Aura’s first color e-ink frame is to avoid bone

Aura, the digital photo frame maker beloved by grandparents everywhere, is introducing its first frame with a color e-ink display.

Aura Ink uses a 13.3-inch E-Ink Spectra 6 panel and is designed to last on your wall for one time before needing a recharge. I’ve been testing the one on my wall for the past week, where it shows most of the family photos that would otherwise be added to Google Photos albums, and it’s been really delightful. It’s an attractive concept for anyone who hates a lot of cords, but this first-generation product comes with a steep first-generation price: $499, which is $200 more than the next Presist frame in Aura’s lineup.

Creating an e-ink frame that can hang bone-free on a wall has been a goal for Aura cofounder and CTO Erik Jensen for nearly a decade, but the technology just isn’t there. The LCD panels in Aura’s current frames display images in vivid color, but they draw too much power to be used for long periods without a cord. “Backlit LCDs are nowhere near being able to hang on your wall and survive for months,” he explained. Verge In an interview

E-ink offers the kind of battery life they were looking for, but so far, it hasn’t been able to display images realistically. Jensen says the dream of a wireless frame finally became possible with E Ink’s Spectra6 display tech. “It’s the first episode that’s really been able to show pictures of the house, normal pictures like we’re all sitting on our camera rolls.”

The panel in the ink frame can only technically display six colors: white, black, red, yellow, green and blue. When you display an image on the screen, electrically charged particles are arranged to mimic the colors of your image – essentially the same way tiny dots are arranged to create color images on a newspaper.

Unlike LCDs there is no backlight on this display, although it does use a subtle front light to give the image a bit of pop. I didn’t even realize it was there until I looked for it. If you cup your hand around the edges of the image, you can see the shimmer, but otherwise it’s very subtle. A motion sensor is embedded in the white “mat” of the frame, which turns off the front light to conserve electricity at night or if no one is around.

Ink, by default, will display a new image once a day, changing overnight. This is partly to protect the battery, but it’s also likely because there’s a lot of blinking during the 30 seconds it changes to a new image. It is not bright. It can be a bit alarming to see your sweet baby’s eyes light up as the colors fall into place. You can have it rotate automatically six times a day, and you can press one of the physical controls at the top of the frame to advance the image or go back to the previous image.

I chose the highest auto-refresh option, and I’ve been flipping to a new photo all day. I barely put a dent in the battery. It is 92 percent after four days of testing. The Aura’s estimate of three months of battery life with daily refreshes seems entirely reasonable, and I doubt you’ll need to recharge within a month if you choose to change the picture more often than that. The Aura includes a super-long USB-C cable with the frame—about 10 by 10 feet by my measurements. The port is accessible even when the frame is on the wall, so when it’s time to charge you can plug the frame into an outlet without moving it. A pair of wall mounts are included, as well as a stand if you set it on a table — though at 11.5 x 14 inches, it’s a great addition to a side table.

As with Aura’s other frames, the primary way to interact with the display is through an app — and it’s a good one. This is where you upload photos, adjust settings, and even add and comment on photos that someone has added. Aura includes unlimited free photo storage with its frames, and Jensen swears to me that the company will never put its “core features” behind a paid subscription. This is a relief.

Jensen also tells me that Aura is an unusual e-ink customer. The Spectra 6 display is mostly geared toward retailers and advertisers, so the company worked to adapt the tech to suit their purposes. This is no small challenge. Most people will want to display photos taken with their phones on a frame, and those photos are best for bright, high dynamic range displays. Aura has to translate these into a screen that only works with a six-color palette and has no backlight. Given the constraints, I think they did a good job, although some types of images play better on an e-ink screen than others.

Aura suggests choosing photos that are bright with good contrast. I find that my photos look great with lots of blue in them – sky, water, etc. Although some of our wedding reception photos are washed out on ink frames with a softer, lower aspect ratio style. Skinheads are also difficult. Photos of me and my baby, the pastier members of the family, sometimes have a slight green cast. Even portraits taken outdoors with plenty of light look much more balanced. Standing close to the frame, you can clearly see the individual dots making up the image, but from across the room, the blurring effect that the distance has on the tiny colored dots can definitely fool me into thinking I’m looking at a framed print.

I’ve been reviewing consumer tech for a decade, and I can comfortably say that it’s rare to see a company dominate a product category like Aura. Check any website with a roundup of the best digital photo frames, and I guarantee you’ll see Aura Frame at the top of the list. I bought one for my parents when my son was born, and it was such a hit that my husband bought one for his mother the following year. Every once in a while, a parent-oriented Slack channel or group chat I’m in will ask for digital photo frame recommendations. About 10 out of 10 people will answer “Just get an aura.” This is good.

The thing is, I haven’t really considered getting one myself. I don’t like the idea of ​​another glowing screen in the house – although it can be subtle and pleasant – and I hate having extra cords lying around. I keep telling myself that one day, I’ll print out some family photos and put them up on the wall the old-fashioned way, but I’ve done exactly zero times in the last four years.

Ink is just one type of frame I’m interested in. It’s refreshingly low-tech and quite convincing as an alternative to the printed image. But $500 is a steep price to pay for all of that. I could send half a dozen photos, have them printed, framed, and shipped to my home for that price. And while the e-ink color technology is impressive, it still leaves some images looking a little flat. Jensen calls it “definitely the first-generation price point,” noting that the Aura’s first frame cost $399. That particular model has since been discontinued, but for comparison, the Spinframe announced earlier this year that it would cost $229.

It all comes down to your price tolerance and appetite for being an early adopter. For the grandmas and grandpas out there who just want a 24/7 slideshow of the grandkids in their living room, Aura’s regular LCD frame is still the best option. Ink feels like it’s geared more toward parents who want to take photos with their phone but don’t really want another gadget around the house. If you fit this description And You don’t mind the first-generation ness of it all, the Ink Frame will feel right at home, right at home. The rest of us should probably wait a generation or two – and print some original photos in the meantime.