Bigme Firmware Version 4.6

Current sub-versions: 4.6.6 (Bigme B1051C), 6.6.0 (Bigme B751C), 2.6.0 (Bigme B7)

This page takes a deep dive into the firmware that is pre-installed on Bigme e-ink tablets to help potential customers decide if Bigme tablets have the software functionality that they need.

Bigme appear to have a different firmware version number for every single model of tablet they sell. For example, at the time of writing, the B7 was on v2, the B751C was on v6, and the B1051C was on v4. But the general functionality of each of these versions is pretty much the same.

Bigme manufacture a lot of products, so certain functions will be different across the range (e.g. only products with a physical camera or page-turn buttons will need the respective software for these features), but things like the note-taking app, reading app, and system software are almost identical (with maybe one or two subtle differences).

I started out trying to maintain a separate firmware page for each Bigme device, but this soon became untenable – Bigme launch several new products a year and with every new firmware release, I’d have to update multiple firmware pages, which was a a massive drain on my time. So, I now only maintain one page for Bigme firmware, and where applicable, I will highlight any software differences between individual devices.

As well as having little consistency in their firmware version numbering across products, Bigme seem to also be inconsistent in the vocabulary they use. This became evident to me in recent release notes, which described one particular update in three different ways across three different Bigme devices (see pic below):

I wanted to make a point of mentioning this so that readers know the version numbers I use may not be entirely correct across all Bigme tablets, and there may be some subtle or specific differences in the software that I may not have covered. So this firmware review should be taken more as a general overview of Bigme software.

What’s new in this version?

I currently have access to three Bigme devices, and their latest firmware updates are included below – other Bigme devices may have additional device-specific firmware updates.

B1051C (v4.6.6)

• Reduce the flickering and afterimage in fast swipe mode
• Eink Center: Added color restoration function in fast swipe mode (actually called color reproduction on the tablet itself)
• Improved device battery life
• Added a cluster server in the US region to improve transcription and download speeds
• Meeting records support canvas settings
• App market adds multiple languages
• Update the boot page, learning and practice book mode, and the Privacy Policy content in BigmeGPT
• System update adds the option to no longer prompt pop-up windows
• Adapt the display of black templates in notes
• Fixed issues with note insertion, loading, lassoing, and rotation in some scenarios
• Fix the problem of abnormal application installation in some scenarios
• Optimize the system, fix other known issues to improve user experience

B751C (v6.6.0)

• Reduce the flickering and ghosting in fast refresh mode
• Support Power and volume+ combination keys to enter recovery mode
• The homepage supports key page turning in tablet mode
• Added a cluster server in the US region to improve transcription and download speeds
• Meeting records support canvas settings
• Update the boot page, learning and practice book mode, and the Privacy Policy content in BigmeGPT
• The system update adds the option to no longer prompt pop-up windows
• Adapt black template is displayed in the note
• Fixed issues with note insertion, loading, lassoing, and rotation in some scenarios
• Optimized the system, fixed other known issues, and improved the user experience

B7 (v2.6.0)

• Optimize the system and improve the user experience
• Reduce the flickering and afterimage in the fast brush mode
• Improve the handwriting speed
• Solve the problem that the hand pen may not be able to write on the screen at the same time (?)
• Support Power and volume+ combination keys to enter recovery mode
• Improve the compatibility of OTA upgrades
• Fix the display problem when waking up from sleep in some scenarios
• Fix the touch failure problem caused by erasing the end of the pen in some scenarios (?)
• Fix the color bar display problem of page turning keys and input method operations (?)
• Fix the application lock in some scenarios. The problem of locked applications disappearing.
• Fixed the problem of split screen rotation notes being lost when exiting in some scenarios
• Fixed other known issues

The above text was copied exactly as it appeared in Bigme’s release notes. This is the first time I’ve written the Bigme release notes ad verbatim because they are only shown before you upgrade. After that, I can’t find them anywhere on Bigme tablets, nor on the Internet. With other brands, I will usually make a few notes before upgrading then refer back to the release notes as I write my review, but this has been impossible with Bigme because they’re no longer accessible! This time, however, I took a photo of them before upgrading 🙂

There’s not a lot for me to comment on for this particular release. This is partly because I don’t use Bigme devices enough to notice any subtle difference. For example, although I checked to see if I could see any improvements to flickering and afterimages in ‘fast-swipe’ mode, it didn’t look a whole lot difference to how I remembered it before.

