Bigme B1051C Review

Design & Build

As I said in my unboxing, I was very impressed with the physical design and build of the Bigme 1051C.

For such a high-spec e-ink tablet, it is quite thin and light, comfortable to hold, and also looks rather stylish.

Of course, there are lighter and thinner tablets on the market, but none in this class of devices (which I would describe as ‘powerful productivity tablets‘). And certainly none that I know of with an integrated rear camera.

However, as I’ll explain later, the whole package gets a lot heavier when the tablet is inserted into the keyboard folio (to almost 1Kg in weight).

The screen is flush with the black border bezels and there is a plastic silver strip down the left-hand side. This comprises the whole screen, which has then been placed into a metal chassis/tray, which includes the microphone grilles on the top edge. I’ve found that having the front-facing microphone (rather than locating it on the edge) means that it is able to pick up audio really well. The metallic edges are smooth and slightly contoured, and the corners are nicely rounded.

The USB port (for charging and data transfer) is located centrally on the top edge of the tablet. I’ve said in previous reviews that I think this is the perfect placement for the USB because if the tablet is next to me on my desk, there is no need to loop or bend the cable as would be the case with if the port was on the side or bottom edges. Essentially, the port is at the side where the cable runs from.

Also on the top edge (right-hand side) is the speaker grille and the power button. The power button (with integrated fingerprint scanner) is not flush with the edge (it sticks out slightly), which makes it easy to find with your fingertips.

On the left edge (at the top) is the MicroSD card slot – Bigme provide a pin tool to open up the tray.

The bottom and right edges do not have any ports or buttons. However, I want to mention that part of the right edge is flattened and does not follow the same curvature of the other edges. This is to ensure that the stylus can form a strong magnetic connection to the tablet. The stylus has a flat edge as well, so when it is attached, there is a larger surface area for the magnetic bond. I’ve seen other tablets where the stylus falls off way too easily because the edge is curved.

Like the front screen, the rear panel feels plastic. At the top (towards the right-hand side) is the 16Mp camera lens (with flash). The camera is small and flush with the panel itself. On the right are five POGO pins, which are used to connect the tablet to keyboard folio (more on that later). There is also an orange Boox-style vertical orange stripe and the Bigme logo.

The whole unit itself feels robust and solidly constructed, and I must say I do really like design and build of the Bigme B1051C. There are lots of little considerations and attention to detail that I feel demonstrate that Bigme have taken a thoughtful approach to their hardware design. Examples include the flattened edge for the stylus, front-facing microphone, top-edge USB port, and a well-integrated camera.

Hardware Specs

Under the hood is 2.4GHz octa-core processor (ARM-Cortex-A55/A78) with 6Gb of RAM.

There’s also 128Gb of storage, and the option to expand storage using the MicroSD card slot.

Running it through the Geekbench 6 benchmarking app, it scored 1016 in the single core test and 2492 in the multi-core test (I ran the test three times and these numbers were the mean average).

This is the highest score of any e-ink tablet I’ve tested (and slightly better than the previous top-scorer, the Boox Tab Ultra C Pro). So, it’s safe to say that the Bigme 1051C is a very powerful beast!

Click here for the full CPU benchmark leaderboard.

Screen

The screen is 10.3″ (around A5-sized) and has colour capabilities (Kaleido 3). It is flush with bezels.

It has a monochrome resolution of 1860 x 2480 (300dpi) and a colour resolution of 930 x 1240 (150dpi).

Kaleido 3 – and colour e-ink in general – does have some compromises (which I explore here), but on the whole the B1051C implements colour really well.

One of the drawbacks of Kaleido 3 is that it makes the screen appear several shades darker than their monochrome counterparts. Monochrome e-ink tablets have a visibly ‘whiter‘ background.

However, this inherent ‘darkness‘ is mitigated when the frontlight is turned on (but, of course, this drains the battery quicker – see battery results below). I want to note that the frontlight is really good and illuminates the whole screen evenly, without any noticeable bleeding. At full whack, it is very bright (however, this does impact the battery life quite dramatically – see below).

There are touchscreen capabilities, and a Wacom EMR layer (so any Wacom-compatible stylus will work fine with it).

