The Bigme HiBreak is not your ordinary smartphone and doesn’t try to be. In a market filled with flashy, high-resolution OLED screens, this phone takes a completely different path with its 5.8-inch E-Ink display. If you’ve ever used an e-reader like a Kindle, you’ll immediately recognize the unique benefits of E-Ink technology. But the HiBreak goes beyond being just an e-reader. It’s a fully functional Android smartphone designed for people who value simplicity, productivity, and eye comfort over flashy visuals and high-powered performance.
Design and Display
Let’s start with the design. The Bigme HiBreak feels lightweight and comfortable in your hand, weighing just 172 grams. It’s one of those phones you can use for hours without feeling the heft. The back has a faux leather finish, which looks good and provides a solid grip while resisting fingerprints and smudges. This material choice gives the phone a premium feel despite its affordability. The bezels are symmetrical—thin on the sides and slightly thicker on the top and bottom—giving the phone a balanced and understated look. While it’s not the most premium design you’ll see, it’s sturdy and functional, with thoughtful additions like a USB-C port, a customizable shortcut key, and a SIM tray that also supports microSD cards for up to 1TB of storage.
Now, let’s talk about the star of the show: the E-Ink display. The HiBreak comes in two versions—a black-and-white model with a sharp 275 PPI resolution and a color model with 91 PPI. The black-and-white version is fantastic for reading, offering crisp and clear text that’s easy on the eyes, even for extended periods. The color version is great if you’re into comics or light illustrations, though the colors are more muted compared to traditional displays. What makes this display truly stand out is its usability in bright sunlight. Unlike LCDs or OLEDs that struggle outdoors, the HiBreak’s screen remains perfectly readable.
However, E-Ink technology does have its limitations. The refresh rate is slower than traditional screens, meaning animations and fast-moving content don’t look as smooth. Bigme addresses this with multiple refresh modes, like Extreme Mode for speed and HD Mode for better visual quality. These modes can be customized per app, which is a nice touch. For example, you can use Comic Mode for e-books and Extreme Mode for web browsing. These tailored settings let you optimize your experience depending on the task at hand.
Reading Experience
Manga fans will appreciate certain aspects of the Bigme HiBreak, but it has limitations. The 5.84-inch display is on the smaller side for viewing manga. Unlike e-books, where the content can easily be rendered in portions, manga often requires the full page to be displayed to capture its essence truly. This is especially important for enjoying the artwork and layouts unique to manga. While the smaller screen size means you might find some pages cramped, the color e-paper display adds a new dimension to the experience. Panels and illustrations appear more vivid and engaging compared to traditional black-and-white e-ink screens.
Regarding e-books, the HiBreak provides a solid reading experience similar to what you’d expect from dedicated e-paper devices. The smaller display means that only a limited amount of text is shown at any given time, requiring more frequent page turns. However, the phone’s volume buttons come in handy as page-turn controls.
However, one key difference with the color e-paper display is the background. Unlike traditional e-ink devices with a crisp white background, the HiBreak’s color filter array results in a slightly grayish background with black text. While this doesn’t drastically affect readability, you will notice the difference if you’ve used a device with a true white background. In isolation, the display is perfectly fine, but side-by-side comparisons may reveal this subtle difference.
Despite these quirks, the e-book experience on the HiBreak is more than satisfactory. The beauty of having an e-ink smartphone lies in its portability and versatility. Since it’s a phone, it’s likely to be with you wherever you go, allowing you to continue reading anytime, anywhere. Its lightweight design makes it comfortable for extended reading sessions, adding to its practicality as a reading device.
Performance
Performance-wise, the Bigme HiBreak runs on a MediaTek Helio P35 processor with 6GB of RAM and 128GB of internal storage. It’s not a powerhouse, but it’s more than capable of handling the kind of tasks this phone is built for. Apps load quickly, multitasking is smooth, and everyday activities like messaging, browsing, and using e-reading apps feel seamless. This phone thrives on simplicity and efficiency, ensuring that it delivers a smooth experience for its target audience. Don’t expect to play graphics-intensive games or edit videos, though; this phone isn’t built for that. Instead, it’s optimized for productivity and light use, which is exactly what it promises.
One area where the HiBreak shines is battery life. The 3,300mAh battery might not sound impressive on paper, but thanks to the low power consumption of the E-Ink display, it easily lasts 10 to 15 hours of regular use. If you primarily use it for reading or light tasks, you might even stretch it over multiple days. The downside? Charging takes about 2.5 hours since the phone only supports USB 2.0 speeds. Overnight battery drain is another minor issue, with a 1% loss per hour if Wi-Fi and cellular are left on. Switching to Airplane Mode at night can help mitigate this, ensuring that you wake up to a phone ready to go.
The camera and audio on the HiBreak are functional but far from groundbreaking. The 13MP rear camera is fine for quick snaps, document scanning, or casual photos, but don’t expect high-end photography. The 5MP front camera is suitable for video calls and quick selfies. However, neither camera will blow you away in terms of quality, especially in low-light conditions where the results can be grainy. The single speaker delivers clear but tinny sound, and there’s no 3.5mm headphone jack, so you’ll need Bluetooth headphones or a USB-C adapter for audio.
Conclusion
At $249 for the black-and-white version and $279 for the color model, the Bigme HiBreak is reasonably priced for what it offers. It’s not trying to compete with flagship devices but instead carves out its own niche as a minimalist, eye-friendly smartphone. If you value simplicity, long battery life, and a unique reading-focused experience, the HiBreak is well worth considering. It’s a device that prioritizes purpose over flash.
