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| Bigme has teased its new e-ink smartphone |
For years, e-ink enthusiasts have dreamed of a device that combines the eye-friendly, power-sipping benefits of electronic paper with the fast-refresh versatility of a traditional LCD. It looks like that dream is finally becoming a reality. Bigme, a manufacturer known for pushing the boundaries of e-ink technology beyond simple e-readers, has just teased what it claims is the first smartphone to feature both a color e-ink display and a separate LCD screen.
If you’ve been following the e-ink space, you already know that Bigme isn’t a newcomer. We’ve reported on the company several times in the past, covering everything from their innovative e-ink tablets to their earlier attempts at e-ink smartphones. But this latest teaser—dubbed the “HiBreak Dual” in some early leaks—feels different. It’s not just another incremental upgrade. It’s a fundamental rethinking of how two very different screen technologies can coexist on a single device.
Why E-Ink Still Matters (And Where It Falls Short)
Before we dive into what Bigme has up its sleeve, let’s quickly recap why e-ink technology remains so compelling. E-ink displays offer several fundamental advantages over traditional LCD or OLED panels. For starters, they operate with remarkably low power consumption. Energy is only drawn when the screen content changes—if you disable the backlight, a static image like a page of text or a boarding pass can stay on screen for days or even weeks without draining the battery.
Then there’s the readability factor. Anyone who has tried to read an LCD screen under harsh sunlight knows the struggle: cranking up the brightness, squinting through glare, and watching the battery plummet. E-ink, by contrast, becomes more readable in direct sunlight because it reflects ambient light just like real paper. No backlight required. For long reading sessions, that translates directly into less eye strain and fatigue.
So why hasn’t e-ink completely replaced LCDs? The answer comes down to speed. E-ink panels are relatively slow to refresh, which makes them poorly suited for video, gaming, or even smooth UI animations. While the technology has made steady progress—modern e-ink screens can handle basic scrolling and typing better than their ancestors—they’re still no match for a 120Hz OLED when it comes to fluid motion.
Bigme’s Solution: Stop Choosing, Start Combining
That’s precisely where Bigme’s new smartphone enters the picture. According to the teaser material released by the company, this upcoming device will be the first of its kind to pack both a color e-ink display and a separate LCD screen. Let that sink in for a moment.
We’ve seen dual-screen smartphones before. YotaPhone famously put a monochrome e-ink panel on the back of an otherwise standard Android phone. More recently, companies like Hisense have offered devices with a single color e-ink screen as their primary display. But nobody has yet delivered a device that gives you the best of both worlds: a fast, vibrant LCD for daily smartphone tasks like watching videos, browsing social media, or taking photos, and a dedicated color e-ink display for reading, notifications, and low-power always-on content.
Interested in being among the first to know when the HiBreak Dual becomes available? You can sign up for official notifications directly from Bigme right here.
That link takes you to Bigme’s official teaser page, where you can drop your email and get updates as soon as the company reveals pricing, specs, and a release date. For now, the company is keeping specifics close to the chest—but even the general description is enough to get tech enthusiasts excited.
What Could You Actually Do With Two Displays?
Let’s imagine how this might work in practice. The LCD screen (likely on the front) would handle everything you’d expect from a modern smartphone: fast app switching, high-refresh-rate scrolling, video playback, and camera viewfinding. Meanwhile, the color e-ink display—probably positioned on the back or possibly as a secondary panel—would take over for tasks where e-ink truly shines.
Always-on notifications. Imagine never having to wake your phone just to check the time, your calendar, or incoming messages. An e-ink display can show that information continuously without sipping battery power. That’s a game-changer for people who find themselves constantly tapping their screen to see if anything new has arrived.
Reading e-books and long articles. Yes, you could read on the LCD screen. But after an hour or two, your eyes will thank you for switching to the e-ink panel. And because it’s color e-ink, you’ll get magazine-style illustrations, charts, and covers in full (if somewhat muted) glory—not just grayscale.
Displaying a boarding pass or concert ticket. This is one of those small but brilliant use cases. How many times have you fumbled with your phone at an airport gate, trying to keep the screen from timing out while the TSA agent scans your pass? An e-ink display can hold that QR code static for hours without draining the battery or requiring you to disable your phone’s sleep timer.
Low-power GPS or map display. For hikers, cyclists, or anyone who uses their phone as a navigation device, an always-on e-ink map could be a lifesaver—literally. No need to keep the LCD blazing away just to show a simple route.
What We Still Don’t Know (And What We’re Guessing)
Bigme has only released a rather general teaser so far, and the company is being characteristically tight-lipped about specifications. We don’t yet know the size of either display, the processor, the battery capacity, or the price. The teaser image (which we’ve seen circulating in tech forums) suggests a relatively modern design, but details remain scarce.
What we can infer from Bigme’s previous products is that this won’t be a budget device. Their existing e-ink smartphones and tablets typically sit in the mid-to-premium price range, often costing several hundred dollars. The added complexity of engineering two completely different display technologies into one chassis—not to mention the software magic required to seamlessly switch between them—will almost certainly push the price higher.
On the software side, Bigme will need to work closely with Android to ensure that apps behave properly when moved from the LCD to the e-ink screen. Color e-ink has improved dramatically in terms of refresh rate and color accuracy, but it’s still not a one-to-one replacement. Some UI elements might look strange, and video is likely to remain unusable on the e-ink panel. That’s fine—that’s what the LCD is for.
The Bigger Picture: E-Ink’s Slow But Steady Revolution
It’s easy to dismiss dual-screen smartphones as niche products, and historically, that’s exactly what they’ve been. The YotaPhone line, for all its cleverness, never truly broke into the mainstream. Hisense’s e-ink phones have a loyal following among distraction-free minimalists and bookworms, but they’re not exactly flying off the shelves at Best Buy.
So why should Bigme’s attempt be any different? Two reasons. First, color e-ink technology has matured significantly in the past two years. The Kaleido 3 and Gallery 3 panels from E Ink Corporation offer much better saturation and refresh rates than earlier generations. A color e-ink display is no longer a novelty—it’s genuinely useful for reading comics, magazines, and any content where color matters.
Second, the timing feels right. Consumers are increasingly aware of the negative effects of endless LCD and OLED screen time—eye strain, disrupted sleep from blue light, and the constant dopamine drip of notifications. An e-ink secondary display offers a way to stay connected and informed without the same cognitive load. It’s a compromise, yes, but a thoughtful one.
Final Thoughts: A Device for the E-Ink Faithful (And Maybe Everyone Else)
Let’s be realistic: Bigme’s upcoming dual-screen smartphone is not going to dethrone the iPhone or Samsung Galaxy. It won’t have the fastest processor, the brightest screen, or the most polished software. It will almost certainly have quirks, and app compatibility will be a work in progress for a while.
But for a specific kind of user—the person who loves e-ink readers but hates carrying a separate device, the road warrior who wants notifications without battery anxiety, the privacy-conscious reader who wants to minimize LCD exposure—this could be the holy grail. And if Bigme manages to pull off the software integration smoothly, they might just create a new category that larger manufacturers eventually copy.
For now, all we can do is wait. Bigme has promised more details in the coming weeks, and you can bet we’ll be covering every announcement as it drops. In the meantime, head over to their teaser page and sign up for updates. This is one of those rare product launches that actually feels new—and in a smartphone market that’s been incremental for years, that’s worth paying attention to.
What do you think? Would you use a smartphone with both a color e-ink display and an LCD screen? Or is this a solution in search of a problem? Drop your thoughts in the comments—and don’t forget to check the link above for official updates from Bigme.