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Bigme B1051C Professional: 30-second overview
Xinruizhi Know-how began working with E Ink shows again in 2008, and developed a sequence of merchandise below quite a few manufacturers that had been primarily e-reader merchandise.
Finally, utilizing its personal Bigme model, it introduced a variety of e-readers to market, with each monochrome and shade E ink shows.
The Bigme B1051C Professional is a brand new launch, combining a contemporary smartphone platform with a 10-inch shade Kaleido 3 show to create a basic Android pill with the facility benefits of E ink.
The Kaleido3 show is a expertise that, in idea, doesn’t require continuous energy to stay on, permitting the pill to remain on whereas nonetheless sustaining wonderful battery life.
The place it diverges from different E Ink designs is that this isn’t simply one other Kindle clone, however a full Android 14 platform with entry to the Play Retailer and the apps on it.
That mentioned, because of the comparatively low refresh of the show and the restricted palette, it’s not appropriate for all purposes, particularly these not optimised for this expertise.
Nonetheless, when in comparison with devoted e-readers utilizing monochrome E Ink, the battery life is underwhelming. And, the worth is on the excessive aspect.
The Bigme B1051C Professional in the end finds itself in a barely uncomfortable no-man’s land between typical e-readers and pen-driven tablets or laptops. In order for you a shade reader, then they are often discovered less expensive than this, and each Samsung and Apple make efficient tablets for the same value.
Total, whereas it has some strengths, this isn’t a product that naturally fits enterprise clients. Because it’s an Android pill, it is difficult to incorporate it in our finest e-reader round-up although.
Bigme B1051C Professional: value and availability
- How a lot does it price? From $640/£473
- When is it out? Accessible now globally
- The place are you able to get it? Direct from Bigme or from on-line retailers
The Bigme B1051C and B1051C Professional can be found in two SKUs: one with a pen and magnetic case, and one other that features the duvet, pen and keyboard cowl.
The distinction between the usual B1051C and the Professional mannequin is that the fundamental mannequin comes with 6GB of RAM and 128GB of storage, and the Professional has 8GB of reminiscence and 256GB for knowledge.
Direct from the makers, the Bigme B1051C and not using a keyboard is $639, and the keyboard bundle is $718 for US clients. Within the UK, these choices are £472.99 and £531.19, respectively.
The Bigme B1051C Professional reviewed right here, equipped and not using a keyboard, is £628 within the UK and one other £60 with one included. Within the US, these values translate into $729 and $799.
On the time of writing, the UK pound is equal to roughly 74 cents, making these costs comparable. Whereas that price is an enchancment for these in Europe, none of those choices is a cut price.
A significant competitor for the B1051C is the BOOX Pill Word Air4 C, which Individuals should purchase for simply $529.99. It makes use of the identical show, though it has much less onboard storage.
The larger challenge right here is how less expensive an unbranded Android pill can price, and even the 256GB Apple iPad is extra reasonably priced than the Bigme B1051C.
Total, the price of this system is a serious weak point.
Bigme B1051C Professional: Specs
|
Merchandise |
Spec |
|---|---|
|
CPU: |
Mediatek Dimensity 900 |
|
GPU: |
Mali-G68 MP4 |
|
NPU: |
MediaTek APU 3.0 |
|
RAM: |
8GB |
|
Storage: |
256GB |
|
Display: |
E ink Colour |
|
Decision: |
2480 x 1860 B&W pixels or 1240 x 930 Colour |
|
SIM: |
TFT card slot (as much as 2TB) |
|
Weight: |
435 grams |
|
Dimensions: |
184.4 x 236.5 x 5.5 mm |
|
Rugged Spec: |
N/A |
|
Rear cameras: |
4.9 MP |
|
Entrance digicam: |
N/A |
|
Networking: |
WiFi 6e, Bluetooth 5.3 |
|
OS: |
Android 14 |
|
Battery: |
3700 mAh |
|
Colours: |
Gunmetal |
Bigme B1051C Professional: design
- Extremely-thin
- Lacks audio jack
- No entrance digicam
Eradicating the Bigme B1051C Professional from its field, the primary element that impressed me was how skinny this system is, together with a properly made look. Being simply 5.5mm thick and weighing solely 435g, that is an easy-to-hold and carry system.
