Bigme B751 C S review
Version française ICI
This new version is a hardware update. It uses the exact same base model with a few changes.
A bar of touch shortcutsA new integrated light systemAndroid 14 instead of 11The new version of the custom UI, Bigme OS 5A new white colorA new stylus (included)A new case (included)A severe lack of brightness
The device’s body remains the same, as do the battery, processor, and memory. The B7, released last year, also shares the same processor and offers a version with 4GB of RAM and another with 8GB, while the B751 C S has only 4GB. Storage remains unchanged in the new version at 64GB, expandable via an SD card. Performance is identical across these three devices. A new model, the B7 Pro, features a much more powerful processor. The B7 and B7 Pro share a more modern and slimmer design.
The device’s body remains the same, as do the battery, processor, and memory. The B7, released last year, also shares the same processor and offers a version with 4GB of RAM and another with 8GB, while the B751 C S has only 4GB. Storage remains unchanged in the new version at 64GB, expandable via an SD card. Performance is identical across these three devices. A new model, the B7 Pro, features a much more powerful processor. The B7 and B7 Pro share a more modern and slimmer design.
NEWER ANDROID VERSION
The biggest new feature of the B751 C S is undoubtedly the upgrade to Android 14. It was no longer possible to sell devices running a version as old as 11, which is unsupported by Google since several years now and has security issues.
It’s still a shame not to have a newer version today, since we’re already on Android 16. How long will Android 14 continue to receive updates?
However, we shouldn’t let that dampen our enthusiasm, especially since it seems the update to Android 14 is also available for the older B751 C. Some users have received it by contacting the brand’s support team. Let’s hope it will be rolled out through the usual update channel. In any case, this is a step in the right direction, and the manufacturer’s effort deserves recognition.
SHORTCUTS BAR
Another new feature is the touch shortcut bar on the side of the e-ink screen. Let’s be clear : it doesn’t reduce the display area; it’s simply an addition, an extension of the touchscreen with icons printed on a gray background. These icons serve as shortcuts to essential system functions such as returning to the home screen, going back, multitasking, the shortcut panel, refreshing the e-ink, and screen display settings. These shortcuts are customizable and can be replaced with other functions. However, the icon itself remains the same since it’s simply printed.
Aesthetically, it’s doesn’t look very good and the chosen gray doesn’t blend well with the screen’s hue. On the other hand, you have to admit it’s very, very practical, especially for refreshing the screen, but also for navigating Android, because honestly, gesture navigation is nice, but after a while it gets overwhelming, and between three zones at the bottom, two at the top, and one on each side, you end up not knowing what you’re doing and being afraid to even touch the edges of the screen. So that’s another plus for the new version. Well done, Bigme.
The biggest new feature of the B751 C S is undoubtedly the upgrade to Android 14. It was no longer possible to sell devices running a version as old as 11, which is unsupported by Google since several years now and has security issues.
It’s still a shame not to have a newer version today, since we’re already on Android 16. How long will Android 14 continue to receive updates?
However, we shouldn’t let that dampen our enthusiasm, especially since it seems the update to Android 14 is also available for the older B751 C. Some users have received it by contacting the brand’s support team. Let’s hope it will be rolled out through the usual update channel. In any case, this is a step in the right direction, and the manufacturer’s effort deserves recognition.
SHORTCUTS BAR
Another new feature is the touch shortcut bar on the side of the e-ink screen. Let’s be clear : it doesn’t reduce the display area; it’s simply an addition, an extension of the touchscreen with icons printed on a gray background. These icons serve as shortcuts to essential system functions such as returning to the home screen, going back, multitasking, the shortcut panel, refreshing the e-ink, and screen display settings. These shortcuts are customizable and can be replaced with other functions. However, the icon itself remains the same since it’s simply printed.
Aesthetically, it’s doesn’t look very good and the chosen gray doesn’t blend well with the screen’s hue. On the other hand, you have to admit it’s very, very practical, especially for refreshing the screen, but also for navigating Android, because honestly, gesture navigation is nice, but after a while it gets overwhelming, and between three zones at the bottom, two at the top, and one on each side, you end up not knowing what you’re doing and being afraid to even touch the edges of the screen. So that’s another plus for the new version. Well done, Bigme.
