The Bloomin8 E-Ink Canvas frame, which has now completed a successful Kickstarter campaign and will be available to buy in the coming months, will show your favourite snaps and artwork without the need for power cables or a consistent Wi-Fi connection.
The full-colour display, which utilises E-Ink’s Spectra6 tech, boasts a resolution of 200ppi and can hold an image continually, making it the ideal futuristic way of displaying either your collection of photographs or various artworks.
I got the chance to try the frame recently at an event, and was thoroughly impressed by how crisp the image was and how the matte finish made it really look like an actual painting, rather than an image display on a screen.
Even though I was told oil-based paintings would look better, I think photographs looked equally excellent, and I would certainly use them for displaying both.
The company even said the canvas will fit into standard frames, including IKEA’s RÖDALM series. Images can be sideloaded via an integrated SD slot or through an app that’s available on both iOS and Android.
Unlike traditional digital frames, this won’t draw power while it’s showing your images, because that’s not how E-Ink works. The tech only requires power when the image is changed. As a result, the canvas only requires power to update the image, meaning it can last for a year on a single charge.
The Bloomin8 app can also generate AI imagery for those without their own snaps to display. However I doubt this would be a feature I would use, as generatively created AI imagery is mostly rubbish.
The company is offering three sizes of the canvas – 7.3 inches, 13.3 inches and 28.5 inches. Prices hit $999 for the largest size during the Kickstarter campaign, though the retail prices will likely be higher.