Included with the pill are a magnetically hooked up cowl, a stylus, a USB-A to USB-C charging cable and some minor equipment such because the SIM tray opening software.
What you don’t get is a charger, however any that you just might need which can be meant for telephones ought to work high quality.
One barely bemusing characteristic is that the ten.1-inch show isn’t positioned in the midst of the pill, however is positioned nearer to the underside and the proper. The border that extends to the left and high implies the design was made to favour right-handed customers, who would possibly maintain the pill with their left hand. Throughout my time utilizing it, I by no means discovered a approach to reorient the display, in order that’s how it’s.
The highest border contains a speaker beneath, however the left aspect of the display is unused area.
As for exterior particulars, the Bigme B1051C Professional has comparatively few. The highest proper edge has an influence button, and the highest centre is the place the USB-C port is, with the SIM tray on the highest left edge.
And that’s it. There is no such thing as a 3.5mm audio jack for listening to audiobooks and no quantity controls. It’s doable to hear utilizing Bluetooth headphones or to acquire a USB-C to three.5mm audio adapter (not included) if you happen to choose to take heed to recorded sound in personal.
On the rear floor, a line of pogo pins is positioned for connecting the pill to an adjunct that Bigme has but to launch, in addition to for the rear-facing digicam. There is no such thing as a forward-facing digicam, so you’ll be able to’t use this pill for conferencing. Moreover, the rear digicam is simply supposed for doc seize.
The supplied cowl contains a notch that permits the digicam to proceed taking photographs even with it in place, and an prolonged closing loop to assist safe the magnetically hooked up stylus.
Total, the Bigme B1051C Professional contains a minimalist design, the place most points are supposed to be resolved by means of the display. It doesn’t do any favours for left-handed customers or those that like wired headphones, however that is additionally true for almost all of cell phones lately.
Design rating: 4/5
Bigme B1051C Professional: {hardware}
- MediaTek Dimensity 900
- E ink show
- 3700 mAh battery
The Dimensity 900 was considered one of MediaTek’s first sequence of the Dimensity line, arriving in Might of 2021. The makers have since launched higher and extra power-efficient chips than the 900, nevertheless it was common for some time and appeared within the Doogee V30, Samsung Galaxy M53 5G, Ulefone Armor 18T, amongst others.
The issue with this chip on this context is twofold. Firstly, that is extra highly effective than this system genuinely wants, and I famous that Bigme has a power-saving and a efficiency mode, with the power-saving choice clocking the SoC down. Moreover, most of the applied sciences on this chip, such because the 5G modem, usually are not utilised. Even the GPU is unable to ship the efficiency it was designed to generate, because the E Ink show can’t replace quickly sufficient for clean gaming.
I assume Bigme went by means of the varied System-on-Chip (SoC) choices for this system and concluded that the Dimensity 900 was appropriate for a selected motive, and which may have been because of the unit price.
In most telephones the place it resides, this SoC is usually coupled with LPDDR5, however on this {hardware}, it makes use of DDR4 reminiscence. And once more, this seems to be a cost-driven selection.
What makes this system doable is the Kaleido 3 show, and that comes with some important benefits and drawbacks.
The explanation this even exists is the Amazon Kindle, which famously used a black and white E Ink show to supply distinctive battery life to that product and people who advanced from it.
What makes this show totally different from different LCD show applied sciences is that it could actually retain a picture while not having to be powered, and it doesn’t use a power-demanding backlight. The result’s a pill that’s successfully left working, however the battery received’t go down on the fee a standard pill would possibly.