However, the screen surface appears to made from either smooth plastic or glass, which is quite slippery when using the stylus (see below)

Other than the inherent darkness and other Kaleido 3 limitations (which is an issue with the underlying e-ink technology, and present on all colour e-ink tablets), the screen on the B1051C is actually really good. Although the tablet can be viewed clearly in well-lit environments, it is likely that you will need to activate the frontlight (if only on a low setting) to illuminate the screen enough to make it comfortable to work with. Colours look good (again, in the context of the limitations of Kaleido 3), and both text and images render really well.

Writing feel

The tactile writing feel of the B1051C is, in my opinion, not that great.

Because of the smooth, plasticky screen surface, writing feels too slippery and there is very little friction when making pen strokes. It does not have a paper-like feel at all – I would describe it as a marker-on-whiteboard feel. The screen is also hard and rigid, which adds to the whiteboard feel.

Having said that, there is very little latency when writing, and pressure sensitivity has been implemented for some of the brushes (however, I couldn’t detect any tilt-sensitivity).

Subjectively, this type of writing feel is not all that pleasant for me (compared to tablets that have a rougher, grainier texture) but I didn’t experience any objective faults with the physical writing experience.

Hardware features

The Bigme B1051C has a plethora of hardware features that increase the flexibility and versatility of the tablet.

As previously mentioned, there’s a powerful frontlight (with temperature settings), a USB port (for charging and data transfer), a MicroSD card slot (for expanding the storage capacity), a fingerprint scanner (integrated into the power button), a front-facing microphone (for recording audio), and a speaker (for listening to audio).

There’s also a g-sensor (for auto-orienting the screen between landscape and portrait), along with connectivity via Wifi and Bluetooth. Bluetooth can also be used to hook up other peripherals, such as a keyboard or mouse (however, this functionality is also provided by the keyboard folio – see below).

There’s also a 16Mp rear-facing camera, with integrated flash. Although it can be used to take photos and record video, it’s not the most comfortable device for this task, so I believe that the primary intended purpose is as a document scanner. Using the Bigme software, you can take pictures of of paper documents and convert the image into text.

Overall, the Bigme B1051C has a lot to offer in terms of hardware features.

Battery

The Bigme B1051C has a 3700mAh battery.

However, the high performance CPU and fast refresh technology (xRapid), along with the frontlight will drain it quite quickly.

The table below shows how much battery is depleted by performing certain operations for an hour.

Test (1hr)	B1051C (% battery used)
Note-taking	4%
Reading	4%
Wifi On	+2%
Frontlight (medium)	+3%
Frontlight (full)	+11%

So, you could expect to drain about 4% of the battery per hour when note-taking, and 4% per hour when reading. Having Wifi turned on uses approximately 2% extra per hour. With the frontlight on a medium setting, add an extra 3% per hour, and with it on full, add an extra 11% per hour.

I calculate typical battery life from these figures by assuming 3 hours of note-taking and 2 hours of reading each day, with the Wifi turned on for 3 hours. For tablets that have a frontlight, I factor in 2 hours on a medium setting and 2 hours on full.

For the B1051C, this works out at about 54% of battery use per day, which would give you around 1.8 days of use before it needed to be recharged.

The B1051C is one of the poorest performers in terms of battery life, however, it is worth noting that a fair chunk of this drainage is with the frontlight on full intensity (see comparison of battery life across e-ink tablets here)

Accessories

Along with the B1051C tablet and stylus, Bigme also shipped a regular (book-type) folio and their brand new keyboard folio.

Stylus

The stylus that ships with the B1051C is very plain and simple. It is dark gray in color, and is almost cylindrical, except for one edge which has been flattened so that it can ‘snap’ firmly to the side of the tablet. As I said above, the magnetic bond between stylus and tablet is very strong and does not fall off all that easily.

On the opposite side to the flattened edge (near the top of the shaft) is another smaller flattened section, which I assume can be used for branding or personalization (Bigme could have added their logo here).

At the top is a spring-loaded eraser. Usually, I don’t like stylii with integrated erasers because the moving parts often cause the stylus to rattle, which irritates me. This was not the case with the Bigme stylus – there’s virtually no unwanted noises when writing and it feels solid and robust. There are no customizable buttons on the shaft (which, for me, is a good thing because I find myself accidentally pressing them whilst writing).

