Bigme Inknote Color / good eReader

[PeterT]

Hmmm... I saw the headline "The Bigme Inknote Color Is the Best E Ink Tablet We've Ever Used" at https://gizmodo.com/bigme-inknote-co...e-2-1849441620 and couldn't help but laugh at this statement.

The Bigme InkNote Color purports to be the next step for e-notes, thanks to a partnership with*Good e-Reader, a blog that’s been reviewing E Ink devices for almost as long as they’ve been available and that understands what features are most useful and most important on these types of devices.

Who knows; it might be a good device but any link to Good e-Reader makes me think HYPE, OVERHYPE....

Sent from my Pixel 4a using Tapatalk

[Quoth]

Gizmodo has been poor for maybe 15 years.
"after the success of the reMarkable tablet"
Hype they mean. It's a PDF reader with a drawing app (no native HW recognition), no library style access, just a file system and abysmal methods to put conent on or off.

"The Bigme InkNote Color purports to be the next step for e-notes, thanks to a partnership with Good e-Reader, a blog that’s been reviewing E Ink devices for almost as long as they’ve been available and that understands what features are most useful and most important on these types of devices. "
A blog that makes up stuff and hypes.

"The first color E Ink tablet that wants to completely replace your iPad."

An nonsense subheading.

"reMarkable 2 remains the best e-note you can buy when it comes to note-taking performance."
Nonsense as it only stores images from your stylus use. It's not a real eNote book at all. Many major defects, though the PDF reader works well.

"Based on Wacom’s stylus technology, the InkNote Color’s bundled stylus, the A5, doesn’t realistically need charging, and is completely interchangeable with other devices and stylii boasting Wacom compatibility. (Such as the reMarkable’s stylus.) "
The worst tech for eink as the tablet powers it. The kinds on Apple and Surface/kobo are better for low power consumption.
The MS Surface compatible stylus used on the Sage & Elipsa is far better than either the Wacom Bamboo or the reMarkable (I have both). The Apple Pencil is OK, but a 1/3rd party one is 1/4 price or less and works as well on an iPad.

"The shortcut buttons use a Bluetooth connection to the InkNote Color, which does mean the stylus, technically, needs to be charged. "
If it's a Wacom stylus, why use BT? None of of the Wacoms I've used are short of buttons, even the reMarkable Wacom stylus doesn't need charged for the buttons.

At least they admit it's muddy and dark. The ONLY use case for Colour eInk is comics. Not good enough for a colour illustrated book and too poor just to read novels.

"With a $600 pre-order price through Kickstarter and a full MSRP closer to $700, there’s no pretending that the InkNote Color isn’t expensive, especially when compared to even an entry-level iPad or the $400 reMarkable 2. As e-note devices go, it really has no rival in terms of performance and features right now, and the fact that it runs Android 11 means its capabilities can potentially be expanded even further."
Pure hype. It's inferior to many mono eink with Android that are much cheaper.

I've an android Mars eink, Kobo Sage & Elipsa (uses Nebo app for handwriting to text) and a reMarkable.
I've used current iPad.
I 've 4.3.", 5", 6" Android phones. 6" and 10" Android tablets.

I think this is a badly thought out and overpriced eInk colour. It is likely to fail because the market of people willing to pay $700 to read comics on eink in "colour" is too small.
Comics or graphic novels don't take long to read compared to a novel, so unless you only read outdoors in sunlight a $300 10" Android tablet is better value. Or a $50 Amazon Fire.
The iPad Mini is about €500 here.

[j.p.s]

Originally Posted by PeterT

Hmmm... I saw the headline "The Bigme Inknote Color Is the Best E Ink Tablet We've Ever Used" at https://gizmodo.com/bigme-inknote-co...e-2-1849441620

Who knows; it might be a good device but any link to Good e-Reader makes me think HYPE, OVERHYPE....

The "review" certainly took its time getting around to the fact that despite big improvements over the last few years, color e-ink still doesn't look all that good.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by j.p.s

The "review" certainly took its time getting around to the fact that despite big improvements over the last few years, color e-ink still doesn't look all that good.

Absolutely. And repeated pushing of the reMarkable.

