Aura Ink 10″ Introduces a Smaller Cordless E-Paper Frame with Sharper Detail and More Colors

Aura has spent about a decade making connected photo frames, and last fall it went cordless with Ink 13″, a color e-paper frame that looks more like a print than a screen. Now the New York company is following it with Aura Ink 10″, a smaller frame meant for desks, shelves and side tables where the larger model can feel like too much. Along with the new size comes a nine-color e-paper panel and a sharper 200 PPI display, plus the same promise of months between charges. Ink 10″ goes on sale today, November 10, 2026, for $349.

Aura says a cordless frame has long been a top customer request, and CEO and co-founder Abdur Chowdhury pitched Ink at people who like the idea of a digital frame but not the look of one.

“Ten years ago, we introduced our first digital frame with a simple goal: to help people feel closer to the ones they love,” Chowdhury said in the announcement. “Our customers love our frames, but we know some people want something different for their homes, without cords or a bright screen. What looks and feels like a simple, printed photograph is made possible by some of the most advanced e-paper technology.”

That pitch makes sense. A regular digital frame needs an outlet nearby and glows like a small TV, which rules out plenty of spots in a house. E-paper solves both problems, but it comes with trade-offs of its own, including a slow photo change and a narrower color range than an LCD. Ink 10″ is Aura’s attempt to narrow that second gap.

Nine Colors Instead of Six

E-paper works differently from the screen on a phone or a standard digital frame. Instead of lighting up pixels, it moves charged ink particles to set each pixel’s color, and it can only use a handful of physical ink colors. To get from that small palette to something that looks like a photo, Aura uses what it calls a proprietary dithering algorithm. Dithering arranges tiny dots of the available colors into patterns that the eye blends into in-between shades, and Aura says its version calculates each pixel in relation to the pixels around it.

Aura Ink 10″ is one of the first frames to use what Aura and E Ink call the E Ink Spectra 6 nine-color system. It keeps the six core colors of black, white, red, yellow, blue and green, and adds three custom colors Aura chose: off-white, mustard yellow and orange. Aura says it tuned those additions to fill gaps in the original palette, with photos of people in mind, and that the result is more even skin tones, richer detail in textures like grass and smoother gradients like a sunset sky.

“The simplest way to put it is less grain and smoother color,” said Eric Jensen, Aura’s CTO and co-founder.

A Sharper Display in a Smaller Frame

The 10-inch panel runs at 1600 x 1200, which works out to 200 pixels per inch (PPI). Aura says that is the highest pixel density it has brought to e-paper, up from 150 PPI on Ink 13″. According to Aura’s own site, Ink 13″ also runs at 1600 x 1200, so the new frame fits the same number of pixels into a smaller screen. With photos built from dithered dots, packing them closer should make the pattern harder to spot.

Ink 10″ measures 10.9 x 9.0 x 0.8 inches (27.7 x 22.9 x 2.0 cm) and weighs 1.94 lb (0.88 kg). For comparison, Aura lists Ink 13″ at 14.1 x 11.4 x 0.6 inches and 3.2 lb (1.45 kg), so the smaller frame is lighter but slightly thicker.

The look is meant to be quiet. Ink 10″ comes in one finish, which Aura calls Graphite, with a micro-fluted graphite bezel and a dark linen-textured mat. The frame works in portrait or landscape and ships with both a tabletop stand and a wall mounting kit.

Light, Battery and Refresh

Because e-paper reflects light instead of producing it, a frame like this can be hard to see in a dim room. Ink 10″ has a built-in front light that Aura describes as intentionally subtle. Motion and light sensors adjust it through the day, adding a little brightness when needed, turning it off at night and saving battery when no one is around. You can also set the light to turn on and off on a schedule.

Aura rates the battery at up to three months on a single charge, but that figure assumes one photo change per day. Aura notes that more frequent changes, heavier front light use, a busy room and weak Wi-Fi will all cut into that. Charging is over USB-C with the included cable and charger and takes up to six hours.

By default, Ink 10″ refreshes overnight and shows a new photo each day. You can raise that to as many as 12 changes per day, and Ink 10″ adds a new transition for people who do. Overnight updates still use a longer flashing refresh, which Aura says helps prevent burn-in. Either way, this is not a frame for rapid-fire slideshows, since Aura says a photo change takes about 30 seconds as the ink particles shift into place.

Ink 10″ also carries the Calm Tech Institute’s Calm Tech Certified Platinum designation. The institute certifies products it judges to be designed around human well-being, and Platinum is its highest level.

The Aura App Does the Rest

Like Aura’s other frames, Ink 10″ is set up and managed through the Aura app on iOS 15 or later and Android 8.0 or later, and it needs a 2.4 GHz or 5 GHz Wi-Fi network. Photo storage is free and unlimited, with no subscription. Photos can come from the app, a web uploader, Apple Photos and iCloud, Google Photos, the frame’s own email address or a text message, and family members can be invited to contribute from wherever they are. Buttons along the edge of the frame let you see more photos without picking up a phone.

Pricing and Availability

Aura Ink 10″ is available in the U.S. starting today, for $349. It joins Ink 13″, which Aura’s site lists at $499, along with the company’s LCD-based HD frames, including Carver, Aspen and Walden. Aura says those remain the better choice for anyone who prefers a brighter screen.

If you have wanted a digital frame without a cord or a glowing screen, Ink 10″ is the more affordable way into Aura’s e-paper line.