Color e-ink screen or normal display? This dual-screen phone offers both.

Phones with e-ink displays are good for reading, but bad for video playback and gaming. A solution to this problem emerged in 2010, when some manufacturers released dual-screen phones with a monochrome e-ink screen on one side and a conventional display on the other. Now, an up-and-coming manufacturer is reviving the trend.

e-ink brand big Me has teased the arrival of a dual-screen smartphone (h/t: Lilliputing). It claims that it is the world’s first smartphone to have both a color e-ink display and an LCD screen. The teaser image doesn’t give us a look at the dual-screen setup, but I’m assuming the color e-ink screen is on one side, while the LCD panel is on the other. See image below.

There have been dual-screen phones with e-ink and conventional displays before, such as the Yotaphone series (see top of page) and the Hisense A6. But those devices had monochrome e-ink displays, while BigMe earned its world-first claim by using a color e-ink panel.

BigMe has not revealed much about the phone, but has told reddit To tease the specifics. The company posted an image that hints at stylus support, NFC, 5G connectivity, and dual-SIM technology.

In any case, I’m really glad we’re finally seeing another dual-screen phone with both e-ink and a traditional display. This means you won’t have to compromise on your viewing experience. E-ink displays are easy on the eyes and exceptionally efficient, but their low refresh rates mean they’re generally poor for video playback and gaming. The company’s recent HiBreak Plus phone offers a 52Hz refresh rate and this is considered a high refresh rate for an e-ink screen. In contrast, other BigMe E-Ink phones offer a refresh rate of 21 to 30 Hz.

So having both screen types in one device makes a lot of sense, as you can switch between the displays depending on your current activity. I’m actually surprised we haven’t seen more phones like this in the years since Yota and Hisense released their products. So it is expected that major brands like Samsung and Xiaomi will introduce similar dual-screen phones in the near future.