Good e-Reader and Bigme have developed a new color ebook reader and digital note taking device. This is the first E INK product that has two cameras that are able to take pictures of textbooks, documents and a myriad of other formats, it will then use OCR to convert them to text, so they can be saved or edited with the accompanied stylus. The E INK Kaleido Plus screen will ensure that all of your digital content will be displayed in the very best color e-paper that is currently available. Your magazines, manga or webtoons will like rich and vibrant. The Android 11 OS will ensure you have the latest security updates and the InkNote Color has Google Play preinstalled, so millions of free and paid apps are at your fingertips. It is currently available for crowdfunding, and will be available on the Good e-Reader Store on August 25th and will ship in the middle of October.
The Bigme InkNote Color features an E INK Carta HD e-paper display with a resolution of 1872×1404 with 227 PPI. The Color panel is using E INK Kaleido Plus and has a resolution of 936×702 with 117 PPI. It has a front-lit display in addition to a warm light system, giving you flexible control over the white and amber LED lights. From a design point of view, it looks like a ledger, with black on the right side, which looks like the spine of a book. Around the e-paper display is a white bezel with the Good e-Reader Logo laser etched on the back. It has a full  aluminum body which makes it sleek, although it does weigh more than your average e-note.
Good e-Reader has lots of input on the design of the writing tablet, since we have reviewed every single one that has hit the market over the course of the past 7 years and have been covering the e-reader sector since 2008, so we know a thing or two on what makes a good product. On a pure hardware level, it was important for this to standout in a crowd and not look like everything else, with a piano black front and back. Adding in two cameras was something on day one, we thought that would be an excellent feature. Obviously, you can video chat with your friends, take selfies or use the rear facing camera to take photos. There is a quad microphone array that helps eliminate background noise when you are talking on Zoom or taking audio notes. On a screen level, we wanted to do color, since there are so many black and white models on the market. We wanted to appeal to lots of different types of users. People who wanted to draw using 28+ colors or take notes, students who want to make highlights and annointatins in the class, readers who want to consume all sorts of digital media.
Having a WACOM screen is critical for the success of an e-note. No matter how good the stylus that ships with the unit is, users want to either use their own or buy an alternative one, such as the X-Pen 3rd Generation or the Lamy Al-Star. The pen we built is unique to the InkNote Color and is not used on any other Bigme device. It can charge the internal battery by attaching itself to the side. It can also connect via Bluetooth, so you can turn pages of a PDF or ebook with just the click of a button, you no longer have to swipe, tap or gesture on the touchscreen to do this. It has 4096 degrees of pressure sensativity and it is voice controlled.
Underneath the hood is a A53 2.3 GHZ octa-core processor, 6GB of RAM and 128 GB of internal storage. If this storage is not enough, for whatever reason, it has an SD card, capable of an additional 128GB of storage. There is WIFI available to connect up to the internet and fetch firmware updates, which you should do right away. There are four noise cancelling mics on the bottom of the tablet, which is used for voice dictation, such as voice to text in the note taking app. The speech recognition is compatible with over 31 languages with 98% accuracy. You can also use the microphones for apps such as WhatsApp, Discord or WeChat. You can listen to audiobooks, podcasts, music or anything else via the dual stereo speakers. It also has Bluetooth 5.0 for optional wireless headphones or earbuds. There is an 8MP rear camera, and a 5MP front-facing camera. You can take advantage of the fingerprint sensor to unlock your device and set a passcode for more security. The battery is 4,000 mAh, which should be good for a couple of weeks. You can charge it via the USB-C port. The dimensions are 225.8×191.3×6.7mm and weighs 477 g.
The InkNote Color is running Google Android 11 and ships with Google Play preinstalled. This will give users the ability to download and purchase millions of apps. This means you won’t have to worry about all of the complications of sideloading in apps. There are four different speed modes which give you increased performance to take advantage steaming audio, video, coding, looking at high quality pictures or just wanting to scroll very fast while browsing the web. In 2022, having a single A2 mode is too limiting.
One thing we really paid attention to, is the retail packaging. So many big brands just use plain cardboard stock and it might have their logo on the front, with a black and white cutout of the product and maybe some tech specs on the back. We wanted to do our best to have something visually interesting. The box is black with an embossed logo of Good e-Reader and Bigme on the front, that has been laser etched, with a really cool outline design. On the sides are the logos and on the back are sone tech specs, regulatory information. You open the box via a pull out tab, so in landscape, you can see a message; Just for You. Inside of the box is the stylus, device and accompanied accessories include a sleep cover case, a USB-C cable, some free nibs and a nib removal tool and an SD card slot pin, so you can use your own. Checkout our video, with a full unboxing experience.
Michael Kozlowski is the editor-in-chief at Good e-Reader and has written about audiobooks and e-readers for the past fifteen years. Newspapers and websites such as the CBC, CNET, Engadget, Huffington Post and the New York Times have picked up his articles. He Lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