Bigme have added a US Server option to improve download and transcription speeds – I live in the UK, so this didn’t make a lot of difference to me.

Other than the bugfixes (which are always welcome because Bigme firmware is rather buggy), everything else seems a bit underwhelming.

Operating system

• Runs on open Android
• Android version differs between models (usually between Android 11 and Android 14)
• Supports installation of third-party apps from the Google Play Store

The Bigme Homescreen

• When you first turn on a Bigme device, there is a bar on the left hand side, and a bar across the top
• The left-bar contains icons for different apps/utilities, including:
  • Notes (your notebooks)
  • Library (your documents/ebooks)
  • Meeting records (special notebook that also records voice)
  • Storage (browse the Android filesystem)
  • App center (browse installed apps)
  • Office (view DOC, XLS, and PPT files on your tablet)
  • Scan document (scan and use OCR text recognition on a paper document with the camera – also supports image upload)
  • Voice translation (record voice and translate it to a different language)
  • Cloud – browse your cloud drives
  • Task list – Simple task management app
• You can customize the left-bar to contain icons for any of your installed apps
• The top bar contains icons for various system-wide options, including:
  • Home – return to the homescreen
  • Refresh settings – configure the refresh settings in the E-Ink Centre (see below)
  • Task Explorer – browse and switch between the apps that are currently open
  • Apps – icons for installed apps
  • Settings – system-wide settings and configuration
  • Control Center (see below)
  • Back – Go back to the previous screen
  • Date and time
  • Wifi signal
  • Battery charge
• The top bar can also be accessed from within other applications by swiping down from the top of the screen
• This layout is called “Office Style“
• There is another optional layout (in Settings) called “Tablet Style“. This removes the left toolbar and has a condensed toolbar across the bottom with icons for Meeting Notes, Notes, Library, and Storage. The rest of the screen is filled with icons for all the installed apps (much like a regular Android tablet/phone). App icons can be dragged around to reorder them. There does not appear to be any support for widgets.

Control Center

• Tapping the downwards arrow on the top toolbar the top of the screen (or swiping down from the top-right) opens the Control Center, which gives you lots configuration options, including:
  • Wifi – configure wifi connections
  • Bluetooth – pair with BT devices
  • E-Ink Center (see below)
  • Global Handwriting – Write with the stylus on any screen (and save it as a screen dump/PNG)
  • Split screen – open two apps side-by-side
  • Process manage – View and switch between all open apps
  • Screenshot – Save an image (PNG) of the current screen
  • Miracast – share your screen with other devices
  • Speed up – Not entirely sure – I think it releases memory by closing all currently used apps. Tapping the button just displays a message saying ‘It has been cleaned to the best condition‘
  • Record screen – record what is happening on the screen (in MP4 format)
  • Touch – Disable touchscreen (stylus only input)
  • Power management – takes you to power management section of Settings (see below)
  • Settings – opens the settings
  • Screen rotation – toggle on/off auto-orientation between portrait and landscape
  • Frontlight – adjust brightness and warmth (also has some preset option for Daytime, Night, “Bedding” [sic] and a user-customisable preset)
  • Volume – Increase/decrease volume (also options to adjust volume for ringtone, notifications, and alarms)