[innocenat]

Well, this is a e-reader forum, and I don't believe any of the e-ink tablet are going to be as good as purpose-built e-reader like Kindle or Kobo.

That said, the market for e-ink writing tablet is definitely there. It's still a niche, but it's there. There are many people who have gone total paperless with either the reMarkable, the Supernote, the Boox, the Papyr, the Quaderno, etc. These device are usually much lighter than iPad or Surface, and has longer-lasting battery.

Personally I think it's still too early for color e-ink tech, and generic Android on e-ink is still not very good, but without intermediate products they probably won't improve. I think the Chinese market is plenty big for them to make money -- tons of e-ink tablet maker in domestic market.

As regard for generic e-Ink tablet, the development pace is quite fast right now, so I am not surprised if the latest release is considered "the best e-ink tablet".

[Quoth]

The reMarkable is NOT a writing tablet. It's a PDF reader and sketch tablet. Zero on-board handwriting to text conversion. I suspect almost any 10" approx eink with stylus digitiser is better. No Mass Storage or MTP USB modes. The v2 has a bit more RAM and faster cpu, but slipier screen (glass vs textured plastic). Only 8 G Flash and no SD slot is a bit poor for image PDFs needing 10" screen.

Are bloggers being paid to promote it?

I doubt this Bigme is a "best eink tablet". See forums here. The colour feature inherently makes it less useful. If you want colour, Android and 10", then you'll get far better buying a regular tablet at 1/4 price. Actually you could very nearly buy a Sage for note taking, an Elipsa for PDFs, Fire tablet and 10" Android LCD tablet for the price of the Bigme.

Also the approx 10" LCD, 10" Elipsa and 10" Remarkable are too heavy and large as notebook except at a desk or table. 10" is only good to read PDFs, too large for ebooks unless you've very bad eyesight. That's why I got a Sage for notes after getting an Elipsa. I picked up a reMarkable 1/2 price just for wife to read ancient PDF scans of Victorian novels not available free or paid on paper or ebook. It was ghastly to put content on. I could only do it by manually creating directories/folders on the reMarkable GUI and drag / drop PDFs one at a time via web browser. Designed by geniuses at HW and Programming that have no clue about eReaders or note taking. The "note taking" app is actually a multilayer sketch application.

The reality of it is so much at odds with maker's web site and all blogs! I mean most things are aren't as good as suggested (except maybe some Kobo ereaders if you only use Calibre and only want to read epubs or converted Kindle ebooks).

Gizmodo and Goodereader are particularly useless guides.

[innocenat]

There isn't one way of using e-ink tablet. Not by a long shot.

I don't care about handwritten conversion, and most people who I have seen enjoying their e-ink notebook doesn't care either. I just want a sketch application that work well on e-ink screen, that's it. It replaced my paper notebooks, so it's an "e-notebook". As far as I know, BIGME software even have a special mode on the Onenote App to reduce delay by rasterizing on their own sketch layer first (as Onenote is known to be pretty slow on Android). I haven't use BIGME so I don't know for sure. I have only use 10" BOOX and 13" Quaderno so far, with a 7.8" Supernote on order.

10" is the size of A5 paper, one of the most popular paper notebook size. Of course, some people prefer A6 (which is approx 7.8"), but A5 is still far more popular. I personally read fine on 6.8" Kindle, but tons of people in my home country swear by their 10" Boox Note Air. There are also many other 10" e-ink tablet than the reMarkable, most of which allow direct MTP access from computer or has some form of cloud integration.

Note: I haven't read the Gizmodo article. My comment are related to the device from their Kickstarter page and my experience with similar device only. I was actually tempted to buy this if not for the collaboration branding.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by innocenat

I don't care about handwritten conversion, and most people who I have seen enjoying their e-ink notebook doesn't care either.

Then they don't really use computers properly. A paper notebook is better for notes than a reMarkable.

Either it has a decent physical keyboard or a touch keyboard for short notes or handwriting conversion, otherwise what's the point if you can't copy the notes as text, back them up or import them to a text editor or wordprocessor.
An electronic sketchpad is inferior to a paper notebook and very expensive. Hype.

