I’m not a fan of those TVs sold in picture frame surrounds that companies tell you are good for displaying art in your homes. There’s something unconvincing about using a powered, backlit screen for things you’re meant to stare at for quite a while. Can you really appreciate Turner’s Norham Castle Sunrise if you’re struggling with eyestrain after five minutes or so? Perhaps the cure for my dourness is to be found in PocketBook’s new device, InkPoster. It uses a big, color e-paper display to do the same job, giving your eyes a better chance of seeing the brush strokes up close and personal.
InkPoster is a series of color e-paper displays equipped with battery packs that can be hung in your home for up to a year on a single charge. There’s no power cable, and it can be mounted in portrait or landscape orientation, depending on your taste. You’ll be able to access a library of curated art, put together by a team of “professional art consultants” and select what you want to see inside the InkPoster companion app. You’ll also be able to use it as a regular old digital photo frame, ideal for when you want to pull a masterpiece from online and display that instead.
There are three display sizes based on two different technologies, Spectra 6 and Sharp’s IGZO. The former is found in the 13.3-inch model with a 1,200 x 1,600 resolution, which packs a 14,000mAh battery pack. There’s a 28.5-inch edition with a 2,160 x 3,060 display which uses a hybrid of both display technologies. Finally, there’s a 31.5-inch model with a 2,560 x 1,440 resolution that uses Spectra 6 and is designed to be a real focal point in your home. The two larger models both pack a 20,000mAh battery, with the same promise of a year or so of running. But, it’s worth saying that runtime is based on you not changing the images too frequently, especially since these prototypes take a few minutes to switch between images.
Having now seen these up close, I can say they’re more promising in the real world than they are on the internet. The colors pop a lot more than you might expect from an e-paper display, and you’re able to see brush strokes in the paintings. At least, you can if you don’t stand too close — peer in as you might with a real painting and you’ll just see the pixels used to assemble each image. Certainly, it’s a neat way to get some high art on your walls without the need to be forever yoked to the same picture. But you might find there are some art styles that work better than others.
As these are prototypes, PocketBook isn’t yet ready to commit to pricing, but said that it’ll initially offer its art app for free, with a subscription potentially in the offing further down the line. Similarly, it isn’t going to talk about how much each model will cost until April or May, when they’ll be ready to pre-order. But Enrico Mueller, PocketBook’s Managing Director, suggested a ballpark for the 13.3-inch model would be around €600 ($620), while the 31.5-inch model will retail for something like €1,700. The 28-inch unit, however, will be more given the extra technology on show, and so will be around €2,500.
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