The shaft has a grainy texture to it, which provides a very nice grip, and it also feels well-balanced and comfortable to hold. Although I said earlier that I didn’t like the tactile writing feel of the B1051C, this is in no way because of the stylus – I’ve actually really enjoyed using the Bigme stylus on other tablets that have more a bit more friction on the screen surface.

Overall, I really do like the Bigme stylus.

Book-type folio

The regular folio is quite thin and lightweight, adding only about 140g to the setup.

The interior is gray and has a soft feel to it, and the exterior is black and textured with the Bigme logo discretely embossed in the corner.

The front and rear panels are joined by a fold in the middle. And there is a second fold on the rear panel, for which I am not quite sure of the purpose. My best guess is so that it can be configured as 30-degree landscape tablet stand, but this isn’t very stable, often falls down, and wobbles a lot when you tap the screen.

There is a small cutout on the top of the rear panel so as not to obscure the camera lens.

The tablet connects magnetically to the folio, and offers a fairly firm hold. It’s not likely to fall out when the tablet is closed, but if you give it a shake whilst open (holding only the folio), it will become dislodged and fall. To help prevent the tablet from inadvertently falling open, a magnetic flap/clasp is also provided. This also helps to keep the stylus in place. Personally, I do not like these magnetic flaps because they are separate components that I have to remember to use – and most of the time I forget about them or lose them at the bottom of my rucksack and end up using the folio without them.

Overall, the folio is good. It is fairly thin and light and has a minimal aesthetic to it (apart from the magnetic flap). I’m not too sure about the extra fold, but if it is to configure the folio as a stand (as I suspect), it doesn’t work all that well. But, as a simple folio that will protect the screen of the tablet, I think it is okay.

Keyboard folio

Whereas the regular folio only adds around 140g to the weight, the keyboard folio adds around 450g, almost doubling the weight of the entire setup. I’m not saying this in a negative way – there has to be a compromise somewhere for the luxury of keyboard input – but it will be an important consideration for those for whom portability is important.

The keyboard folio has a similar design to the regular folio, with a textured black exterior adorned with the Bigme logo and a softer-feeling dark gray interior. The same magnetic flap is also used to keep the folio closed and the stylus in place. However, it has somewhat thicker and harder panels to accommodate the integrated keyboard. In addition, the fold (to convert it into a screen stand) is located about halfway down the rear panel (on the regular folio, it is about quarter of the way). Also, there is a hole for the camera, rather than a cutout from the edge.

On the interior is the integrated keyboard (located on the reverse of the front panel), which has a standard QWERTY layout and several function buttons on the top row. There is also a touchpad for the mouse pointer. Opposite (on the reverse of the rear panel) are five POGO pins, which are used to provide a physical connection between the keyboard and the tablet. There are also three plastic mounts to hold the tablet in position; two small brackets on the lower left and right and a longer bracket along the bottom.

Getting the tablet in and out of the keyboard folio was a little awkward. I wasn’t sure if it was supposed to slid or pushed into place. Fortunately, my contact at Bigme sent me this video to explain the process. A little force is required to bend the brackets slightly so that it snaps into place, and I wonder how durable it will be over the long-term after lots of insertions and removals. On the plus side, the brackets do hold the tablet in place very firmly, and I never experienced the POGO connection being broken whilst typing.

As I said before the rear panel bends backwards to configure a stand for the screen and convert the tablet experience into more of a laptop experience. This fold is hinged, which means it remains stable at whatever angle is most comfortable for you. However, I’m starting to notice a little bit of wear and tear around the hinge after only a week’s use.

Having connected the tablet up to the keyboard folio, a mouse pointer appears on screen, which can be used to point-and-click the screen using the touchpad. I found the mouse pointer to move around the screen too quickly, which was often frustrating – and I could find no way to adjust the pointer speed/acceleration. It’s also worth noting that a right-click does not map to a long press, so I wasn’t able to access any context menus using the mouse (e.g. long-pressing on a file to bring up options to rename, copy, delete etc.) This was confirmed after I hooked up a USB mouse via a USB hub – however, right-click does work perfectly fine in other apps apps (such as right-clicking a link in the web browser).