E-Ink Center

• The E-Ink Center is used to configure custom viewing/refresh settings for apps and documents to get the most comfortable screen display.
• Bigme uses its own proprietary xRapid technology to provide faster refresh rates than regular e-ink tablets and reduce ghosting
• The default refresh mode can be configured for each application, which means that you won’t have to keep changing it as you flick between apps.
• The refresh modes are:
  • HD256 (magazine) – highest quality
  • Regal (comic) – color over detail
  • Default (Normal/fast) – suitable for general tasks
  • Extreme (video) – fast refresh rates but with more detail loss
• As well as preset refresh modes, the E-Ink Center also allows you to change several other settings, including:
  • Anti-shake (smooth refreshes)
  • Auto clean (cleans up ghosting)
  • Contrast – make the color deeper
  • Vivid Enhancement
  • Color Brightness
  • Full Refresh Frequency – set the number of operations before a full refresh
  • DPI Settings – adjust overall page/font size for the app
  • Apply Bleach (Text enhancement, icon, and background color)
• So, for example, if you are viewing video you would want to use the Extreme refresh setting to get the fastest frame rate (at the cost of image quality)

Gestures

• Several gestures are pre-configured (however you can customize them).
• Examples include a right-swipe from the left edge to go back to the previous screen, and a swipe up from the centre of the bottom edge to go to the home screen

Filesystem

• Bigme e-ink tablets use the Android filesystem, which can be accessed from the Storage button/screen on the left toolbar of the homescreen
• From here, you can see how much of the tablet’s storage capacity has been used and 8 folders (Picture, Audio, Video, Doc, Package, APKs, All, and External Storage).
• This is only a small subset of the actual Android files and folders (the full list can be accessed by tapping the Storage button at the top, or ‘All‘).
• However, you will usually access your files via the Library button/screen (for your ebooks and documents) and via the Notes button/screen (for your notebooks), so for the most part, you won’t need to access the Storage screen at all (except maybe for dropping a font or dictionary into the relevant system folder).
• A long-press on any file will open a dialog box with file management options, such as upload (to a cloud drive), rename, delete, QR Code Sharing (share the file on the Bigme Cloud and allow access via QR code), and other (open with another app).
• So, for example, if you have GMail installed, you can share any file as an email attachment.

Library management

• When you tap on your Library, you will be shown all the documents and ebooks from the Books folder on your tablet.
• You can also import files/documents from other folders (either a local import or wifi import)
• You can organise your library with hierarchical folders and search by filename
• Library items can be displayed as a grid or a list and can be sorted by name creation date, or update date

Notebook management

• When you tap on the Notes button, you will see a list of all your notebooks.
• These can be organised into hierarchical folders and can be filtered and sorted. Like the Library, Notes can be displayed as a list or as icons (with a thumbnail of the notebook).
• You can Encrypt notebooks (this removes the notebook from the Bigme Cloud Drive, and makes it only accessible on the device that encrypted it)
• You can search for a particular notebook by its title (handwriting search is not supported)
• A long-press on a notebook provides options for moving, renaming, and deleting the notebook. You can also encrypt, and set the notebook’s thumbnail as a screensaver.
• Tapping on a notebook opens it up in the native note-taking app.

File transfers

• Because Bigme tablets use Android, there are a multitude of ways to transfer files to and from other devices.
• A long-press on any file provides a Share option, which means that the file can be shared with any third-party apps that are installed. This includes email apps (such as Gmail), messaging apps (such as Whatsapp), and cloud drives (such as Dropbox).
• You can also share files via Bluetooth.
• Using the Bigme Companion App (see below), you can upload files (e.g. from your smartphone) to the Bigme Cloud and then access them from your Bigme tablet
• You can configure notebooks to be automatically uploaded to the Bigme Cloud (where you can view them in the Bigme app)
• You can also connect your Bigme tablet to your computer using a USB cable to transfer files.
• Notebooks are slightly different because they use a proprietary format that cannot be viewed on other devices. To open/view a Bigme notebook on another platform, it must first be exported.
• Notebooks can be exported as PNG, or PDF. You can also share them via the Bigme cloud using a QR code, or to other Bigme devices using a PIN code (also via the Bigme cloud)
• Files can also be transferred to a Bigme tablet via third-party apps, downloaded from websites (e.g. you can download files from the Internet using a web browser, or open email attachments)

