Aura's $349 Ink 10-Inch Frame Shows Family Photos on Cordless E-Paper With Three New Ink Colors

The smaller follow-up to Aura's 13-inch Ink frame uses E Ink's new nine-color Spectra 6 system and a sharper 200-pixel-per-inch screen, and Aura says it runs up to three months on a charge.

NEW YORK - Aura, the maker of connected picture frames, began selling a smaller version of its cordless e-paper frame on Tuesday. The Ink 10-inch costs $349 in the United States at auraframes.com, below the 13-inch Ink frame the company introduced last year, which TechCrunch notes sells for $499.

The Ink frames are built to look like a printed photograph rather than a screen. E-paper has no glowing pixels. Charged ink particles set the color of each dot, and Aura’s own dithering software arranges a small palette of inks into patterns that the eye reads as a full-color image. Because the display draws power mainly when the picture changes, the frame does not need a cord.

The Ink 10-inch hangs on a wall and takes photos shared from a phone. Image: Aura

The new model is one of the first frames to use the nine-color version of E Ink’s Spectra 6 system, according to Aura’s announcement. It adds three custom base colors, off-white, mustard yellow and orange, to the six standard inks of black, white, red, yellow, blue and green. Aura says it picked the new colors because family photos are the most common use for its frames, and the additions give more even skin tones, more texture in grass and smoother gradients in a sunset sky. The 1600 by 1200 panel packs 200 pixels per inch, up from 150 on the 13-inch frame.

“We focused on making family photos look better. The simplest way to put it is less grain and smoother color,” Eric Jensen, Aura’s chief technology officer and co-founder, said in the company’s release.

Aura’s Ink 10-inch in its graphite frame with a dark linen-textured mat. Image: Aura

E-paper reflects light rather than emitting it, so the Ink 10-inch has a front light that Aura says is one-eighth the brightness of an LCD backlight. Motion and light sensors turn it up when a room needs it, switch it off at night and save battery when no one is home. By default the frame shows one new photo each day, refreshed overnight, and owners can raise that to as many as 12 changes a day. Aura rates the battery at up to three months on a charge when the photo changes once a day. TechCrunch’s reviewer said her 13-inch frame lasted closer to a month in a bright room.

The frame measures 10.9 by 9.0 by 0.8 inches and weighs 1.94 pounds, according to Aura’s product page. It has a fluted graphite bezel and a dark linen-textured mat, and comes in that one finish. It ships with a stand and a wall-mounting kit and works in portrait or landscape.

Aura’s post announcing the Ink 10-inch on Tuesday. Screenshot: @aura_frames on X

Like Aura’s other frames, the Ink 10-inch connects over Wi-Fi to the Aura app on iPhone and Android, where family and friends can send photos from anywhere. Storage is unlimited, and Aura charges no subscription. The frame also earned the Calm Tech Institute’s Platinum certification, its highest level.