Nonetheless, these capabilities come at a steep price when it comes to picture high quality and the show’s refresh fee. Whereas this pill can show shade, it considerably reduces the decision when in comparison with utilizing the identical show in black and white mode, dropping from 2480 x 1860 pixels in monochrome to solely 1240 x 930 pixels in shade. For those who hadn’t guessed, Kaleido 3 takes teams of 4 monochrome pixels and, by utilizing filters, creates 1 / 4 as many coloured dots.
Given the restricted monochrome scale of these pixels, the precise shade illustration is about 4096 distinct hues, considerably lower than the 16.7 million that we see on LCD shows and over a billion colours that AMOLED theoretically delivers. To be lifelike, most people can solely differentiate about 1,000,000 colours, however 4096 is a good distance wanting that quantity.
Consequently, photographs look oddly posterised, and a few colours, like crimson, are extraordinarily muted.
In case you are seeking to overview photographs, this isn’t the show expertise you’ll select.
Equally, the comparatively gradual refresh of Kaleido 3 makes it unsuitable for video playback. The video seems to be a snowstorm of oddly coloured pixels, and important actions can create ghosting results that obscure what’s occurring within the video. Bigme has supplied some management over the refresh to mitigate these points, however Kaleido 3 isn’t a very good expertise for fast-moving visuals, and this, mixed with the colour limitations, makes it a poor alternative for a standard Android pill or Apple iPad on this context.
The pill can Miracast, enabling you to make use of a TV or monitor with that functionality, however that’s not all the time obtainable.
The ultimate a part of the {hardware} I’d like to debate is the battery and the way a 3700 mAh battery isn’t massive by any commonplace. As with different facets, the scale of the battery was dictated by how skinny Bigme needed to make this pill, though it will final a very long time on that capability.
Nonetheless, what’s tremendous annoying in regards to the battery is that it solely prices at about 10W, which implies it takes an inordinately very long time to cost. With such a small battery, the standard benefit of them is how quickly they cost, however this isn’t the case with this system.
The default reminiscence and storage configuration is 6GB of RAM and 128GB of storage, though the overview machine had 8GB of reminiscence and 256GB of storage.
I don’t assume the smaller reminiscence and storage mannequin has a lot of an obstacle, largely as a result of the storage could be expanded by as much as 2TB utilizing a microSD card. Reminiscence on these techniques is primarily used to retailer purposes for fast use, and 6GB on the default configuration is adequate for almost all of customers.
For these anticipating me to overview the digicam, you may be dissatisfied. It contains a 4.9 MP sensor designed to seize paperwork, whereas additionally permitting video recording by means of the digicam app.
Nothing about this sensor is similar to the most affordable telephone digicam, and with the E ink show, it’s not possible to inform if it did a very good job of taking an image.
Subsequently, I’ve determined to speak in regards to the person expertise of the Bigme B1051C Professional as an alternative.
Bigme B1051C Professional: Person expertise
- Not an iPad
- Google Play Retailer
- Not as polished appropriately
I should be upfront and say that the person expertise of this system isn’t the very best, and it compares poorly with the default Android entrance finish or that on the iPad.
The thought of icons alongside the left aspect of the interface could also be common with e-readers, nevertheless it appears decidedly old-school by present interface requirements.
There may be an alternate scheme supplied, which is extra iPad-inspired, however neither of them appears environment friendly, and there’s no capability for display widgets.
What’s additionally lower than very best is that whereas it could actually show navigation icons alongside the highest edge, these can disappear relying on the software program getting used, even when these instruments are supplied within the default configuration.
Utilizing the usual e-reader software program, even the house icon is eliminated, which means that even if you happen to’re not notably occupied with studying the gesture system of this product, you’re virtually compelled to. That’s unlucky, and sometimes, messages in Chinese language when the pill is ready to English don’t convey the concept a lot effort has gone into sharpening this model of Android for its deployment right here.
By default, the primary menu icon is ‘Assembly Data’, a characteristic that almost all of customers are unlikely to need first. It’s doable to vary what sub-systems are on the menu, however not the order wherein they seem.