File synchronisation

• Bigme automatically syncs your library and notebooks to the Bigme Cloud so that your files and reading data (such as your annotations, bookmarks, and current page) will be available across all your Bigme devices
• However, you are not required to do this – you can just maintain a local copy instead.
• Bigme also supports automatically exporting exporting notebooks as PDF and synchronising them with Baidu Cloud, Google Drive and OneNote (by binding these drives to the tablet). These are the only native cloud drive options but the apps for other third-party cloud drives can also be installed, and notebooks can be manually uploaded to them.

Companion App

• Bigme provides a companion app for Android devices.
• From the app, you can access your meeting notes (requires manual export), notebooks, book notes (annotations), and upload files to the Bigme Cloud (which are then synced with the tablet)
• Bigme provide 10Gb of cloud storage for free, with the option to buy additional space in chinks of 5Gb/Year for 5 Yuan (less than 1USD), or 10Gb/Year for 9 Yuan. I’ve not bought any extra space so cannot comment on the payment processing, but 10Gb should be plenty for most users.

Settings

• Bigme tablets have a great many configuration options, accessed via the Settings icon on the left toolbar of the home screen. It includes sections for:
  • Bigme Cloud Account
  • Wifi – configure wifi connections
  • Bluetooth – configure Bluetooth devices
  • Stylus – calibration and stylus configuration (configuration options only applicable for styluses with customizable buttons or BT connection)
  • Page up/Page Down definition – for devices with physical buttons, configure what they do (volume, page turn or d-pad)
  • Sleep time – configure the time delay before the device enters sleep mode
  • Shutdown – configure the time delay before the device shuts down
  • Power manage – various power management options, including sleep cover, and low power mode
  • Home screen Style – set the home screen to Office style (with left toolbar, as described above) or Tablet style (with a smaller bottom toolbar with icons for meeting notes, notes, library, and storage, and the rest of the screen displaying app icons, similar to an Android tablet/phone)
  • Menu manage – Toggle on/off the icons on the left toolbar (includes all installed apps, so can be customised for what you use the most, but only displayed with ‘Office style’)
  • Language
  • System font size (small, medium, or large)
  • Date/time – set the timezone
  • Input method (layout of the on-screen keyboard – either Android/AOSP or Bigme)
  • Rotation – toggle auto-orientation of the screen using the g-sensor on/off
  • Gesture settings – configure system-wide gestures
  • Device password – set a password and biometrics (fingerprints) for securing the device
  • Google service – register the device for Google Play Store
  • Account manage – bind cloud drives for synchronising notebooks (in PDF format). Supported cloud drives are OneNote, Baidu, and Google Drive
  • System update – check for and install firmware updates
  • Log report – report a software crash to Bigme
  • After-sales service – QR codes that link to the Bigme website, Whatsapp support, and Skype support
  • About the device – device info, including serial number, MAC address, firmware version, hardware specs etc. Also access the User Manual, User Guide, and FAQs

Native note-taking software

• Bigme’s native note-taking app has the following features:

Navigation & canvas

• When you create a notebook, most of the screen area is taken up by the canvas on which you write.
• If you have chosen a notebook template (see below), this will be displayed in the canvas area ready for you to write on top of.
• There are two floating/collapsible toolbars; one on the top and one on the left. They can be dragged around the screen and placed wherever is comfortable for you.
• You can flick between pages by swiping left and right. You can also tap the forward/back buttons in the top-right to navigate through your pages or access the page overview (see below).

Toolbar (brushes, eraser, lasso-selection etc.)

