What you need to know
- The Bigme HiBreak Dual will feature a color E Ink screen as well as an LCD.
- Bigme says this is the “world’s first dual screen smartphone,” but we’ll need to see what that means as more details are released.
- Bigme is known for its Android-powered e-readers and E Ink phones and often pushes technical boundaries for what’s possible with E Ink technology.
Bigme is about to get its big break with the HiBreak Dual, a new dual-screen smartphone that features a color E Ink display and an LCD panel, all powered by Android in a sleek, modern smartphone design.
The company teased the new model on its website today, offering users the opportunity to submit their email addresses to learn more as the phone is fully unveiled in the coming days. Bigme HiBreak phones traditionally run Android with full Google Play Store access, allowing users to run full Android apps like a normal smartphone, but with an eye-friendly E Ink display.
Android Central’s Take
This could be a huge turning point for E Ink phones, which have long felt sluggish and behind their LCD and OLED counterparts. Having two displays for specific kinds of content will not only increase battery life over traditional LCD or OLED devices, but it’ll also be far more eye friendly for everyone.
Bigme says this is the “world’s first dual screen E Ink smartphone,” combining both LCD and color E Ink panels into one phone. We’ve seen plenty of dual-screen phone concepts in the past, so it’s not clear how Bigme is able to make this claim unless there’s some specific design that’s markedly different from phones like the Xiaomi 17 Pro, which feature a second screen on the back of the phone.
My best guess is that Bigme is using a transparent LCD on top of a color E Ink panel and using a single backlight to illuminate both panels. Bigme hasn’t provided any additional information on the phone other than the tease of a dual screen, so we’ll need to wait until the full unveiling to find out.
To date, we’ve seen other dual-screen E Ink concepts from companies like YotaPhone, which put an E Ink display on the back of its flagship devices. This made it easy to read on the go using E Ink’s superior readability and eye-friendly nature, all while retaining the fast refresh rates and superior color reproduction of LCD.
Bigme recently launched the HiBreak Pro Color, which I am running a YouTube video on in the above video. This screen refreshes at 42Hz, making it the fastest E Ink display on the market. The contrast and color volume aren’t anywhere near what an LCD or OLED can produce, but it’s still very possible to enjoy videos and other fast-moving content on this display while using the ultra-fast refresh rate.
That 42Hz rate is the closest we’ve ever seen a consumer E Ink device get to an LCD or OLED display, and we know that 60Hz E Ink is being worked on behind closed doors. That means that phones like the HiBreak Dual could offer a great stepping stone, similar to the TikWatch Pro, which pioneered dual-screen designs in smartwatches before 2020.
Bigme devices are often decidedly mid-range, offering entry-level processors and humble cameras that get the job done but won’t impress anyone with performance. As we don’t know the specs of the HiBreak Dual just yet, we aren’t sure if we should expect something more powerful than the company has previously debuted or if they’ll keep similarly humble specs to match an affordable price.
Bigme told Android Central to expect more information in the coming days, so it won’t be long before we find out if the HiBreak Dual is the E Ink phone we’ve truly been waiting for.
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