An e-ink display keeps its image with no power and only uses energy when the picture changes, so it can sit on a desk, a shelf or a wall for months and show something from your service at a glance. This page covers what to decide first, when buying one is enough, and what building your own involves.
What should it show, how often, and where does the data come from?
Start with the one screen your users should see and how often it has to change: once a day, once an hour, or when something happens. Then where the data lives: your API, a spreadsheet, a calendar. The refresh rate decides the battery; the data source decides the firmware and the server.
Buy or build?
TRMNL sells e-ink displays to businesses: 151 units and up from $99 each, a 7.5-inch model at $139 retail and a 10.3-inch model at $229. The larger one has no branding on the front, larger orders of the smaller one can discuss enclosure colors, and a custom boot screen is an add-on. It shows your data through TRMNL's plugins or a private integration you build on its platform. If that fits, buy it.
Building your own makes sense when the size, shape or front of the device has to be yours, when it should talk to your own server with your own firmware, when it needs something else on it such as a button or an NFC tag, or when you do not want its life to depend on another company. Tidbyt, which made a small desk display, stopped releasing new devices when it joined Modal in November 2024.
What drives the cost?
The screen size and whether it is black and white or color, battery or plug, the enclosure and how it is branded, anything added to the screen, and how many you make. Anvol names the three that matter most for your device before it puts a number on it.
Battery or plug, Wi-Fi and refresh
On a battery, the device sleeps between updates and wakes to fetch a new image over Wi-Fi; the more often it refreshes, the sooner it needs charging. TRMNL quotes three to six months for its smaller model. Plugged in, it can refresh as often as you like. Either way, users have to get it onto their Wi-Fi once, so plan that step early.
Your brand, your enclosure, your server
With a device you have made, the front, the box and the first screen carry your brand, and the firmware fetches from a server you run, so your data never passes through a third party's platform.
From one sample to a first batch
Tell Anvol what the screen should show, how often and for whom. It replies with the version it would build first, the choices that drive the cost, and the one question it needs answered. Talking to Anvol and getting a cost is free. A first round can be a single sample and ends with the working device and its files: schematic, enclosure 3D model (STEP), test report, photos and video. A 30% deposit starts a round; the balance is due after you approve the sample. A small batch of tens to hundreds follows, each unit tested before it is boxed. You own what you make.
Other devices for your app: an NFC object, a smart button, or start with which kind your app needs. A cost is not a guaranteed final price or delivery date, and nothing is charged or started without your approval. How Anvol works · More answers.
Reviewed September 29, 2026. Talk to Anvol