• The toolbar on the top edge has buttons/icons for:
  • Exit the notebook
  • Save the notebook
  • Layers (up to five layers are supported, which can hidden/reordered/locked, but not merged)
  • Canvas (set the canvas size, or trim it)
  • Lasso-select tool (selections can be cut/copied/pasted, rotated, moved, or converted to text – they cannot be resized)
  • Zoom
  • Hide the left toolbar
  • Export
  • Undo/redo
  • Page overview (including buttons for next/previous pages)
• The toolbar on the left has buttons for:
  • 4x pen ‘slots‘ (for your favourite brush/pen types)
  • Eraser
  • Add page (insets a new page after the one you are on)
  • Delete page
  • Template
  • Shapes (draw straight lines, shapes, and arrows)
  • Filling (block fill an enclosed area)
  • OCR – tools for Gesture Recognition (delete handwriting by scribbling through it – does not work for shapes/straight lines), Shape tool (hold the stylus for a second after drawing a line/shape and the edges will be automatically straightened), handwriting-to-text conversion
  • Insert – insert a photo, text, attachment, the time, or a link (to a local notebook or document, or a webpage) into the notebook
  • Gestures (toggle on/off certain gestures)
  • More – the overflow menu has options for encrypting/renaming the notebook and customizing the icons on the left toolbar

Brushes/pens and eraser

• Bigme devices have the following brush/pen options:
  • Pen (fountain) – pressure-sensitive
  • Pencil – pressure-sensitive
  • Brush – pressure-sensitive
  • BallPen – not pressure-sensitive
  • MarkPen – not pressure-sensitive
• All pens/brushes can be customized for five incremental thicknesses, and 16 colours
• The eraser tool has 5 thicknesses (for area erase). It can also be set as a selection eraser, and stroke eraser. There are also options to erase everything on the current layer or on all layers.

AI Features

• AI/OCR features (also known as Smart Scribe on Boox tablets), can be toggled on and off on the toolbar. These AI features are:
  • Shape perfection – when you draw a freehand shape and hold the stylus on the screen, the edges will straighten automatically
  • Gesture recognition – erase pen strokes by scribbling over it instead of switching to the erase tool, and draw a rectangle or concentric circles around any element to select it without switching to the lasso-selection tool
  • Text recognition – convert the handwriting on the page to text and then either insert it into the page as text or export/share it as a PDF or TXT file (there are language packs for over 70 languages)

Templates

• Bigme provides more than 80 templates to choose from, including blank, lined, squared, stave, todo list, monthly planner etc.
• Templates effectively create a bottom layer for each page in your notebook, which you can write on top of.
• You can set templates on a per-page basis (you don’t have to use the same template throughout the whole notebook).
• Bigme also supports custom templates in both PNG and PDF formats. You can add your own custom templates by dropping the template file in the Storage/noteTemplate directory.

Page overview

• The Page Overview is accessed by tapping on the page number in the top right.
• This displays a list of all the pages in your notebook (in blocks of 9 pages). Tapping on a thumbnail takes you directly to that page.
• You cannot manipulate pages from this screen (e.g. you cannot long-press to select them and reorder them) – it is for navigation purposes only

Exporting

• Notebooks can be manually exported to your local filesystem in PDF or PNG format. You can then share the file with other apps (e.g. cloud drives, email etc.)
• You can also configure notebooks to be automatically exported (as PDF) and synchronised with the Bigme Cloud or a supported third-party cloud drive
• You cannot select individual pages to export/share (only the whole notebook)

Text notebooks

• It is also possible to create text-based notebooks, which are useful for creating text documents using a keyboard (either a tablet with a keyboard folio, such as the B1051C or with a Bluetooth keyboard hooked up). It is basically a simple word processing app.
• Text notebooks support six fonts, and up to seven font sizes as well as coloured text, bold, itealic, underline, strikethrough, subscript, and superscript.
• The are also six levels of headings and normal paragraph text styles
• Adjustments to word and line spacing is supported, as are page margins
• Text can be aligned and indented and documents can be searched
• There is support for bullets (ordered and unordered)
• It is also possible to insert photos, XLS files(?) and files as attachments (but no way that I could find to insert a hyperlink)
• These notebooks can only be exported as TXT files, which removes all the formatting

