The world of smartphone displays is dominated by LCD and OLED technology. Although the principles underlying each are slightly different, both of them work by emitting different colors of light. There’s nothing inherently wrong with this approach to display technology, but it’s not the only paradigm. At the other end of the spectrum are reflective display technologies that work by using ambient light to illuminate their displays. The world of reflective displays is dominated by one company — E Ink — and so far, only one company has released a smartphone with an E Ink screen, but that could be changing this year.
Best e-book readers in 2024: Kindle, Kobo, Boox, and more
‘E-reader’ doesn’t just mean ‘Kindle’ any more – here are the best from every brand
Up until now, if you wanted a smartphone with an E Ink display, your only option was Hisense (better known in the US for its TVs and projectors), and the only way to get one is to have it imported from China and cope with the spotty cell connectivity. But now, Bigme, one of the world’s biggest luxury e-reader makers, is poised to release up to four E Ink smartphones this year, and two of them will be in color.
We don’t have a lot of information just yet, but we do have a rough idea of what the phones will cost and some of the tech that will go into them. Bigme is calling its phone the HiBreak, and it will have a 5.84-inch screen (about the size of the Pixel 4a). There will be two different options for processors and a black-and-white and color version of each. The more basic model will have an octa-core MediaTek Helio P35 that runs at up to 2.3GHz, 6GB of RAM, 128GB of storage, and runs on Android 11. The “premium” model will have an octa-core MediaTek Dimensity 900 chip which runs at 2.4GHz, 8GB of RAM, 256GB of storage, and runs Android 14.
From the renders in the video, it looks like the phone will have a USB-C charging port, a single camera with a flash on the back, and another camera on the front. Interestingly, the 6nm Dimensity 900 chip can support taking images of up to 108MP and can record in 4K HDR, which seems like a lot for an E Ink phone. The Helio P35, on the other hand, can only support images up to 25MP. Sadly, there’s no sign of a headphone jack.
No prices for the HiBreak have been set in stone yet, but the base model in black and white could retail for as little as $220. Given that the Hisense A9 retails for around $400 and the Boox Palma — which has similar specs but no cellular connectivity — costs $280, there could be a lot of demand for the HiBreak. Even Bigme’s most expensive price projections, which put the premium color phone in the $450 range, make the HiBreak competitive.
|
Helio P35 |
Dimensity 900 |
|
|---|---|---|
|
Color |
$249–$339 |
$369–$459 |
|
B&W |
$219–$309 |
$339–$429 |
E Ink is definitely having a moment this year. The release of the Kobo Libra Colour and Clara Colour has completely changed the general perception of color E Ink by bringing the cost under $200, and Kobo’s sales have been so good it’s struggling to keep up. There has also been a lot of hype around The Minimal Phone, a sort of BlackBerry clone with an E Ink screen that has been fully funded on Indiegogo and could begin shipping as early as September. There’s also Mudita which already has its own E Ink phone on the market (the Pure, a dumbphone which costs over $300), and is gearing up to launch an E Ink smartphone called the Kompakt on Kickstarter.
Boox Palma review: An e-reader rated E for everyone
I never want to buy another e-reader again (unless it’s another Palma)
That’s all we know for sure, so let’s speculate for a bit. We can be reasonably sure that the screens will be Carta 1200 for the black-and-white models and Kaleido 3 for the color models. It’s possible we could see the newer Carta 1300, but given the low price, I don’t think it’s likely. According to the MediaTek page, the Helio P35 will support dual-SIM VoLTE connections and band 71/600MHz connections (which is 5G and only available to T-Mobile). The page for the Dimensity 900 indicates that it has broad 4G and 5G support, so it’s possible we’ll only see the premium model in the US, if we see it at all. In a reply to a comment on its release video about supporting US cell bands, a Bigme rep said “Yes we are working on it.” That sounds promising, but it’s definitely not a sure thing.
Now we just have to wait for more details from Bigme. Final prices should be announced within the next two weeks. We don’t have a firm launch window for the HiBreak but Bigme tells us that it expects to have launched all models by Christmas. I know what I want from Santa this year.
