Paper 7 is a digital picture frame with a 7 inch E Ink Spectra 6 color display

3 months ago 1

The Paper 7 is a new digital picture frame from Paperless Paper that has an E Ink color display, up to 6 months of battery life, and the ability to display photos or artwork sent from a smartphone or web browser.

Available for pre-order for 189€ (about $220), the device is expected to ship this month.

Robert Gühne from Paperless paper reached out to suggest the Paper 7 as a cheaper, open source alternative to products like the InkPoster that we wrote about earlier this year. And with InkPoster prices starting at $599, there’s no doubt that the Paper 7 is cheaper, while still using the same E Ink Spectra 6 technology with support for 4096 colors.

But it’s also a much smaller device: the Paper 7 has a 7.3 inch, 800 x 480 pixel display, while the smallest InkPoster has a 13.3 inch, 1600 x 1200 pixel screen.

Paperless Paper’s products do have a few other interesting things helping set them apart though. For one thing, the 3D design files and parts list should be available soon for anyone looking to build their own or source replacement parts.

And for another, the hardware is designed to be open, allowing you to flash your own firmware. Paperless Paper also provides open source “libraries for image conversion and integration” that you can use if you’d rather not rely on the company’s apps and servers… assuming you’ve got the know-how to make your own firmware.

The Paper 7 has built-in support for WiFi 6 and Bluetooth Low Energy and you can use an Android or iOS app or a web browser to send images (or text) to the screen. You could also use integrations to do things like send a new Wikipedia article to the screen every day or display a calendar, weather forecast, to do list, or other apps.

The display can run on 4 AAA batteries, and should get up to half a year of battery life if you update the image once a day. There’s also a USB-C port, allowing you to run the screen off of a USB charger or battery pack.

And unlike some other DIY or even commercially available E Ink display kits, this one is designed to look like something you’d hang on your wall. It comes in a solid ash wood frame with a white mat. The whole thing measures 260 x 200 x 30mm and the frame is available in “natural wood,” black, or white color options.

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