This is the world’s first dual-screen color E Ink and OLED phone — I can't wait to try it

• The Bigme Hibreak Dual has screens on both the front and back
• One is an OLED, and one is a color E Ink, which is a world-first combination
• We've previously seen similar phones with grayscale E Ink displays

As a fan both of ereaders and weird phones, an upcoming phone from Bigme, the Bigme Hibreak Dual, is exactly the sort of device I’ve been waiting for.

The Hibreak Dual is a dual-screen phone with a display on each side, one of which is OLED (or possibly LCD, depending on which of the company's posts you believe), and the other being a color E Ink screen. That latter display is likely to be the E Ink Kaleido 3, which features in many of the best ereaders, and which Bigme already uses in its single-screen HiBreak Pro phone.

According to Bigme, this is a world-first, though it’s worth noting that we’ve seen similar ideas before, with, for example, the Yotaphone series putting an e-paper screen on one side and an OLED or LCD display on the other. However, those phones used grayscale e-paper, not the color we’ll be getting here.

Those Yotaphone models are also ancient, and while the Hisense A6L landed with a similar dual-screen design more recently, even that is a few years old now. So, a new model — particularly with the addition of color — could be welcome.

So far, little is known about this Bigme phone, but it’s worth noting that the brand has experience in making e-paper phones, such as the Hibreak S, pictured at the top of this article. In the past, these devices have just had a single screen, combining the benefits of E Ink — such as less battery drain and less potential for eye strain — with full phone functionality.

The best of both worlds

With the Hibreak Dual, it’s likely that the company will also address the issues of E Ink, such as it having a much lower refresh rate. Here, you’ll presumably be able to choose whether you want to use the E Ink screen or the OLED display, depending on what you want to do.

Obviously, you’d choose E Ink for books, but you may also opt for it when you want to conserve battery life or reduce distractions. Meanwhile, the OLED screen would presumably give you a conventional smartphone experience.

And with the E Ink display here being capable of color, it should be an upgrade on the older versions of this idea we’ve seen from other brands. That said, this is sure to be a niche device, so it will be interesting to see how successful it is.

That success will, in part, depend on the phone's specs, and we’re yet to learn about those. But with Bigme claiming the Hibreak Dual is coming soon, we’ll hopefully learn more before long.

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