Bigmi Hibreak Plus E Ink Smartphone Review

The BigMe HiBreak Plus is a 6.13-inch smartphone with a Kaleido 3 color ePaper display, specifically designed for users who want a “go anywhere” device for reading, writing, and digital minimalism. It bridges the gap between a standard smartphone and a dedicated e-reader by running on Android 14 with full access to the Google Play Store.

hardware

The HiBreak Plus features a 6.1-inch E Ink Kaleido 3 e-Paper display with a resolution of 824 x 1648 pixels at 300 PPI for black-and-white content and 412 x 824 pixels at 150 PPI for color. The color scheme of the device is white, making it slightly different from the Hibreak Pro, which has a black body. The screen is slightly recessed and not flush with the bezel. It features a front-lit display with 36 levels of brightness and a 52 fps super-fast refresh rate. The phone has white bezels on the front around the screen, and white bezels on the back plate, which is made of a cheap plastic shell.

Under the hood is an octa-core CPU, 4GB of RAM, and 64GB of internal storage. It has two SIMs, and one can be used for an SD card with up to 1TB of additional storage. It has a 5MP front snapper and a rear 20MP camera with basic flash. It has Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 5.1, speaker, USB-C and 6400 mAh battery. Combined with accurate GPS, it guides you confidently from city streets to off-the-beaten-track paths. It’s more than a phone—it’s your tool for a more intentional and exploratory life.

Unlock the full creative and productive potential of your device with a compatible capacitive stylus. Experience a natural, pen-on-paper experience to note, sketch, or annotate documents directly on the screen with pinpoint accuracy and low latency. Please note that to use this advanced handwriting functionality, a stylus is required and is sold separately.

software

The BigMe HiBrake Plu runs on Google Android 14 and has full access to the Google Play Store, making it easy to download millions of apps and keep them updated. Google Play Services is also pre-installed, so you can download major Google apps like Google Books, Maps, and Chrome.

The home screen is very busy and simple right out of the box. There are many apps. Text, instant messaging, and folders are filled with even more apps that the average user will likely uninstall. Suffice it to say, there’s a shortcut to the Google Play Store, a screen saver, a bookshelf, an app manager, Settings, Music, a clock, and all the usual Google preinstalled apps. At the bottom of the screen is the UI with the camera.

If you swipe down from the top of the screen, you can access quick settings to set up a Wi-Fi network, pair Bluetooth accessories, connect to a data connection, enable Airplane Mode, turn on the flashlight, and enable system-wide dark mode. The slider bars control the front-light display, color temperature system, and volume slider.

The E Ink control center is also located in this area and is quite important, as this is an E Ink phone, which usually suffers from refresh issues. You can set the phone to different reading settings, such as books, magazines, comics, and videos. Custom settings unlock various system tweaks, like set anti-shake, auto-clean, refresh mode, contrast, and speed modes. If you’ve ever owned a Boox or Bigme device Speed ​​Mode is standard fare. HD256 displays 256 levels of gray scale instead of the usual 16 levels. Regal, Fast and Extreme have their uses, but Quick and Extreme compromise image quality to increase performance. This is beneficial if you stream content, browse the Google Play app store, or navigate complex websites.

Apart from all the features above, the HiBrake Pro Color feels like a normal Android phone, and you can do everything you would normally do with a Google Pixel, Samsung Galaxy, or anything else on the market. However, apart from Google apps and some proprietary software, Bigme has very little bloatware pre-installed. Everything else can be uninstalled.

Reading

There is a stock reading app, but you may not want to use it, given that you have to sideload all your content. This phone has Google Play, which is largely app dependent but is perfect. Since it runs Android 14, it can access every e-reading, comic, manga or library service app on the market. Want to use Kindle with animated page-turns or Google Play Books? It takes care of everything quickly. This is mainly due to the huge amount of RAM and processor. The different speed modes also help in this regard.

E Ink phones have clear advantages compared to the iPhone or other flagship devices. E Ink is the closest we can get to reading on paper, offering tremendous resolution, ease on the eyes, and suitability for long reading sessions. I have an iPhone 14 Pro Max with a super-large screen, and the bright light hurts my eyes when I read websites, use apps, or browse websites on Flipboard or Google News. I think I stay up late because of eye strain. That’s why I’ve been turning off screens lately and listening to an audiobook before bed. If I want to read a book, I have a Kindle ColorSoft as a daily driver. Hibreak Pro is an iPhone and an e-reader replacement; Now you don’t need both.

Its screen is better than the Kindle’s, as it has no layer of glass, so using the HiBrake won’t reflect overhead light and won’t cause any glare from the sun. Battery life isn’t as good as the Kindle because it runs on Android, which often suffers from battery drain due to multiple background processes running simultaneously.

wrap up

The Hybrake Plus is everything you’d expect from a pocket-sized device. It comes with all the fixings, including everything you would need from an e-reader, to a full-fledged dual SIM smartphone with data communications for calling and texting.
And now even better with full note taking capabilities

It really has it all, the body is a plastic construction with no camera bump, and there’s even an infrared sensor on the top of the unit.

The pen itself isn’t very good; It’s slow, it doesn’t have Wacom, you have to charge it, the pen tips aren’t interchangeable, and you can’t use another pen.
But the fact that it involves demonetization at all is impressive in itself.

The unit features an all-new HyperSpeed ​​Mode, which breaks barriers and surpasses the current industry standard Extreme/XMode, making it the fastest smartphone sized unit on the market.

Overall, the unit has more positives than negatives. It takes a few steps back due to its poor performing pen and lack of 8GB- 256GB specs, but overall it’s a win

Bigme Hibreak Plus

$269.99

Pros

• color e-ink display
• stylus support
• Customizable Side Button
• Versatile Software:
• 4g

Shortcoming

• performance bottleneck
• “Recessed” screen design
• average camera
• App limitations
• No water/dust resistance

Michael Kozlowski has written about audiobooks, e-books, and e-readers for the past eighteen years. He lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.