Review: InkPoster Tela 28.5

Take a look under my spare bed and, aside from the dust, you’ll find a worrying number of cardboard poster tubes, prints, and photographs in envelopes I have failed to get framed and hung. My wife is just as guilty as I, and we even joke—as we buy even more pieces of art—that it will look great under the bed.

One day we will get around to framing them, but for now we’re enjoying the lazy, luxury option of the InkPoster Tela 28.5, the best E Ink display I’ve ever seen and arguably the nicest frame I’ve hung too.

Digital photo frames have been freeing our photos for decades. The ability to display and send pictures to Gran’s digital picture frame (or Alexa/Google smart display) is appealing, but until recently, the screens have always been a bit of a disappointment. Backlit LCD panels in questionable resolutions do a job, but they are rarely mistaken for a proper photograph or art print. This is especially true if you’re looking for anything larger than A4, with the only exceptions being TVs with standby art, like the Samsung Frame Pro TV, which combines a matte screen with a digital art subscription.

Thankfully, however, advances in color E Ink technology mean digital images can now look remarkably similar to high-quality paper stock and actually do justice to a piece of art. More than just an oversized Kindle, the technology is now scalable, meaning frames can be larger without the weight of an LCD panel or TV and, crucially, without the need for a power cable or regular charging.

The InkPoster Tela 28.5 is a perfect example of how technology has moved on and offers something unique for art lovers, rather than people just wanting to display photographs. A side project from Swiss e-reader brand PocketBook, InkPoster also sells the Affresco 13.3-inch ($499) and a larger Affresco 31.5-inch ($1,699), which has a more conventional landscape, while the A1-scale Tela 40.5 ($4,200) is art-gallery-sized. There’s also the Pininfarina-designed Duna 40.5 ($6,000), which is even more luxurious, with bespoke finishes and access to exclusive artwork collections.

InkPoster isn’t unique. The Aura Ink ($449) is a 13-inch option with similar screen specifications, while smart home company SwitchBot has taken a different approach, layering automation and AI image generation onto a choice of 7.3-, 13.3-, and 31.5-inch displays, with pricing from just $149. Neither feels as grown-up or art-focussed as InkPoster, but it’s clear that the E Ink panels can be made cheaply and could be the start of the next wave of home display tech.

Photograph: Chris Haslam/WIRED

Smart Paper

InkPoster uses a Spectra 6 E Ink panel here, with a Sharp IGZO backplane, running at 2160 x 3060 across 28.5 inches. Its 131 dots per inch doesn’t sound especially sharp compared to the latest OLED panels, but viewed at a normal distance, it’s more than sufficient.

Crucially, from a display perspective, the panel isn’t backlit at all. Instead of emitting light, it almost seems to absorb it, which dramatically changes how your eye reads the image. As a result, color tones are muted compared to a backlit display, with whites looking closer to a warm gray. Contrast is also minimal, which is why it looks so impressive displaying artworks and why it can struggle with photography.

Give it the right material and the Tela 28.5 looks sublime. Posters, illustrations, and classic artwork all translate beautifully. Texture reads well, colors feel settled, and the overall effect is much closer to printed paper than a screen. Choose your artwork from the InkPoster digital gallery—each has been color corrected to make the most of the display—and it really shows.

If you are going to upload your own images, it is worth taking the time to tweak the picture’s contrast and color saturation first. I experimented with a mix of images with varying reflections, shadows, and texture, and I realized that often what makes a photo great—a glint in an eye, bright lights, a reflection off the sea—will look flat and uninteresting here. But if a photograph has a great color palette and strong composition, it can translate well, and a little drop in clinical photo-realism can give even my iPhone snaps art gallery cool.

Wall Art

Getting Tela 28.5 onto the wall takes a bit of confidence as it weighs 16.5 pounds and measures— including the mount and aluminum frame—35 x 28 x 0.98 inches. It’s a two-person job to get it hung properly, and you will need a power drill, but InkPoster has included a clever rubber mounting bracket to make things easier.

This bracket is screwed to the wall, and the frame is mounted onto it for a totally flush fitting. It took half an hour to unbox, power on, connect to the app, and hang, and I estimate at least half that time was taken up double-checking my 11-year-old helper’s tape measurements.

The rubber mounting bracket.

Photograph: Chris Haslam/WIRED

Once it’s on the wall, it ceases to be tech and looks just like an expensive picture frame. There’s a USB-C charging port hidden under a flush-fitted hatch in the bottom left of the frame, and that’s about it. There are no visible controls or trailing cables, and with a 25,000-mAh battery, and the fact that E Ink doesn’t draw power unless you’re changing the image, one full charge should last a year.

The InkPoster app offers a library of thousands of licensed artworks, spanning vintage posters, well-known classics, and contemporary illustrations, including big hitters such as Van Gogh, Claude Monet, and Gustav Klimt, alongside modern designers and rotating collections. There’s a wonderful library of vintage poster art, too, which works especially well with the E Ink display, where restrained color and contrast suit graphic, print-led imagery. Image choices will depend on whether you’re hanging the frame in portrait or landscape, which is a neat touch.

InkPoster changing photos liveVideo: Chris Haslam/WIRED

The app is a relatively basic affair, but it does take a bit of getting used to. Uploading images, getting the sizing right, and setting up carousels all involve a few more steps than they should. It isn’t broken, and once you understand the workflow, it’s reliable enough, but it doesn’t feel as refined as I’d like. Apps like this, which only need to work occasionally, need to be as frictionless as possible.

What does take some getting used to, though, is the way the frame uploads a new picture. The E Ink display takes up to a minute to change, with layers of color glitching into reality. It’s a bit odd to watch, and not especially elegant, but it is an unavoidable quirk of this type of screen. It means that regular image changes can be a bit distracting, but there’s no way around it for now.

Living With InkPoster

At 35 inches tall, the InkPoster is the largest picture frame I’ve had on my walls since I taped movie posters to my digs in University. The only difference is that the InkPoster frame is elegantly proportioned, beautifully finished, and adds elegance to my dining room. It looks fantastic and pulls in compliments, unlike my student accommodation.

Photograph: Chris Haslam/WIRED

There hasn’t been a gadget in my house (and there have been a lot over the years) that's looked less like a piece of technology yet has impressed as many visitors. Most people don't believe it is a digital display until I change it using my iPhone. This is a party trick, and an impressive one at that, and everyone remains invested in it until they hear the price. But that will undoubtedly change over the next few years, especially as you can already find E Ink picture frames for just $150.

At $2,399, the Tela 28.5 sits firmly in luxury territory, but having lived with it for a few months, if I could afford to I’d have three of them in a triptych across my living room wall, a couple of smaller models in the hallway, one in the bathroom, and maybe a couple in the bedroom. It’s a beautiful product with a flawless finish that wouldn’t look out of place in an art collector’s home.

This sort of E Ink extravagance is not for the likes of me, however, as it’s basically the same price as the 85-inch Samsung The Frame but can’t show me any sports or movies. It can show me vintage sports and movie posters, though, so I guess it’s all a matter of priorities.

For now, InkPoster is providing me with an artistic focus at home, which looks great and elevates my interior design. I like its focus on giving you access to famous artworks and posters—the kind you’re unlikely to own but can now hang on your wall; if you’ve ever wanted a Basquiat, or a rotation of classic posters, it delivers brilliantly.