Bigme has released a new ereader with a 6″ color E Ink screen called the Bigme B6 (they really should start coming up with better names for their devices) and it has some interesting features for the price.
At $169 on Amazon, it’s only $10 more expensive than the Kobo Clara Colour, and it has some notable advantages over it. The fact the Bigme B6 runs Android 14 gives it a big edge in the versatility department since it can run Android apps (the Google Play Store is built-in).
The Bigme B6 also has some hardware upgrades. It has an octa-core CPU with 64GB of storage and 4GB of RAM, and it has a microSD card slot that supports cards up to 1TB in size. It also adds a microphone, a rotation sensor, and an external speaker. It has a 2100mAh battery, and it supports dual-band WiFi and Bluetooth. The weight is listed at 176 grams and the dimensions are 108 x 149 x 6.98mm.
One unique aspect of the Bigme B6 is it has virtual buttons below the screen that aren’t actually part of the E Ink display. This gives the screen more usable space without the navigation buttons taking up part of the screen. Bigme claims this makes it seem like it has a 6.3″ screen but with the size of a 6″ device. That’s an interesting marketing spin that I haven’t heard before.
Like all other 6″ color ereaders on the market, it uses a Kaleido 3 screen from E Ink with the usual 300ppi for black and white content and 150ppi for color. It has a frontlight with adjustable color temperature as well.
Since the Bigme B6 runs Android, it has some different software features not found on some other ereaders, including AI features. There are various customization settings too, and there are four different refresh modes to choose from for different types of content—magazine, comic, video, and default. It even supports real-time voice translations and text-to-speech.
Looks like every company is going color this year. The smart move for many companies might be to have a black and white variant for each sku. For me, a 9 or 10″ reader from Kobo would be ideal. I might be moved to try the overly complicated(for me) Boox. I expect Amazon will go to a color Scribe in the next year.
Not sure I see the point in the 6″ size with color, but they will sell well.
Concerning color on a 6 inch, I’ve read that color works better on a smaller screen. I have a couple of larger color devices, and I find them more engaging than B&W. If BOOX comes out with a 6 inch color, I expect I’ll replace my Page with it.
Concerning your desire for a 9 or 10 inch Kobo, I have the 8 inch Sage, which I find to be a very good configuration for reading ebooks. I don’t see what would be gained in a larger Kobo configuration. At the larger sizes, the versatility of the android devices comes into play – I have a BOOX Note Air 4 C which is great for pdfs, magazines, comics and apps like Reader. But I rarely read ebooks on it unless color is important.
But I think that the 8 – 9 size is a dead zone as far as the manufacturers of ebook readers are concerned. They seem to have all agreed that 7 inch is the sweet spot.
The Sage form factor is close to ideal for me…size, “grab able-bodiedness”and weight are a huge plus. I also have a Scribe which is pretty good, except for being slippery enough to feel like it will fall out of hand. If Kobo goes 10 inch in color, I will probably buy, especially if they toss in page turn buttons.
Ordered one from Amazon. I’ll replace my Pocketbook Verse with this. The Verse is a little slow and I’m curious about a 6″ color screen.
I received one about a week ago, got the $139 deal. The size and thinness is wonderful, but the screen for the color is grainy. I contacted them sent pictures and they said it will be fixed with the next system update.
150 equivalent ppi is trash. You’re cutting the resolution in half for the color accuracy of a cheap box of crayons. Color e-ink is not ready, and it might never be. The inclusion of the micro-SD card is welcome, but the LLM is not.