There are function keys to take you back to the home screen, adjust the frontlight, search, take a screenshot, open the task/app switcher, and lock the screen/enter sleep mode. There are also keys for the music player app to adjust the volume, mute, play/pause, fast-forward and rewind. And there’s a button that appears to have a spherical matrix on it that I would assume would open the browser, however, it appears to do nothing (after further investigation I discovered it is has the same function as the play/pause button).

I quite like the tactile feel of tapping the keys. There is a soft audible click each time a button is pressed.

Overall, the keyboard folio works absolutely fine and adds an extra dimension to what can be done with an e-ink tablet (for example, you can type up emails and documents without relying on the on-screen keyboard). However, I do have concerns about its long-term robustness because it is showing signs of wear-and-tear already. There are also some software issues, such as the browser button mapping to the play/pause function and the mouse pointer moving a bit too fast (and no option to change the speed).

Software

My review of this tablet should be read in conjunction with my review of the current firmware (see table below), which includes aspects such as the Operating System, User Interface, and Native Apps.

The hardware and software reviews have been separated because the firmware used at the time that this review was written may not be the same firmware being used currently. This could result in the review quickly becoming outdated. Also, as several tablets may use the same firmware, this would mean going back and updating every single tablet review from a particular manufacturer to account for the new firmware. By splitting them up, if there is a firmware update, I am able to make the updates on a single page.

Current versions of this brand’s firmware are shown in the table below, along with the tablets running them.

My rating	Firmware version	Tablets using this firmware
	4.6 (current version) Aug 2025	Bigme B1051C Bigme B7 Bigme B751C
Older Bigme firmware versions may be found here

Brand

For some people, it is also worth considering the brand as whole, including aspects like customer service, ecosystem, values, and criticisms.

My full overview of the Bigme brand can be found here, but I have provided a summary below.

Final Verdict

The Bigme B1051C is the most powerful e-ink tablet I’ve tested, scoring the highest CPU performance benchmarks I’ve seen.

It also has a lot of additional hardware features such as speakers, microphone, camera, MicroSD card slot, fingerprint scanner etc.

And along with the color screen, frontlight, proprietary xRapid fast refresh technology, and the Android operating system (with Google Play Store), it is very capable and versatile.

The design and build of the tablet is also good, with care and attention being taken over some of the design aspects (such as the flattened edge for the stylus and front-facing microphone). The battery life isn’t that great but this is perhaps to be expected for a tablet that has so much innate power.

On paper, it is perhaps the best tablet e-ink tablet on the market.

However, the best “on paper” specs do not always translate into the best or most satisfying user experience, and this is certainly the case with the Bigme B1051C. The firmware suffers from a number of bugs and the user interface feels disjointed, illogical, and puzzling in places. Add to this the confusing translations (at least in the English language version that I was using) and you’re left with a day-to-day user experience that gets increasingly irritating and frustrating the more you use it.

The native note-taking app, especially, suffers from a number of bugs and random occurrences that disrupt your workflow. You find yourself unable to write naturally and comfortably because you worry that if, for example, you lean your palm on the screen, the app might start doing strange things (like flip your handwriting 180-degrees). Although these eccentricities are not too frequent, they happen with enough regularity that you begin to expect each writing session to be hit with some sort of random hissy-fit that you will have to spend time working out how to undo. There are also persistent issues/bugs like the note-taking app not showing up in the task manager so you cant switch between your notebook and other apps, and the name/title of a new notebook not being remembered.

As most people buy an e-ink tablet for its note-taking capabilities, the fact that the native note-taking app is particularly clunky is a giant negative. Plus, the tactile writing feel is not that good either, which begs the question about who exactly this tablet is designed for. My best answer to this is that the Bigme B1051C is for a smaller subset of users that are looking for a small laptop with an e-ink screen, and are not too concerned about using the stylus or native apps all that much. They may perhaps use it to browse the web, type up documents, and compose emails instead.

In this capacity (as an Android tablet with a keyboard folio and e-ink screen), it works well, but I wonder how many people are actually looking for this sort of setup.

Overall, the Bigme 1051C has excellent hardware, but is let down by the firmware.

Technical Specs