistable E-Ink displays only require power when their image content changes. There is therefore no annoying cable attached to the InkPosters and they are designed to run for a year on a single battery charge with a daily image change.

But until now, e-ink also had a decisive disadvantage compared to LCD and OLED: the low color depth. Monochrome E-Inks are not suitable per se for displaying images, but even the Kaleido 3, which works with a color filter, can only handle 4096 somewhat weak-looking colors. A new E-Ink technology is used in the InkPosters: Spectra 6. Four different beads are embedded in the cells of the panels: white, red, yellow and blue. This allows almost all mixed colors to be displayed.

Peppered prices

Each time the image is changed, the colored beads in the Spectra 6 panel are moved back and forth in the electric field until they are positioned in the correct order under the display surface and display the desired color tone. This means that each image change takes around half a minute, which is why the technology presented at Display Week 2023 does not play a role in readers. For digital picture frames, on the other hand, the long image build-up is irrelevant. Only the 28.5-inch model is slightly faster. PocketBook works together with Sharp for this model and uses an IGZO backplane for a faster image build-up. It also has a particularly fine resolution of 3060 × 2160 pixels. The 31.5-inch version displays 2560 × 1440 pixels, while the small picture frame has 1600 × 1200. The two smaller frames are equipped with screens in 4:3 format, while PocketBook ships the largest with a 16:9 panel.

PocketBook provides the picture frames with an app in which curated works of art are stored, with which the picture frames can be equipped. Alternatively, you can send your own photos and paintings to the devices. PocketBook plans to sell the InkPosters from the summer and is asking 600 US dollars for the small version, the large model costs 1700 US dollars and the IGZO version 2400 US dollars. The prices are before tax, so the euro prices are likely to be higher.

Heise Medien is the official media partner of CES 2025.

(rbr)