NEW LIGHT SYSTEM
Third new feature: a new integrated lighting system. It’s worth noting that the manufacturer hasn’t communicated about this and doesn’t even mention the change.
The old version light system left much to be desired and suffered from two major flaws.
The new lighting is very different. It’s much brighter and now compensates for the inherent darkness of Kaleido technology, which produces color displays responsive enough for use in an e-reader. Even in a bright environment, the lighting will be sufficient. That wasn’t the case at all with the old model. The brightness doesn’t reach the maximum offered by the Kobo Libra Colour, but it’s now good enough.
Another positive point is that it doesn’t wash out the display as much as on the old model. There’s still room for improvement, and it’s still far from the level of the Kobo, which manages to offer a built-in lighting that barely washes out the display at all. It’s quite impressive on the Kobo and now quite acceptable on the Bigme.
Unfortunately, the screen improvements end there!
The colors remain rather dull and significantly worse than on my Kobo Libra Color Revision B. In particular, the warm tones, reds and yellows, are much duller. Reds appear as washed-out brown/mauve, and yellows end up looking beige on the new Bigme.
No matter what the color settings are, it’s impossible to get the Kobo’s beautiful reds. The hardware just doesn’t allow for it. Of course, if you turn off the built-in backlight, in direct sunlight or under bright artificial light, the colors look better again, but these screens are so dim that you can’t use it without the integrated light most of the time.
Unfortunately, that’s not the only problem with the lighting on the new Bigme. There’s worse.
I don't know what LEDs they chose for the cool white, but I've never seen such a blue white on an e-reader. At this point, you can't even call it white anymore. It's just plain blue. No big deal, you might say, just add a little yellow using the yellow LEDs that produce the warm white for reading at night.
And that’s where the trouble begins.
In fact, instead of correcting the overly stark blue of the cool white, adding warm white causes the screen to shift toward purple. I spent ages trying to balance the two warm/cool color settings without ever managing to achieve a relatively neutral white tone. It starts with a blue that’s way too harsh and ends up as amber-pink, passing through purple along the way. It’s very ugly and makes the device unpleasant to use during the day, indoors in a home well-lit by natural light. In the evening, if you have very warm lighting at home, you won’t have a problem because you won’t activate the e-reader’s blue LEDs at all. I also noticed that under certain types of artificial lighting, you don’t notice the problem, which is also difficult to capture with a camera.
Choosing white for the screen bezel was also a bad idea. The white frame visually sets a reference white that the completely flawed lighting system can’t match in daylight, not even close. If the frame had been black, the poor choice of overly blue LEDs would have been a bit more subtle and less distracting. I placed strips of black tape all around the screen, and while the blue/purple tint remained far too pronounced, it was easier to live with.
That’s why I decided not to keep the B751 C S. On a color e-ink display, lighting is essential because the screens are dark, and you need that light to compensate. I don’t want to feel like I’m taking notes on lavender-blue or mauve paper, the same goes for reading. Especially with colors dulled by this poor lighting.
I wonder how it’s possible that Bigme could have chosen these overly blue LEDs and that no one there flagged the issue. Do they not test their products? Or do they only do minimal testing, in the factory and under inadequate lighting?
Third new feature: a new integrated lighting system. It’s worth noting that the manufacturer hasn’t communicated about this and doesn’t even mention the change.
The old version light system left much to be desired and suffered from two major flaws.
The new lighting is very different. It’s much brighter and now compensates for the inherent darkness of Kaleido technology, which produces color displays responsive enough for use in an e-reader. Even in a bright environment, the lighting will be sufficient. That wasn’t the case at all with the old model. The brightness doesn’t reach the maximum offered by the Kobo Libra Colour, but it’s now good enough.
Another positive point is that it doesn’t wash out the display as much as on the old model. There’s still room for improvement, and it’s still far from the level of the Kobo, which manages to offer a built-in lighting that barely washes out the display at all. It’s quite impressive on the Kobo and now quite acceptable on the Bigme.
Unfortunately, the screen improvements end there!
