Would You Buy This Smartphone With Two Screens – One E-Ink, One LCD?
Over the past few years, the Chinese e-reader Boox Palma has gained cult status in the US thanks to its phone-like form factor, Android compatibility, and less addictive monochrome screen—personally, I think it’s helped me spend more time reading and less time scrolling on my iPhone . But as much as I love it, I still always have to carry my phone with me, because the Palma— even the newer Palma 2 Pro with mobile data —is simply not suitable for many of the tasks I use my phone for, including navigation and contactless payments. However, a dual-use device that will serve both purposes may soon be available. Bigme, another Chinese tech company best known for its e-ink devices like e-readers and digital notepads, has announced plans to release a smartphone with two displays—an LCD screen on one side and a color e-ink screen on the other.
The world’s first color smartphone with e-ink and LCD display.
This new phone doesn’t yet have a price or release date, but Bigme has a placeholder page promising that the “Hibreak Dual” will be “the world’s first smartphone with color e-ink and LCD display = dual screens.” The company also posted cryptic comments on Reddit , urging people to “reserve a front-row seat” by signing up for a newsletter to receive more information about the device when it becomes available.
While the technology sounds intriguing, I have some doubts. Bigme does have experience with e-ink smartphones—the company has released several such devices , including the Hibreak Pro, which is widely regarded as the best e-ink smartphone in a (very) niche market. But I tried it, and it has the same problem as Bigme’s e-readers: absolutely terrible software . I assume the “Hibreak Dual” will use a similar OS, with the added technical complexity of having to optimize for two display formats. So my interest is piqued, but I’m skeptical that the user experience will be good enough to make me consider ditching iOS.
While the exact price is still unknown, the Hibreak Dual will likely be at least on par with the budget iPhone 17e—the existing Hibreak Pro costs between $400 and $430 depending on the model and current Bigme promotions.
This isn’t exactly the first dual-screen device.
While Bigme may be right that the Hibreak Dual was the first phone with an LCD screen and color e-ink, it’s not quite as innovative as it seems: Yota, a now-defunct Russian mobile phone manufacturer, introduced the “Yotaphone” back in 2012. This device featured a 4.2-inch LCD screen on the front and a black-and-white e-ink display on the back. Although several different models were released over the years , it never gained widespread international popularity, and Yota went bankrupt in 2019.