It’s an amazing feeling when you can find the perfect art piece for a certain wall in your home. Often, however, it’s hard to decide on just one framed image you want to spend the money on and look at every day. The InkPoster Tela (28.5) solves that problem by offering a digital art experience that can be changed whenever you want.
Unlike previous, more traditional photo frames, the InkPoster Tela uses color E Ink as its display technology, so it only uses power when the picture is changed. This allows it to ditch a power cable and have a battery that can last up to a year.
I’ve tested dozens of photo frames over the years, including a roundup of the best ones for Business Insider. The E Ink ones have the benefit of using much less power, so they can be powered off a battery for wall mounting without a cable.
The InkPoster Tela takes that to the extreme with a 28.5-inch screen. Instead of deciding on one image to be inspired by, you can rotate through different art pieces, depending on your mood.
The InkPoster Tela is a statement piece
The Tela uses a Spectra 6 color E Ink display
(Tyler Hayes)
With a 28.5-inch screen (dimensions: 27.92 x 34.8 x 0.98 inches), large matte, and black aluminum frame, the InkPoster tela is a statement piece for any house or office. Its Spectra 6, color E Ink display is the star of the show.
The display has a resolution of 2,160 by 3,060, a DPI of 132, and a 3:4 aspect ratio. It’s well-suited to display lots of art pieces as well as your personal photos. The frame comes with a simple mounting kit with options to accommodate the 16-pound device on all types of walls. The Tela can be hung horizontally or vertically, and can be switched at any time.
The hardest part of putting the frame up for me was determining where to hang it. Depending on where you put it, a second pair of hands to lift the weight is helpful.
There are important things to know about E Ink frames
For as good as the Tela looks, displaying paintings and other works of art, it’s not flawless. There are a couple of things to know about the technology before diving in.
The main things are that it will take around 60 seconds to change an image once you send it to the frame. Secondly, there will be lots of flicking as the image changes.
I’ve tested several E Ink photo frames in the last year, so I was familiar with how the technology worked. It didn’t surprise me to have to wait for a minute to see a new picture show up or the screen flickering.
The best way to avoid these things is to set the Tela on a slideshow and have it rotate once a day or once a week—however often you’d like. While you can change the image as much as you want, doing so frequently will run down the 25,000mAh internal battery.
The frame only (or primarily) uses power when the screen changes. So, if you do it less frequently, InkPoster says you can get up to 12 months of battery from a single charge.
It’s worth noting that certain types of pictures don’t look as good on E Ink frames as others. The Tela is positioned as a digital poster because the artwork looks best on it. People tend to look a little washed out on the frame. It’s not bad enough to keep me from displaying a few select family photos, but it is enough to rely on the included free art pieces in InkPoster’s mobile app.
The brush strokes of digital paintings tend to hide some of the shortcomings of the E Ink technology.
The InkPoster mobile app includes free art to display
(Tyler Hayes)
Is the InkPoster Tela (28.5) worth buying?
Like all premium, luxury products, the InkPoster Tela can’t be evaluated purely on value. It’s $2,400 retail price is way beyond impulse-buy territory. There aren’t a lot of other, similar products to compare it to.
In terms of raw performance, the product looks good and works well. I’ve used it frequently to upload my own pictures and rotate through the free artwork. In each case, it did what I was expecting without any noticeable bugs or issues.
I love the functionality that the Tela provides. I can instantly change the look of a room and match the seasonal vibe with the press of a button. It’s hard to pay a lot for a product and trust the company doesn’t go out of business, but this cutting-edge digital frame is about as cool as they come.