This Dual Screen E-Ink/LCD Smartphone Is One of the Most Ill-Conceived Tech Products of the Year
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Last week, Chinese tech firm Bigme teased an intriguing new addition to its lineup of e-readers and digital notebooks: the "world's first" dual-screen smartphone, with both an e-ink and an LCD display on opposite sides of the device. I thought I had a pretty good idea of how that might work—but now, Bigme has revealed what the "Hibreak Dual" will actually look like, and it's definitely not what I was expecting. Seeing it actually made me laugh out loud.
The e-ink side of the phone looks exactly like I anticipated, offering a 6.13-inch, 300 PPI black-and-white/150 PPI color e-ink display not unlike the one on the Boox Palma 2 Pro or Bigme's own Hibreak Pro Color. It does support stylus input, which I wasn't expecting, but instead of the full-screen rear LCD screen I was expecting, the back of the device has a tiny, circular touchscreen that looks like nothing so much as a porthole on a submarine.
You're probably wondering why this thing exists, or why anyone would buy it. I don't know either.
The product page on the Bigme website describes the 360x360 circular LCD as a "secondary screen" intended for notifications, music, or checking the time—three things you can do right from the lock screen on most any Android-enabled touchscreen device, but e-ink displays are either on or off, so the additional utility does make a certain sort of sense. But people who opt for an e-ink smartphone are typically looking for fewer distractions, so I can't imagine many of them want a phone that will still be pinging them with alerts, only on a tiny, awkward screen that's too small to read easily. Is anyone nostalgic for the days of the nigh-illegible display on the front of the Motorola Razr?
Even Bigme seems slightly confused about why it designed this thing. In a promotional video, you can watch a model awkwardly interacting with the circular LCD, snapping selfies and watching vertical videos with big black bars on either side. Stretching for utility, the video also touts that you can use this second screen to snap a photo of your pet. Layer a chatbot over it, and you can create your own "AI pet." Sure, Jan.
In response to incredulous comments on the r/Bigme Reddit (typical response: "This can't be more disappointing") the company attempted a justification: "This product combines an e-ink main screen with an LCD subscreen [supporting] functions like viewing images, watching videos, [and] receiving call reminders...This design keeps you in an eye-friendly experience while using the LCD functions that e-ink alone handles less effectively." Recognizing the reality didn't quite match up to what people were expecting, the company did add that it has "heard your requests for a full-screen dual e-ink and LCD phone (both displays large)" and it will "include that in our future product planning."
I'm really not sure why Bigme needed help arriving at this conclusion, but here we are.
If you actually want to buy the Hibreak Dual, you have a lot of options
Let it not be said that Bigme is going at this half-assed: The company is launching the Hibreak Dual in eight different configurations. You can preorder it with a black-and-white or color e-ink screen, choose between 8GB or 12GB of RAM and 128GB or 256GB of storage, and buy it with or without a stylus and a case. Prices range from $519 on the low end to $689 fully tricked out. (For comparison's sake, the Bigme Hibreak Pro Color—without the porthole LCD or stylus support—is on sale for $489 on Amazon.
Once you get past the bizarre design choices, the Hibreak Dual has pretty standard specs for an e-ink phone: 5G dual-sim, outdated Android 14 OS, the aforementioned storage and RAM options, a generic "octacore" 2.6GHz processor, a 4,500mAh battery, a 5MP selfie camera, and a 20MP rear camera. I don't know why I bothered to tell you that though. You probably aren't going to buy it.
(I'm still laughing. Why is it a circle?)