Native reading & annotation software

• The Bigme native reading software can open the following file formats: PDF, EPUB, EPUB3, DOC, DOCX, TXT, RTF, HTML, FB2, CBZ, CBR, OEB, AZW3, MOBI, PRC, TXT, ZIP
• It cannot open DRM-Protected e-books, however, third-party e-readers can be used. So, for example, you can read DRM-Protected Kobo ebooks by installing and using the Kobo Reader app, or Kindle books by installing the Kindle app.
• However, because you are using a different e-reading app, you will not have all the configuration options provided by the native reading app (for example, you cannot write directly onto ebooks viewed in other apps, although you can use the Global Handwriting tool to write on page and then save a screenshot of it). Most e-reading apps will still let you highlight passages of text and insert text-based notes.
• Different file formats behave slightly differently and have slightly different configuration options.
• PDFs are usually a notable exception with regards configuration options because they are not ‘flowable‘. Essentially, this means that the text is burned into the page and cannot be altered (e.g. the font-size cannot be changed).
• In contrast, with a text-based file, such as an ePUB, when you increase the font size, some of the text reflows onto the next page. With a PDF, whatever text is shown on page 1, stays on page 1 in the exact position that the author intended.
• This means that if you do a pinch-to-zoom action within a reflowable document (e.g. ePub), the font size will increase/decrease and some text will overflow onto the next page. However, if you do the same action in a PDF, it will zoom in and out of the page instead.

Top menu

• Tapping the centre of the screen reveals menu options at the top and bottom of the screen. This section deals with the options at the top menu.
• There is a single bar with the following buttons:
  • < [back] – exit book
  • Gestures – turn off page turns by tapping the left/right of the screen (you have to swipe instead) – this can prevent accidental page turns when using the stylus
  • Annotations – activate the annotation toolbar so that you can use the pen. The annotation toolbar has 4 pen slots (pen, brush, ballpen and highlighter), lasso select, and eraser. The highlighter can be used to select/highlight text.
  • Search – search the text
  • E-Ink center – change refresh mode and related settings
  • Settings – several more additional settings, including the export location, dictionary, toggle bookmarks on/off etc.
• If Bookmarks are turned on, you can tap the star in the top right to bookmark a page

Bottom menu

• Tapping the centre of the screen reveals menu options at the top and bottom of the screen. This section deals with the options at the bottom menu.
• There are five sections of options; Contents, Progress, Format, Contrast, and Split View. With PDF files, there is an additional Navigation option.
• The Contents section shows a list of all the chapters of the ebook. You can also view a list of your Bookmarks, a list of your annotations (highlighted text) and a list of pages that you have handwritten on. You can quickly navigate to these pages by tapping on an item in one of the lists.
• You can upload bookmarks, annotations, and pages with handwriting to the Bigme Cloud, and then view them in the Book Notes section of the Bigme app
• You can also export bookmarks, annotations, and pages with handwriting to the local filesystem (by default the exportBooks folder). Bookmarks and annotations are saved as TXT files and pages with handwriting on them are saved as PNG files (screenshots)
• The Progress section displays a reading progress bar that shows how much of the ebook you have read so far. You can flick to the next or previous pages by tapping the left/right arrows or turn many pages at once by dragging the progress bar.
• Below this are three buttons:
  • TTS – activate text-to-speech (so a robot voice reads the text out loud)
  • Auto page-turn – configure a timer for automatically turning the pages (e.g. if you are playing an instrument and your hands are not free to turn the page of sheet music yourself)
  • Dark mode
• In the Format section, you can configure several layout and formatting settings, including:
  • Font
  • Font size
  • Font weight
  • Line, and paragraph spacing
  • Margins
  • Indents
  • Portrait/landscape
  • Double-page view (view two pages at once in landscape mode like an open book)
• With PDFs, these options are different:
  • Switch between single page view and scrolling view
  • Zoom in and out
  • Crop – fit screen, fit width etc.
  • Increase/decrease margins
• In the Contrast section, there are options for text and image contrast (or, for PDFs, Watermark bleaching and Contrast)
• In the Split-View section, you can open another app alongside the reading app, such as a notebook, or translate tool. This will split the view into two panes (either landscape or portrait) and is useful for taking long-form notes as you read or being able to cross-reference between two books.
• Finally, in the Navigation section (PDFs only) you can reflow the page to alter the viewability.

