The Bigme Hibreak Professional is the world’s most potent E-ink smartphone. It destroys all the things else in the marketplace, which isn’t saying a lot. The one different gadgets are the Bigme Hibreak BW and Hibreak Shade, three-year-old Hisense telephones, Minimalist Telephone, and the Mudita Kompact. The massive promoting factors are the 6.13-inch Carta 1200 show, which retains issues excessive decision and web page turns quick, the Dimensity Octa-core, 2.4GHz processor, and all of the totally different velocity modes.
{Hardware}
The HiBreak Professional comes with a 6.13-inch E INK Carta 1200 e-paper show with a decision of 824 x 1648 and 300 PPI. The machine’s shade scheme is white, and the display is barely sunken and isn’t protected by a layer of glass. The rear has a pleasant leather-like end, however does little to alleviate the general plastic really feel the construct is all about. Bigme mentioned the show provides zero blue gentle and nil flickering, which makes it extremely secure for the eyes. The entrance gentle function provides 36-level heat and chilly twin temperature controls for comfy studying in exterior lighting. A light-weight sensor is on the prime to robotically alter the display’s brightness. The dynamic refresh expertise removes residual pictures robotically, so there’s little to no ghosting.
Beneath the hood, the telephone incorporates a 6nm octa-core 2.4 GHz MediaTek Dimensity 1080 processor, 8GB of RAM, and 256 GB of storage. You can’t increase the storage because it doesn’t have an SD card. Nevertheless, the storage must be sufficient for 1000’s of apps, audiobooks, and e-books.
It has a 20 MP rear digital camera and a 5 MP entrance shooter. The telephone helps 4G/5G with dual-sim, 2.4G/5G WIFI, and Bluetooth 5.2 for wi-fi headphones or earbuds to take heed to audiobooks, music, or podcasts. NFC and a USB-C port can be found. The telephone has a single speaker on the underside, which is mono and doesn’t sound excellent. A speaker grill is on the prime, which is the way you hear what individuals are saying, in the event you ought to use this as an precise telephone. There’s a microphone on the underside of the display and one on the prime. An influence and quantity button are on the precise aspect, a USB-C port on the underside, a dual-sim port, and two customization keys on the left.
Holding the machine alive is a 4500 mAh battery, which ought to final just a few weeks on a single cost. It helps 18-watt quick charging, so the battery ought to recharge itself rapidly. I like that it has a fingerprint sensor, to maintain issues safe, so that you don’t at all times have to enter a tool password. A gyroscope can also be helpful for switching the orientation from panorama to portrait mode.
Software program
The Bigme Hibreak Professional runs Google Android 14 and has full entry to the Google Play Retailer, making it straightforward to obtain thousands and thousands of apps and hold them up to date. Google Play Providers can also be preinstalled to obtain all of the main Google apps akin to Google Books, Maps, Chrome, and so on.
The house display may be very busy and proper out of the field. There are such a lot of apps. Textual content, instantaneous messaging, and folders populated with much more apps that the typical consumer will doubtless uninstall most. Suffice it to say that there’s a shortcut to the Google Play Retailer, a display saver, a bookshelf, an app supervisor, settings, music, a clock, and all the standard Google preinstalled apps. On the underside of the display is the UI, with the digital camera.
Should you swipe down from the highest of the display, you possibly can entry fast settings to ascertain a Wi-Fi community, join Bluetooth equipment, hook up with the information connection, use airplane mode, activate the flashlight, and allow system-wide darkish mode. Slider bars management the front-lit show, shade temperature system, and quantity slider.
The E INK Management Centre can also be housed on this space and is sort of vital, contemplating that is an E INK telephone, which usually suffers from refresh points. You possibly can set the telephone to totally different studying settings akin to books, magazines, comics, and video. A customized settings unlocks varied system tweaks, akin to anti-shake, auto-clean, set the refresh mode, distinction, and velocity modes. Velocity modes are commonplace fare in the event you ever owned a Boox or Bigme machine. HD 256 shows 256 ranges of gray scale, as a substitute of the standard 16 ranges. Regal, quick and excessive have their makes use of, however fast and excessive are inclined to degrade picture high quality to extend efficiency. That is good in the event you stream content material akin to video, searching the Google Play App retailer, or adventuring on advanced web sites.
