Bigme surprised everyone by launching a new e-note device when most might have been expecting none. The device is also special in that it happens to be the first e-note that the Chinese firm has come up with in recent times that features a 7-inch display. The company also offers the Pocket Note 7, a 7-inch e-note device and the new B751 can well be considered as a successor to the same even though the company isn’t claiming it to be so. The device has been made in collaboration with JDRead though the implications of the same would be limited to largely the domestic audience.
The new Bigme B751 meanwhile impresses with its looks and features but is it practical enough for everyday tasks or is it just about style with little substance? Let’s find that out.
Design and build
There isn’t anything new with the basic looks. There is the thicker left ledger which also hosts the page turn buttons while the rest of the bezels are quite thin. However, build quality is of a top order and Bigme did manage to make the device have an appeal of its own. What is especially eye-catching is the light gray color scheme of the device bezels which makes a strong contrast with the left ledger done up in matte black.
The same matte black finish extends to the rear as well, something that adds a distinct character to the device, more so thanks to the presence of strip lines just on the rear of the ledger. This way it acts as a non-slippery holding area which greatly enhances user convenience. You can hold on to the device confidently without fear of it slipping off. While it’s true the rear also attracts fingerprints but that can be considered a minor tiff given the overall nice looks.
What also looks nice is the sides that sport a gunmetal finish, something that is carried over to the page turn buttons. In fact, the gun metal finish on the buttons looks striking against the matte black color scheme of the side ledger. The same is wrapped around the entire device and is visible when viewed from the front as well as thin strips all around. All of it looks incredibly nice, it must be said and adds to the overall looks of the device.
The Power button is accommodated along the top of the ledger on the left. On the right lies a USB-C port towards the bottom along with a very prominent speaker grille along the top. At the bottom lies a status indicator light, a mic, and a memory card, the last of which was missing on the Pocket Note 7. The right side has been kept clean. Also, at 209 grams, the B751 is easily among the lightest out there, lighter than many a Kindle too.
Stylus
Of course, an e-note device isn’t complete without a pen and what you have with the Bigme B751 is an active capacitive pen. The e-note lacks a Wacom layer and that is one method adopted by Bigme to keep costs low. The pen requires a quadruple AAAA battery for its operation and does not need to be charged as such. The writing feel it offers isn’t the best either. It can be described as plasticky at best. It is nowhere close to a paper-like writing experience. Rather, it is quite slippery and lacks a grippy feel.
The e-note otherwise is very feature-rich when it comes to note-taking. You have quite a few templates to choose from along with up to five layers. There are various pen types available too, which can be pen, pencil, brush, highlighter, and ballpoint pen. In this respect, what needs to be stated is that you can’t start taking notes with the stylus right away. Rather, you have to press the primary button on the pen to start using it while pressing the secondary button will invoke eraser functionality.
The pen also supports pressure sensitivity but not to a great extent as the difference between the light and heavy marks isn’t very evident. That again is quite in line with active capacitive pens that, unlike Wacom pens, don’t have that wide a spread for the light and heavy markings. The device otherwise has several other niceties such as a lasso tool, a dedicated toolbar, pinch-n-zoom, a canvas, and so on. All of these make it very convenient for note-taking given the sheer number of features you have at your disposal. So, if you aren’t concerned with it being an active capacitive pen, you should have no qualms about using it.
User Interface
This should be familiar stuff for anyone who has used a Bigme device before. On the left is the side bar which is independent from the rest of the display. You can scroll up and down which won’t have any effect on the rest of the display. Tap on the Setting icon at the top and you will get to see a ton of settings, something that also translates to a wide range of customization options.
For instance, there is the ‘Page Key definition’ option which will let you choose how you wish to put the physical page turn buttons to use. You can use them as ‘Volume Up’ and ‘Volume Down’ buttons, ‘DPAD Left’ or ‘DPAD Right’ buttons, and lastly as the ‘Page Down’ and ‘Page Up’ buttons.
Then there is something called the ‘Home Screen Style’ setting where you can set the tablet home screen as either ‘Office Style’ or ‘Tablet Style’.
There is also a ‘Menu Manage’ setting where you can select the menu options you’d like to have on the side. You even have what is described as the ‘Menu spacing adjustment’ setting where you can set how far apart menu icons are going to be using the provided slider bar.
There is the ‘E Ink Center’ as well that lets you control aspects such as the ‘Refresh Mode’ where the options available include ‘HD256’, ‘HD’, ‘Normal(fast)’, and ‘Extreme’.
There is the ‘Auto clean’ toggle buttons available too.
The ‘Full Refresh’ frequency slider bar will let you choose the refresh frequency.
Reading experience
Manga
The Bigme B751 is extremely well suited for reading manga. That has a lot to do with the display which is the exact same size as a manga that you can pick up from any convenience store in Japan. You can use the page turn buttons to turn pages, which takes place effortlessly. There is some page-turn animation that does not look bad so to say but can delay things up a tad bit. This again can be mitigated by setting the ‘Refresh Mode’ to ‘Extreme’. Once this is done, pages turn super-fast and there isn’t any ghosting effect either. The pictures look nice and so are the text which you can read easily. The 7-inch 300 PPI display does play its part in making everything look sharp and crisp.
Books
Reading books on the B751 is equally appealing. Performance is extremely impressive, with pages turning super-fast while having almost zero degradation of image quality. The default e-book reading app will let you have the usual features. Those include the option to set ‘Font’, ‘Font Size’, ‘Format’, etc options. Under ‘More’, you have a few more options such as ‘Pinch-n-Zoom’, ‘Refresh’, ‘Widen the margins’, ‘Spacings’, and such. Other options you have include ‘Split View’, ‘Translate’, ‘Contrast’, Progress, and so on.
The ‘Translate’ feature is really interesting as what it does is it splits the display into two where on the left you have the chosen book while on the left, you can have the on-screen text translated to a language of your choice. This way, you can read a book in just about any language as the Translate feature can have the text translated in your preferred language in real time. This happens to be one of the coolest features of the B751 e-note device.
Apps
The good thing here is that the B751 comes with Google Play support, which means you can have hundreds and thousands of apps that the Play Store has to offer. Be it e-book reading apps, games, books, or manga. You name it and the Play Store is sure to have it. You can also have multiple e-reader apps too. Those can be like the Amazon Kindle, Kobo, or B&N Nook. That is never a possibility with either of the devices. This happens to be one of the most endearing aspects of devices such as the B751 that run Android and have Play Store support. You aren’t tied to a particular e-book ecosystem as such.
Conclusion
This was a strange release, but arguably unnecessary one. The Pocket Note line of devices have existed alongside the Wacom variants for quite some time, within the Bigme world. They don’t have Wacom, there are no color versions, but, they score high on affordability. After all, $280 for a 7-inch note-taking Google Play-enabled e-note, with SD card, speakers, microphones, and everything else, it just doesn’t happen every day.
If you don’t care about using any other pen except the one included, which is the only glaring fault with this unit then this is a completely viable option for anyone to consider.
With a keen interest in tech, I make it a point to keep myself updated on the latest developments in technology and gadgets. That includes smartphones or tablet devices but stretches to even AI and self-driven automobiles, the latter being my latest fad. Besides writing, I like watching videos, reading, listening to music, or experimenting with different recipes. The motion picture is another aspect that interests me a lot, and I'll likely make a film sometime in the future.
