Aura is introducing its newest model, the four hundred ninety nine dollar Inkframe, which brings a thirteen inch color e-paper display to the company’s otherwise LCD-based lineup. The technology, similar to that found in the Kindle Color e-reader, uses a six-color ink system to create the illusion of millions of tones. More importantly, using e-ink technology allows the frame to finally go cordless.
That makes it ideal for hanging in your home in places where a corded display may look bad, like a living room wall, stairwell, or anywhere else a cord would ruin the aesthetic. The company, founded by early Twitter employees, has wanted to work with e-ink technology for some time, but it was not yet up to the task of sharing colorful photos taken on your smartphone. As e-ink systems have advanced, Aura has changed its mind.
The new frame uses Spectra 6 technology that delivers six primary colors: white, black, red, yellow, green, and blue. This provides better saturation and contrast, making it more adept at displaying photos. In addition, Aura added a front light to the frame, taking a cue from the Kindle Paperwhite. This helps improve the contrast. It is a very subtle light compared to an LCD, at maybe a sixth of the brightness. People often do not even notice it has a light until they are in a dark room and it turns off.
On top of the Spectra 6 technology, Aura built its own proprietary dithering algorithm, which uses error diffusion. The company had to go back to ancient dithering algorithms from newspaper technology to figure out how to blend dots to simulate other colors.
Though the e-ink technology means you can go cordless, the frame still does need a recharge at times. This means you would have to take it down from time to time to power it up. However, Aura claims the frame can get up to three months of battery life, so this is not a huge inconvenience. To reduce its power needs, the Ink uses motion and sensors to turn off the light when no one is around. In the accompanying mobile app, customers can also choose to configure their own on and off schedule if they prefer.
Like other Aura frames, the Ink has an upgraded look and feel with a graphite-inspired bezel, paper-textured mat, and glass front. This makes it seem more like a traditional photo frame than cheap tech bought online. The frame itself is thirteen point three inches with a sixteen hundred by twelve hundred resolution and a four to three aspect ratio. The box includes wall-mounting hardware, a stand, and a charging cord. Aura says the frame can be used in either portrait or landscape mode. Including both the display and frame, the Ink measures fourteen point one by eleven point four by zero point six inches.
The frame also includes a USB-C port, a status light, and button controls for moving between your photos. If you do not want to manually adjust the photos, you can rely on the frame updating to the latest photo in your preconfigured rotation overnight.
In tests, the frame delivered more muted color than the existing Aura frames, but this also made it fit in better next to the printed photos on the wall. Depending on the image, it may not even be immediately obvious to guests that it is an e-ink frame from a distance. We have not had the frame long enough to report on battery life at this time.
One thing that may throw you off at first is the photo-loading experience. It causes the screen to flash repeatedly in a yellowish light, which can be off-putting. But the frame updates its photos overnight, so customers do not have to see this transition. The transition is a little jarring, which is a trade-off with this technology. You can adjust it up to twelve times a day if you want, but that has a trade-off with battery life. The more times it changes, the more battery it uses.
The company believes that customers may end up being more selective about the number of photos they add to the frame as a result. Perhaps they will only add a single photo they want to always display, then change it out when they are ready for a new one.
Aura in 2022 raised twenty six million dollars after reaching one million frames sold and an app used by three million users. Families often use the app together, for instance, to add new photos to a frame gifted to the grandparents. Today, the company has sold double-digit millions of frames and is profitable. Its app has seen a billion photos shared to date as well.
Though the founders hail from the earlier days of Twitter, Aura’s focus is now more on the private social networks built between friends and family who use Aura’s app and devices to share photos. The company thinks that this space of sharing, not just photos but connecting with loved ones, is really underserved. It is obviously poorly monetized by ads. The marriage of a hardware device and that space really works well as a business.
The company still considers itself a startup, as it is continuing to develop new products and contemplate updates to the Aura app that could expand beyond frame management. The company has done a lot of prototyping around software that is not just tied to frames. However, the company worries that focusing on a private photo network on its own may not be as good a business. It sells a hardware product that has a very straightforward value proposition with no subscription and unlimited photos. That works really well with the private photo network. The company has seen a lot of companies try the private photo network on its own in the past and not be able to find a business model for it.
The Ink frame is on sale starting today on Aura’s website.