This review almost didn’t happen. After ordering the Vidabay E-ink Snap, it took a while to arrive, to the point where I started to think that maybe I hadn’t ordered it after all. But I had the PayPal receipt, so it was a case of being patient.
Almost three weeks later, it arrived, ready to go. The Snap is a Polaroid-style e-ink display designed to display your digital images wherever you want. But unlike most e-ink displays you may have come across – black and white e-readers – the Snap has colour.
I like the idea of the device. Easy to use and to transfer images over your phone’s NFC chip (in theory), the Snap frees our photos from the confines of the cloud and brings them into everyday life. It does it relatively cheaply too.
Before you get your hopes up about a miniature, cut-price digital picture frame on your fridge door, white board or other metal surfaces, let’s temper expectations about what e-ink can actually do. The Snap has four colours – black, white, red, yellow – which means your image isn’t going to be an exact reproduction. And the display itself is quite small.
On the plus side, the device doesn’t need charging or battery replacement. That is because e-ink only requires power when the image is changing. Once it is on the display, you don’t need power at all – no backlight, no screen refreshing. The Snap takes the power it needs to change the image from your phone during transfer. You won’t even notice any impact on your smartphone battery life either.
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It was one of the quickest product set-ups I’ve done. Once you have the Vidabay Snap app downloaded, and the appropriate permissions granted (access to your photo library is the obvious one), and get the device paired, you can get started. The app gives you a quick tutorial on how to use the device: NFC on, phone case off, align it with the right spot on your phone, pinch the two devices firmly together, and then don’t move an inch. That last bit is important, as I would later find out.
The first test was with an iPhone 17 Air. I chose the image, added some text and an emoji, placed the phone in the right spot on the magnet’s frame, squeezed it together, and tapped transfer on the app. A pop-up showed me the image had begun transferring, and the app told me the image was refreshing. Then … nothing. The stock image the device shipped with remained on screen and my photo was nowhere to be found.
The second attempt yielded the same results, with the image failing to transfer. At this point I was starting to think the Snap may just be destined for the e-waste bin.
On the third attempt though, I was successful. As the image transferred, there was a lot of flickering – and eventually the new image appeared on screen, in colour as promised.
So why the failed transfers? A few reasons. The obvious culprit is the phone case, which can interrupt the transmission; second on the list is moving the phone even a fraction during the transfer. You have to be really precise about where you place the phone on the display too; the device comes with a transparent film that shows exactly where to place your phone and squeeze.
If your phone’s power is below 30 per cent, it can cause some instability.
Once I had that ironed out, things went more smoothly, but it wasn’t always a perfect system. Occasionally it got stuck in a weird half-transfer state, with the old image still ghosting through the new one.
Even when the photos transferred perfectly, there were some limitations. High-contrast photos with clear subjects and few background distractions work best; too many colours and the photos look muddy.
The device is compatible with Android devices, but the current transfer set-up is optimised for an iPhone, specifically the iPhone 13 through 17. Android devices with NFC chips can work, but because manufacturers can put the chips in different places in the phones, it isn’t as easy to work out where you are supposed to aim for. That is being solved with a Bluetooth dock, but that adds to the expense.
The Android experience was actually hit and miss. The Pixel 10 Pro was easy to set up, but the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra failed to connect. With that one, it took a while to find out what was going on because, despite changing the in-app language, the error message – helpfully titled “warm tip” in English – was written in Chinese. Eventually, with the help of a screenshot and Google Translate, I got “Failed to send command”.
So I am none the wiser, but it seems as if the Bluetooth dock would be a more sensible option for Android users.
Good
As far as digital photo devices go, the Snap ticks a few boxes. It is low-cost, at under €35. It doesn’t need constant charging. And you can change the images as often as you’d like, assuming you can get the image to transfer correctly.
Bad
The transfer process is finicky, and there were too many failed transfers to make this a painless process. It is not the most vibrant colour, but with four e-ink colours in the display, it was never going to be a vivid reproduction of my photos.
Everything else
The Snap is designed for use with the iPhone 13 to 17; Android users might need the upcoming Bluetooth dock to transfer photos properly.
It comes in different coloured frames – black, white, yellow and red.
You can set up an account, but the Vidabay Snap doesn’t need one to work.
Verdict
A nice way to display everything from your memories to your notes – although it can be a bit temperamental at times.