This form of disjointed pondering is commonplace and considerably off-putting.
The place the Bigme B1051C has some benefits over prior tablets of this kind is that it has Android 14 in its nook and entry to the Google Play retailer.
That mentioned, simply since you get entry to all these purposes and might obtain and set up lots of them, it says nothing about how they may look or run.
What undoubtedly coloured my expertise was that I didn’t get the keyboard cowl with my machine, and the notion of handwriting issues which can be then lined into textual content by an AI bot appears alien to me. Whereas I’m sufficiently old to be from the pre-computer period, handwriting issues is one thing I gave up doing forty years in the past.
With a keyboard to enter notes and knowledge, this pill would possibly turn into decidedly extra helpful and fewer compromised.
As an e-reader, the expertise is a lot better, and the colour show does add one thing, even when the colours are oddly filtered. For those who primarily learn monochrome paperwork, then Bigme provides rather more reasonably priced units that meet that requirement.
The place the E Ink show fails is in its makes an attempt to current fast-moving photographs, particularly video, but in addition generated 3D. The extent of ghosting, the approximations of shade and shade, all are likely to make any video content material seem like it was captured in a snowstorm.
If you wish to watch Netflix, that is patently not the very best system.
Utilizing the settings pages, it’s doable to tweak the refresh for sooner updates and in addition the colour/backlight stability. Nonetheless, it’s adjusted, the E Ink show won’t ever examine to the graceful pointer actions that even the most affordable typical laptop computer offers.
Nonetheless, probably the most shocking side of the Bigme B1051C is its battery life, which fails to transform the capability it has into a protracted working time.
Normally, these kinds of units aren’t turned off after use, largely as a result of the show doesn’t require energy, and the OS ought to be in a dormant state. I say “ought to” as a result of placing this pill down for a day after which activating it reveals that the battery capability has lowered. It seems that sleep on this system isn’t what it’s on different e-reader {hardware}, and for these wanting to increase battery life, it must be totally shut down.
I’d like to inform you how a lot energy it misplaced per day, or if particular apps are accountable for consuming that energy, however these elements of Android 14 weren’t included on this implementation.
In comparison with the polish that some manufacturers of note-taking units have, the Bigme B1051C wants some work. Whereas having the ability to run Android purposes is an enormous benefit, it additionally exposes among the underlying weaknesses of the applied sciences used on this {hardware}.
Bigme B1051C Professional Digital camera samples
Picture 1 of 5
Bigme B1051C Professional: Remaining verdict
I’ve come to a stark conclusion about this system that’s depending on the way you come to it.
Those that come from the angle of an Android pill are possible going to be dissatisfied for various causes, however largely as a result of the show expertise isn’t video-friendly or able to displaying full-color photographs precisely.
Conversely, if you happen to’ve trodden the Kindle path to this, you is perhaps massively impressed with the power to load Android apps and the final responsiveness of the interface and instruments.
However what’s not going to enamour both potential buyer is the worth, which appears excessively excessive. And, the battery life isn’t all that I’d hoped.
To finish on a optimistic word (handwritten, perhaps), the Bigme B1051C is far nearer to the Android pill than the Amazon Kindle on this spectrum. And perhaps the following mannequin from Bigme will muddy these waters. Nonetheless, the fee and limitations of this system pose hurdles that some clients might wrestle to beat.
Ought to I purchase a Bigme B1051C Professional?
|
Attributes |
Notes |
Ranking |
|---|---|---|
|
Worth |
A telephone with this spec would price a lot much less |
3.5/5 |
|
Design |
Skinny, extremely engineered pill that’s good to carry and use |
4/5 |
|
{Hardware} |
E Ink shade show, doc digicam, and a telephone SoC |
4/5 |
|
Person expertise |
Android 14 however with a low refresh and restricted colours |
3.5/5 |
|
Total |
An advanced e-reader that helps Android apps |
4/5 |