The colors remain rather dull and significantly worse than on my Kobo Libra Color Revision B. In particular, the warm tones, reds and yellows, are much duller. Reds appear as washed-out brown/mauve, and yellows end up looking beige on the new Bigme.
No matter what the color settings are, it’s impossible to get the Kobo’s beautiful reds. The hardware just doesn’t allow for it. Of course, if you turn off the built-in backlight, in direct sunlight or under bright artificial light, the colors look better again, but these screens are so dim that you can’t use it without the integrated light most of the time.
Unfortunately, that’s not the only problem with the lighting on the new Bigme. There’s worse.
I don't know what LEDs they chose for the cool white, but I've never seen such a blue white on an e-reader. At this point, you can't even call it white anymore. It's just plain blue. No big deal, you might say, just add a little yellow using the yellow LEDs that produce the warm white for reading at night.
And that’s where the trouble begins.
In fact, instead of correcting the overly stark blue of the cool white, adding warm white causes the screen to shift toward purple. I spent ages trying to balance the two warm/cool color settings without ever managing to achieve a relatively neutral white tone. It starts with a blue that’s way too harsh and ends up as amber-pink, passing through purple along the way. It’s very ugly and makes the device unpleasant to use during the day, indoors in a home well-lit by natural light. In the evening, if you have very warm lighting at home, you won’t have a problem because you won’t activate the e-reader’s blue LEDs at all. I also noticed that under certain types of artificial lighting, you don’t notice the problem, which is also difficult to capture with a camera.
Choosing white for the screen bezel was also a bad idea. The white frame visually sets a reference white that the completely flawed lighting system can’t match in daylight, not even close. If the frame had been black, the poor choice of overly blue LEDs would have been a bit more subtle and less distracting. I placed strips of black tape all around the screen, and while the blue/purple tint remained far too pronounced, it was easier to live with.
That’s why I decided not to keep the B751 C S. On a color e-ink display, lighting is essential because the screens are dark, and you need that light to compensate. I don’t want to feel like I’m taking notes on lavender-blue or mauve paper, the same goes for reading. Especially with colors dulled by this poor lighting.
I wonder how it’s possible that Bigme could have chosen these overly blue LEDs and that no one there flagged the issue. Do they not test their products? Or do they only do minimal testing, in the factory and under inadequate lighting?
NEW STYLUS
To wrap up on the hardware, we also need to talk about the stylus, a new model that no longer requires an AAAA battery but has an internal battery that recharges via USB-C. It’s clearly more convenient, but unfortunately the new stylus is made of plastic, very lightweight, and doesn’t seem very sturdy or durable. The build quality is rather poor. The old stylus was made of metal and had a much better finish.
It’s true that the built-in battery may seem more convenient than a disposable battery, but I don’t really agree with that idea. A dead battery is easy to replace, whereas in two or three years, when the stylus’s integrated battery no longer holds a charge, it will end up in the trash.
IMPROVED BUILD QUALITY
Finally, I see an improvement in the e-reader’s build quality compared to the old version. It no longer creaks in your hands, and the edges no longer have the small plastic molding defects I had noticed.
NEW COVER
Another hardware improvement: the case, included with the device, is a far cry from the unusable, throwaway version that came with the first model. It still feels a bit cheap, with very thin plastic, but it seems to do its job properly and even allows the e-reader to stand upright at a slight angle. It’s also quite attractive.
NEW BIGME OS 5
It was on the software side that the biggest improvements were expected. Indeed, that was the main drawback of the old model. Nothing, absolutely nothing worked; none of the many pre-installed apps functioned acceptably.
With the new version of Android and the new version of Bigme OS 5, we could have expected significant improvements.
Unfortunately, that’s not the case.
The system is still slow, and the lighting color settings are still separate for the (too) blue LEDs and the yellow LEDs, which is very impractical. With Kobo, Kindle, PocketBook, Boox... you have a setting for overall brightness and a setting for color temperature that makes it much easier to adjust the mix between cool and warm LEDs.
INTEGRATED APPS
The apps are still absolutely terrible. It pains me to say it, but there has been no improvement. Trying to use the stock apps is a waste of time.