Context menu

• If you highlight a word (or passage of text) by long-pressing it or using the highlighter tool, a context menu opens up with a number of options:
  • Highlight – Highlight an important or inspiring passage (with various formatting options)
  • Copy – copy text to clipboard
  • Sticky note – add a sticky note (text only)
  • Wikipedia – Look up the text on Wikipedia
  • Dictionary – Dictionary definition of a single word
  • Translate – Translate the word/phrase into another language
  • Change highlight appearance (e.g. highlight color, underline, wavy underline, dotted underline etc.)
  • Share – send the quote to another app (as text)
  • AI – use the text to interact with AI Chat

Handwriting, sticky notes & highlights

• There are three ways to make notes in your books; handwriting, sticky notes, and highlights.
• Highlights are passages of text that you have highlighted with the highlighter pen, or by long-pressing. All highlights can be accessed through the Contents section (discussed above).
• Sticky notes can be added to highlighted text by tapping the Sticky Note button. You will then be provided with a small canvas to make text notes, using the on-screen keyboard. Sticky notes are text-only (not handwriting). There appears to be no quick way of knowing if a highlighted passage has a sticky note linked to it (other brands add a small icon to make it obvious). Sticky notes cannot be exported.
• Handwriting is the ability to use the stylus to write directly onto documents in the Bigme e-reading app. Using the stylus, you can write anywhere on the page (although the margins are usually the best place because you won’t obscure the text). You can also use this feature to fill in electronic forms. Any page that you have written on will show up in the Contents section (discussed above).
• Although you can write on most file formats, these handwritten annotations can only be viewed on Bigme devices. For example, if you write on an ePub and then access the same file from your computer, the handwriting will not be shown (although you can export the pages you have handwritten on as PNG files). PDFs can retain the handwriting but they have to be manually exported (as a new PDF file).

Other native software

• In addition to the native reading and note-taking software, Bigme tablets have several other apps preinstalled.

Web Browser

• A Google Chrome-based web browser
• It’s a pretty decent browser, and works well for pretty much all websites but you might want to install your own preferred browser from Google Play Store.
• I found I had to play about with the settings in the E-Ink Center a bit to get the best browsing experience – and occasionally, this meant changing the settings for specific websites. It’s a matter of tweaking the settings to get the best compromise between quality, speed, and amount of ghosting.

BigmeGPT

• An AI chatbot (requires wifi and a Bigme account)
• You can ask it questions and get responsive from the generative AI backend
• There is an option for it to compose a written article based on the theme you provide
• There is also an AI drawing tool – you give it a subject and it will return a PNG picture

Calendar

• This app shows your calendar (monthly view), along with a section to record handwritten memos for each day. It also shows a log of the books/documents you’ve read and the notebooks you’ve used for each day.
• It cannot be synchronised with third-party calendars (such as Google Calendar or Outlook Calendar).

