Review: Bigme HiBreak Pro Color e-ink phone

Review unit provided by Bigme

The Bigme HiBreak Pro is a 6.1-inch Android 14 phone with a Kaleido 3 colour e-ink display. This phone has almost the same specifications at the Bigme HiBreak Pro BW I reviewed eight months ago.

Official retail price is USD 469, but price at the time of review is USD 399, probably due to the pre-launch sale. This phone is expected to ship in November 2025.

Things included

• Phone
• Silicone case
• SIM eject tool
• USB-A to USB-C charging cable
• User manual

Specs

The included silicone case is quite thin but should provide some protection against scratches, maybe drops.

Design

Design looks good. Bezels are quite thin, thicker at the top and bottom.

The phone is available in two colours, black and white.

Most of the phone is made with plastic but build quality seems good enough. The phone does not feel like a toy. But plastic can get dents and scratches quite easily -- so does some metal.

On the left are two side buttons (Custom Key) and each can be customised with up to three shortcuts.

Weight of the phone is 193g which is considered lightweight for a 6.1-inch phone. The phone is easy to handle.

The right side has a power button with build-in fingerprint scanner that works fast and effectively. And there are volume buttons.

Back has one 20MP camera with flash. There doesn't seem to be OIS.

Taking photos with this phone is challenging because it's not easy to check the sharpness with the display.

Photo quality looks alright if there's good lighting.

Sometimes the white balance is off but it's difficult to check on the colour e-ink display.

Night shots will appear grainy, as expected. And there could be more motion blur due to slower shutter speed.

At the top is an infrared sensor.

On the bottom is one speaker, a USB-C port that supports 18W charging and USB 2 transfer speed, and a SIM tray that supports two nano SIM cards. There's no microSD card slot unfortunately.

Audio quality is alright. Speakers are loud, do not sound too hollow, and there's no bass which is not surprising. Call quality sounds okay.

The display has a matte screen protector already applied. There is glare when reflecting strong light source.

This is how the phones look under direct sunlight, and legibility is excellent. And when the phone is not pointed at strong light source, visual quality is good. Note the even under direct sunlight, the colour e-ink display still looks darker compared to BW e-ink.

This is how BW e-ink looks besides colour e-ink without front light enabled. One reason why Kaleido 3 looks darker is because there's this additional layer of texture which can be seen if you look close enough.

And this is with front light enabled on the colour e-ink display. Front light is almost always needed to improve the contrast. This will use up more battery but battery life is not an issue with the 4500 mAh battery capacity.

You can choose between 32 levels of warm and cool light, or choose from preset lighting or create your own (one) custom lighting option.

This is how BW e-ink looks besides colour e-ink without front light enabled in a darker room. The BW e-ink has better contrast.

More front light is needed on colour e-ink than on the BW e-ink display.

The display is laminated so the pixels, or e-ink particles, look like they are on the surface, and the viewing angle is terrific with no colour shift or drop in brightness from extreme angle.

Colour e-ink can only display a limited number of colours so certain colour information may be lost. E.g. When using Google Maps, it is difficult to see the colour, shape and outlines of buildings with Default refresh mode. The workaround is to use custom setting with contrast increased to the max.

Another common problem with limited colours is it's difficult to see the the outline of textboxes on webpages or UI in certain apps. When you can't see the text box, you won't know where to tap.

Colour quality is affected by the refresh mode. Default mode will get you decent colour quality with fast refresh. Magazine and Comic will get you better colour quality but noticeably slower refresh, and with certain apps there may be flashing. Video mode will provide even faster refresh but colours will look more grainy.

Refresh mode is can be set and remembered for specific apps. E.g. You can set Default for reading apps, Video for Youtube app, Magazine or Comic for apps where you want better image quality.

Text quality

Text looks alright. Reading experience is alright. Reading on e-ink is definitely more comfortable compared to reading on LCDs and OLED displays, especially for long periods of time.

Reading experience on BW e-ink display is better though because of the better contrast.

6.1-inch display is definitely not big enough for reading comics.

OS and software features

The phone I have has firmware 2.8.6 and Bigme OS 5. There are still some bugs, but none are deal breakers. E.g. Vibration works for incoming calls but I can't get haptic for typing even when setting is enabled.

Bigme OS 5 is quite basic. There aren't many features compared to phones from other companies but it's alright.

The phone runs on Android 14 with official support for Google Play Store. One downside is there probably won't be any Android OS updates.

The floating ball is quite useful and can provide 9 more shortcuts. Downside is the floating is difficult to locate as it would partially hide behind the edges of the display.

The fingerprint scanner is secure enough to work with banking apps.

Google Wallet, Google Pay and NFC worked fine for me.

App switch involves flipping through pages of opened apps. It's faster to just swipe up to home screen and open the app you want.

Here in Singapore, there's a Singpass app that every citizen needs. I was unable to perform successful face scan with the front camera no matter how many times I tried. This is the same problem I had with Bigme HiBreak Pro BW. So to set up Singpass you will have to ask the government to send a letter to your address with a setup code instead of relying of face identification.

Performance

The phone has the Mediatek Dimensity 1080 processor and 8GB of RAM. Overall performance is responsive, limited only by the refresh rate of e-ink. There's no frustrating lag or stutter. I don't have any complains with performance.

I did not test gaming because this phone is not made for gaming.

Battery life

According to my calculations, the phone has around 12 hours of battery life with normal usage and front light enabled.

I am able to get 2 days of use with this phone easily.

Conclusion

This is a good phone for people who find LCDs and OLED displays too glaring. One side benefit is this phone may help you reduce the time spent on social media and watching videos because visuals don't look as good on e-ink vs full-colour displays.

The phone is made with mostly plastic and build quality seems fine. Overall performance with the Mediatek Dimensity 1080 and 8GB RAM is mostly smooth and responsive, but limited by latency of e-ink technology.

Main downside is the canvas of Kaleido 3 colour e-ink display is noticeably darker compared to BW e-ink canvas. This means you almost always have to enable front light to get better contrast. I managed to get around 12 hour of battery life, based on calculation, if using the phone non-stop with front light enabled.

Between the colour and BW version, I would go with the BW version because I don't feel like colour is necessary if I've already decided to get a phone with e-ink display.

Pros and cons at a glance
+ Design looks good
+ 8GB RAM, 256GB storage
+ Smooth responsive performance
+ Matte display has excellent legibility under sunlight
+ Fast refresh (depends on mode)
+ Decent audio quality
+ Comes with case
+ Dual 5G SIM
+ Has GPS, gyroscope
+ 12hr battery life
+ NFC, Infrared
+ Fingerprint unlock
+ Has Google Play Store
- Darker e-ink canvas, front light is almost always needed
- Android 14 is not the latest version
- No SD card
- Not likely to have Android OS updates
- Haptic feedback does not work consistently, possible software bug
- Kaleido 3 has limited colours

Availability

The Bigme HiBreak Pro Color is available from Bigme online store.