A few examples:
Reading Manga: The built-in reader, Xreader Pro, systematically distorts the images of CBZ manga to make them fill the screen. It doesn’t respect the original aspect ratio. There’s no option to change this. It’s unbelievable, even the worst CBZ reader wouldn’t do something like this. It’s unusable.
TTS Text-to-Speech Reading: The app offers text-to-speech reading, and you can use Google’s engine, which I find very satisfactory. Unfortunately, Xreader Pro sends the text to the speech engine in very small chunks of about 15 or 20 words and doesn’t hesitate to cut off in the middle of a word. As a result, the reading is choppy, and you regularly get incomprehensible words because they’re split in two with a pause in the middle while the next small chunk is sent to the text-to-speech engine. I’ve never seen this on any reader with a TTS feature. It’s unusable.
Handwriting recognition: The note-taking software supports handwriting recognition. It’s a feature I use a lot. In fact, this entire review was written in French on my Kobo Libra Color using the built-in handwriting recognition, which is excellent. My handwriting is fairly neat, and I have very few mistakes to correct. On a Boox e-reader, it’s a bit less accurate, but still usable. On the Bigme, it’s a disaster, it can’t even recognize 10% of the words, whereas my Kobo gets fewer than 10% errors. It’s unusable.
These are just three examples, but all of the apps built into the Bigme are of the same quality.
GOOGLE PLAY STORE APPS
So you have to rely on third-party apps. The Google Play Store is available and lets you install everything you’ll need.
However, most apps aren’t optimized at all for e-ink screens. To get them to work, you’ll often have to adjust specific settings that will significantly degrade display quality.
Thus, all apps with animations, even simple scrolling, will be usable at the cost of a noticeable drop in display sharpness and color quality, which is already subpar.
Some important elements, such as touch buttons, may also fail to display. You’ll then have to adjust the contrast and text highlighting settings.
Ultimately, while access to apps from the Play Store is certainly an advantage, the result is too often disappointing and not very functional. Nothing can replace dedicated apps optimized for e-ink.
CONCLUSION
I’ve had a Kobo Libra Color for a few months now, the new N428B model. The “B” denotes a minor update from Kobo, which has switched manufacturers. There are clearly some subtle improvements, such as a slightly larger battery and a slightly better screen, at least on the three models I’ve seen.
Admittedly, the features are more limited; the Kobo does far fewer things. But everything it does, it does well, very well, in fact.
The Bigme B751 C S does a lot more, in theory, because everything it does, it does poorly, so poorly that it fails to deliver on the uses for which it’s marketed.
If you want an Android e-reader, Boox offers the Go Color 7 Gen 2, which doesn’t have a very good screen, with colors that aren’t as good as the Kobo’s and a light system that washes out dark tones significantly. But at least the apps are well-made and reliable.
If you want, above all, a device for reading and taking notes, including very detailed and lengthy ones, go with the Kobo Libra Color, which now offers the best screen I’ve seen on this type of device.
Thus, all apps with animations, even simple scrolling, will be usable at the cost of a noticeable drop in display sharpness and color quality, which is already subpar.
Some important elements, such as touch buttons, may also fail to display. You’ll then have to adjust the contrast and text highlighting settings.
Ultimately, while access to apps from the Play Store is certainly an advantage, the result is too often disappointing and not very functional. Nothing can replace dedicated apps optimized for e-ink.
CONCLUSION
I’ve had a Kobo Libra Color for a few months now, the new N428B model. The “B” denotes a minor update from Kobo, which has switched manufacturers. There are clearly some subtle improvements, such as a slightly larger battery and a slightly better screen, at least on the three models I’ve seen.
Admittedly, the features are more limited; the Kobo does far fewer things. But everything it does, it does well, very well, in fact.
The Bigme B751 C S does a lot more, in theory, because everything it does, it does poorly, so poorly that it fails to deliver on the uses for which it’s marketed.
If you want an Android e-reader, Boox offers the Go Color 7 Gen 2, which doesn’t have a very good screen, with colors that aren’t as good as the Kobo’s and a light system that washes out dark tones significantly. But at least the apps are well-made and reliable.
If you want, above all, a device for reading and taking notes, including very detailed and lengthy ones, go with the Kobo Libra Color, which now offers the best screen I’ve seen on this type of device.