Global Handwriting

Global handwriting is a feature first introduced by Bigme a couple of years ago to overcome the issue of using the stylus in third-party apps. There are three modes:

• Handwriting mode: Optimizes handwriting in apps such as OneNote. Essentially, writing directly into OneNote (and similar apps) from an e-ink tablet suffers from terrible lag. To get around this, the Bigme software will draw any pen marks immediately onto the screen and then send the strokes to OneNote in the background whilst you continue writing. A few moments later, the temporary strokes will be transformed into proper strokes within OneNote. Whilst it does improve the experience quite a bit, there are still some performance issues – for example, there is a flash/flicker when the strokes update, and if you are using a different pen in the OneNote app (e.g. a thicker one), every so often the thin temporary strokes change to thicker ones. Personally, I find this very off-putting. However, there is no other real solution to the issue and Bigme have provided a good workaround.
• Reading mode: Supports handwriting in other reading apps such as Kindle and Kobo. Again, it is another workaround. You can write with the stylus on top of pages in these apps and then a PNG screenshot of the page is saved in a Notes List, which is a separate Bigme app (essentially, a catalogue of screenshots of the pages you’ve written). It’s not native support for handwriting in reading apps (that would require co-development with each third-party app developer), but its a very good makeshift solution.
• Picture mode: This provides support for handwriting on a temporary layer over any screen. When it is enabled, you can write notes on the screen in any app and then save a PNG screenshot of both your notes and the underlying screen.

Other Tools/Utilities

• There are various other tools and utilities, including:
  • Meeting Records – a special note-taking app, which allows you to record audio in meetings whilst writing and transcribe it to text
  • Google Play Store – for installing third-party apps
  • Office – import office files (DOC, XLS, PPT) for viewing in the native reading app (I believe it converts them to PDF)
  • Voice translation – translates voice recordings into other languages
  • B Translation – translates TXT and DOC documents (up to 5Mb in size) into other languages
  • Task List – A very basic task list app that supports handwriting-to-text conversion
  • Calculator
  • Dictionary
  • Music – a basic MP3 Player
  • Navigation Ball – a customizable navigation system with quick access buttons – personally, it gets in my way and I disable it
  • Sound Recorder – a basic voice recorder
  • Screensaver – configure custom backgrounds for when the tablet is asleep or powered off. There are also options for a transparent screensaver, and one that shows the time and your calendar.
  • X-Mail – a basic email client (I didn’t try it)
  • XPhoto – a basic image viewer
  • Camera – Take photographs and record videos (for tablets with a camera only)
  • OneNote and the Kindle app are also preinstalled
  • Scan Document – Take a picture of a paper document and OCR it into text (this worked really well)

Third-party software

• Third-party Android apps can be installed from the Google Play Store.
• They can also be installed from other app stores (e.g. APKPure, F-Droid etc.) as well as installation via APK file.
• Most apps will install, however, performance can be variable. This is primarily due to the limitations of the e-ink screen and because the vast majority of apps were developed with faster screens in mind. Whilst e-ink is great for screen tasks that require low refresh rates (such as reading), they’re not so good for tasks that require faster refresh rates (such as video and gaming). So apps like Kindle and Kobo work well, but YouTube not-so-well. Some apps may suffer from latency and ghosting on an e-ink screen, which can make them frustrating to use and sometimes even completely unusable.
• Having said that, Bigme tablets do offer a good chance of running third-party apps, particularly those that use Bigme’s proprietary xRapid technology. A good example of this is web browsing. Historically, this has been quite clunky on e-ink screens, with the screen constantly flickering and ghosting as you scroll down the page – it was almost unusable. With Bigme tablets, web browsing on e-ink has become a much more user-friendly experience.
• However, be prepared to spend time playing around with the refresh settings in the E-Ink Center (see above) to find the best configuration for each app.
• Although you can install third-party e-readers (such as Kindle), you cannot write on them with the stylus (as you would in the native reading app), although Bigme do offer a workaround using their Global Handwriting Tool.
• As mentioned previously, Bigme provide a workaround for an improved writing experience with the stylus in apps such as OneNote but there are limitations, and it is not as smooth or slick as using these apps on regular (non-eink) screens)

Overall Verdict

Firmware Overview