As many of you know and have read a thousand times, I make the most of my photography by printing out a heck of a lot of photos. Many years ago I used to own a cheap digital photo frame, but for various reasons I stopped using it. So here is the conundrum…
Where do my printed photos go?
This is a good question, as just printing photos and throwing them in albums is akin to just keeping your raw files hidden on your computer!
Firstly, we print and rotate our family photos as 6×4, 7×5 and 8×8 images and we hang these on our walls. Occasionally, when something is really striking we will get the images printed onto a canvas or something similar.
We also print out Instax Mini and Instax square photos and we have little flip-displays for these and “flip” the images over every few days or when we are new images. With our photo-albums, we always have a photo album on our coffee table for visitors and ourselves to view.
And of course we have a number of photo books that I have been doing over the years, and these get taken out regularly, again often when there are visitors.
The Digital Print Conundrum
As mentioned, many years ago we had a digital photo frame. It was at least 15 years ago, so the frame was a simple panel, and only around 7 inches. It was great, but we stopped using it… Just because really.
It’s 2026 now, and there are much better options available, and of particular interest to me are the new e-ink display photo frames. They actually look like paper images.
I actually own a colour e-ink display, my Kobo Clara Colour, which uses the more basic version of e-ink panels, but looks absolutely amazing when a coloured image is displayed. The digital photo frame versions are of course much bigger than my 6″ Kobo, much brighter displays and have more resolution.
What I’ve been looking at
There are three frames that I am interested in at the moment, all of which have their pros and cons. I am looking specifically for them to be wall hangable frames, and have their own power source so that there are no cables on display. The links take you straight to the product I am interested in.
• Switchbot – 13.3″ Switchbot AI Art Frame. A relatively affordable price
• Reflection Frame – 13.3″ White bordered Reflection Frame. Uses “Touch To Print” technology to make things “easier“.
• InkPoster – 13.3″ Premium InkPoster e-ink display.
I am finding it quite hard to decide on which one to take the plunge with as all the panels and technology used looks pretty similar, it’s just the features that separate them. As you can see, they all use the same size display, however, from reviews the results are quite different.
As much as I quite like the “touch to print” option that is offered, I think I much prefer an app that lets you choose between a few photographs, changing them perhaps once a day, or once a week. Having to physically get up and tap the screen with your phone sounds like something that you will get tired of very quickly.
Of course, size and look are important considerations too. For budgetary reasons, I’ll probably stick with a digital frame around 13-15 inches. This seems the sweet spot for price versus features etc.
Conclusion On Conundrum
These biggest e-ink displays are still relatively new technology, so the price is still higher than one might expect to pay for a hanging digital display. In a perfect world, where cost and space is not a problem, I could envisage having a very large one of these on my wall as a main talking point, but I think that the price had to come down a lot for that to happen.
I’ll keep watching YouTube videos, reading articles and chatting to people and see what the future brings. If you’ve got one of these, I would love to hear your thoughts.
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Well Mark, it’s interesting, especially how differently we look at private versus published images. For me, storage – book or disk – simply equals memory. Personal value. And that value isn’t ranked: family photos aren’t automatically more important than others. If I keep it, it matters. That’s the only measure.
The idea of a digital frame still intrigues me, but smaller formats feel underwhelming – once you’re used to something the size of a 15-inch laptop, those tiny screens don’t really convince. A larger, frame-like display makes more sense, though quality clearly varies given the price range.
And maybe, a TV might already do the job. With the right app, you’re up and running. It’s usually placed centrally, and larger than any dedicated frame, and in principle it could serve as a rotating gallery just as well, maybe even better ?
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Thanks Marc. Yes, it’s really thought provoking. It’s more about the beautiful e-ink display making the images look nicer than they do on any computer or TV screen. But I think I need to try one first, I’ll have to try and borrow one, or perhaps buy one with the option of returning it if I don’t like it.
It would be ideal for all sorts of images, but would I be the only one to appreciate it? That’s the question! And it’s a lot to pay for just me to appreciate.
Time will tell. Thank you once again for your amazing feedback that means a lot to me.
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The thing I have long awaited is now available. Samsung — Fold 7 + Samsung’s 65″ TV when paired and using stored images can show hundreds of images on a very large screen. Images are edited in Photoscape X Pro (free is generally perfectly fine.) Nice to sit 11′ from the screen and simply scroll via the Fold 7 to view however one stores images in a wall sized image to be viewed by a single viewer or room full of viewers.
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Yes, I like big TV screens, but the e-ink display is paper-like and a very different look. It’s something I’ll have to think about.
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Good post. I had two of these old digital photo frames early on. They were small and unreliable and did not really show the photos well. I no longer print my photos, but I do use them and back them up. As I may have mentioned before, I produce video productions in 4K that I can display on my big screen TV. I used to share my photos with all visitors, but now only do so when they ask. That helps retain friends. We do have one set of relatives that wants to see my productions, so I share with them on USB stick and we watch together (over Zoom) so we can share the moment(s). Many of my favourites are on my walls on metal and canvas, but there are so many more. I also rotate some of the images as wallpaper on my desktop and print some on greeting cards that we send to friends and family on important days. There is no one size fits all approach, but I am with you. Images should not just sit on a phone or a computer, gathering electronic dust. Have a great day Mark. Allan
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Thank you Allan. Yes, AI fully agree with all you are saying and share in a similar way. I guess it’s just something that had interested me, but the cost for just a photo frame might not be something I can fully justify until I know I will really use it.
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