That is all the things that makes the Bigme telephone stand out from the standard Android telephones in the marketplace. In any other case, it’s only a telephone with an E-ink display; nevertheless, studying on it makes it higher than a flagship Apple or Samsung machine.
Studying
There’s a inventory studying app, however you don’t need to use it, contemplating you would need to sideload all of your content material. This telephone has Google Play, which is closely app reliant however excellent. Because it runs Android 14, it may entry each e-reading, comedian, manga, or library service app in the marketplace. Need to use Kindle with animated page-turns or Google Play Books? This handles all of it, with velocity. That is primarily because of the sheer quantity of RAM and the processor. The totally different velocity modes assist out on this regard too.
An E INK telephone has clear benefits over an iPhone or different flagship. E INK is the closest you may get to studying on paper, so the decision is super, it’s straightforward on the eyes and appropriate for lengthy studying classes. I’ve an iPhone 14 Professional Max with a brilliant giant display, and the intense gentle hurts my eyes if I learn web sites, use apps, or learn web sites on Flipboard or Google Information. I really feel myself staying up late at evening, with all of the eyestrain. Because of this, these days, I’ve been turning the display off and listening to an audiobook earlier than mattress. If I need to learn a guide, I’ve a Kindle Colorsoft as my day by day driver. The Hibreak Professional is an iPhone and an e-reader alternative, you don’t want each anymore.
The display on that is higher than the Kindle, as a result of there is no such thing as a layer of glass, so utilizing the Hibreak won’t mirror overhead lighting nor get any glare from the solar. The battery life is inferior to the Kindle as a result of it runs Android, which at all times suffers from battery life points as a result of so many background processes operating concurrently.
I cannot checklist all of the apps you’d need to set up; individuals with telephones or Android tablets have already got the popular apps they use day by day. There is a superb Reddit thread on what different Bigme customers have on their Hibreak telephone or different Bigme tablets, price studying.
Finally, this telephone must be able to being your day by day driver for years. Most different e-readers and different gadgets in the marketplace nonetheless ship with Android 11, which received’t be supported in just a few years. However, because the Hibreak Professional runs Android 14, it ought to run any app for six years sooner or later.
Wrap Up
The general unit has a chunkier design and is a little more blocky within the hand than the earlier technology. It was a bit extra streamlined however much less succesful than our present Professional model.
The general efficiency is quick, strong, and as quick as hell in excessive mode. Its 300 PPI means it may deal with something you possibly can throw at it visually.
Truthfully, I can’t see any downsides. I suppose, gun to my head, I might have favored at the very least another speaker to get stereo and perhaps a headphone jack. However I suppose Bluetooth is appropriate for wi-fi earbuds or headphones. Proper now, the speaker is the best weak point.
A private fault I might pick was the large display Hole. The gap between the display and the highest coat layer.
Nevertheless, it’s a house run outdoors that. There’s not too many issues unsuitable you possibly can pick of this unit. The one factor that appears the remark part is clamouring for, is a color model.
Bigme HiBreak Professional
$439.99
Execs
- Android 14 and Google Play
- Twin SIM
- Good High quality Display
- Highly effective {Hardware}
- Velocity and Darkish Mode
Cons
- No SD card
- Reliant on Google Play
- Streaming Video is not Good
- Weak Speaker
- You’ll need Bluetooth to take heed to audio
Michael Kozlowski is the editor-in-chief at Good e-Reader and has written about audiobooks and e-readers for the previous fifteen years. Newspapers and web sites such because the CBC, CNET, Engadget, Huffington Put up and the New York Occasions have picked up his articles. He Lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.