The Apple Newton wasn't good enough. The Palm PDA "grafitti 2" was too slow and fiddly.
I've used sketch apps and pointless. The decent eink tablets with handwriting recognition also do sketching and free form "handwriting" just as well as the reMarkable. Also they often can export that as PNG or PDF images via USB mass storage (or for the Android ones, MTP).

I've a wide range of these things so it's an informed opinion. Still have a Palm PDA, Bamboo Wacom and Lenovo X201 convertible laptop/table with combo touch and Wacom stylus digitizer screen.
I've tested Nebo handwriting recognition on an iPad with "pencil" and used the dumb sketching / "writing" on reMarkable, Sage, Elipsa, Wacom tablets and screen (Window 3.11, XP, Window 7, Linux), phone, 10" LCD tablet, Palm PDA etc.

Can't see the point in spending €400 to €800 on eink with no native handwriting recognition/conversion. The €250 to €450 eink models and €500 LCD models do the sketching too and optionally the handwriting recognition (Nebo is a cheap app for iOS and Android and basic version free). Obviously you need iPad, MS Surface or an Android model with a true digitiser stylus for dumb "fake handwriting" or conversion to text. Without text it's not a real electronic notepad, but a sketchpad.

You can buy an etch-a-sketch or notebook and coloured pencils/pens AND a colour laser printer-scanner-copier, an eink reader and an android tablet for the price of a BigMe colour.

Also reMarkable or remarkable 2 is in reality poor compared to Kobo Elipsa even if you don't want the conversion/recognition. 8G vs 32G storage, no native format on reMarkable other than PDF, only works with their app or USB networking. It's only worth while if it's half price.
There are at least a couple of other 10" approx eink far better than reMarkable.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by innocenat

There isn't one way of using e-ink tablet. Not by a long shot.

I have only use 10" BOOX and 13" Quaderno so far, with a 7.8" Supernote on order.

All far better than the reMarkable. Indeed the only thing I have that isn't MTP or Mass Storage USB is the reMarkable and the Palm Z22 PDA. The PDA is easier to copy documents to!

7.8" or 8" is a nice size for notes. That's why I got the Sage after getting the Elipsa (8" vs 10.3") You need a table or desk for 10" to 13" approx gadgets for notes.

Also the Bigme Color is only going to be good for notes outside, color feature is to read comics / graphic novels. Pointless for notes.

My daughter is a successful artist and refused a present of a decent colour tablet for artists. She admits it would save the cost of paint, but then would have no physical paintings to sell. The eink color is inherently garbage compare to IPS LCD, quantum dot, OLED or whatever made in the last 10 years.

[innocenat]

You seems to be unable to understand that not everyone has the same requirement as you. I use e-notebook so that I don't need to remember where my tens of my notebooks are and which are for what purpose. I work off of a notebook. I don't need to copy them anywhere. I don't even open the note I took on the computer (it still sync for backup, but I don't use them on computer). I use them the same way as I use my very nice MD Paper notebook and gold-nib fountain pen, but without having to carry everything. And I want E-ink for the same reason people want Kindle over iPad for reading.

You are also seems weirdly fixate on dissing reMarkable left, right, and center (which I don't disagree but it doesn't add anything to the conversation at this point. Bigme isn't a reMarkable). Sometimes I don't even know if you are talking about e-ink writing tablet in general or just the reMarkable.

Color isn't good for note? People color-code their note ALL THE TIME, either with marker on physical paper or on their iPad/Surface. I dont think you and I live in the same world regarding handwritten note taking.

[Quoth]

The review constantly compared Bigme with the reMarkable.

Read the stupid review!

Highlighting text in colour works on LCD / OLED etc. Not on color eink. It will be rubbish.

[innocenat]

Is this thread.about the device or the review? I was under impression it was the former.

Have you seen Kaleido Plus in action? The one powering Boox Nova Air C, not the old one.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by innocenat

Is this thread.about the device or the review?

Both obviously. The review is supposedly about the Bigme.

[innocenat]

The title just mentioned the device so I didn't think the review should matter, but only as a supplement reading in case people didn't know about the device. I see I was wrong. My bad. Sorry. I will take my leave.

[SaintsNook]

I was able to get one of these locked in at the super early bird rate of $399 so I thought I would give it a try.