Bigme introduces a color e-ink monitor that could reportedly hit 60 FPS — 25.3-inch display will come with a 3200 x 1800 resolution and support for 4096 colors

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Will this finally make e-ink monitors usable in everyday tasks?

Bigme B251 Pro
(Image credit: Bigme)

E-ink displays have come a long way since their introduction, with advancements in refresh rates and colors allowing them to be used as monitors for PCs. Bigme is once again pushing e-ink monitor technology with the 25.3-inch Bigme B251 Pro, which is on sale on its website for $1,279.00 (down from $1,599.00). This isn’t the first color e-ink monitor, as Dasung previously launched the first one in 2023, while e-ink device manufacturer Boox also debuted its 25.3-inch option last year. Nevertheless, what made the B251 Pro different is its claimed 60 FPS refresh rate.

Bigme B251 Pro The World’s First Up to 60FPS 25 3'' Color E Ink Monitor! - YouTube Bigme B251 Pro The World’s First Up to 60FPS 25 3'' Color E Ink Monitor! - YouTube
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This is the fastest claimed refresh rate we’ve seen so far on an e-ink monitor, with the previous record sitting at just 33 Hz. That doesn’t mean that you can start gaming on an e-ink display, though. VideoCardz points out that displays like these still face slow pixel response rates, latency, ghosting, and image quality issues, especially during fast motion, so it’s better to stick with the best gaming monitors if you need a monitor for competitive gaming. Nevertheless, this might be a viable solution if you have a text-heavy workload and have grown tired of dealing with strained eyes at the end of the workday.

Its 3200 x 1800 resolution, paired with a 25.3-inch screen size, gives it 145 DPI, which is slightly better than the 92 to 93 PPI you’d get from a 24-inch Full HD display. It also supports 4096 colors and 16 gray levels — although this is miles away from the millions of colors that modern monitors support, but that is the limitation that e-ink monitors face for now. The Bigme B521 Pro offers HDMI or DP connectivity, but also comes with wireless screen mirroring and a remote control. It also has a built-in front light with adjustable temperature, allowing you to use it in the dark without requiring an external light source.

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The Bigme B251 Pro is an interesting development in e-ink technologies, and it would be nice to see if it can actually deliver a usable experience outside of reading. While we doubt its capabilities when it comes to gaming, we still want to see if it’s a usable alternative for productivity. Those on a budget will likely be deterred from buying it, though, especially as its high price point makes it more expensive than some of the best 4K gaming monitors you can buy today.

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Jowi Morales
Jowi Morales
Contributing Writer

Jowi Morales is a tech enthusiast with years of experience working in the industry. He’s been writing with several tech publications since 2021, where he’s been interested in tech hardware and consumer electronics.

4 Comments Comment from the forums
  • Faiakes
    This should be fine for office tasks and web browsing, right?
    Reply
  • cyrusfox
    Faiakes said:
    This should be fine for office tasks and web browsing, right?
    Yes, for office tasks and web browsing it should be fine. But Modos Flow looks like the more interesting option to me, and if they really deliver on the FPGA-driven controller at that panel size, I think they could blow past both Dasung and Bigme. The key is not just the panel, it is how fast and intelligently you can drive it.
    https://www.crowdsupply.com/modos-tech/modos-flow
    That said, these devices are still very expensive ($600 for 13-inch, $1,300 to $2,500 for 25-inch), and the color versions come with real tradeoffs. You give up sharpness, basically cutting the effective pixel density in half, and they need more ambient light because of the extra filter layer in the screen. For people with eyestrain, this is the best option at the moment. I hope more players come to market and more interested people pick this up to drive prices lower, but it is a niche market and it is unlikely to get much cheaper in the near term.
    Reply
  • circadia
    cyrusfox said:
    That said, these devices are still very expensive ($600 for 13-inch, $1,300 to $2,500 for 25-inch)
    isn't eink basically owned by one company that holds all its patents, schematics, whatever? so, because of that monopoly, eink is still very much expensive... even a brand new basic 6-inch or 7-inch eink reader these days costs more than 150 USD minimum...
    Reply
  • cyrusfox
    circadia said:
    isn't eink basically owned by one company that holds all its patents, schematics, whatever? so, because of that monopoly, eink is still very much expensive... even a brand new basic 6-inch or 7-inch eink reader these days costs more than 150 USD minimum...
    Having a single supplier is a factor, but the monopoly doesn't matter much when the market volume is this small. A 25.3-inch panel is an extreme niche. LCD and OLED screens are cheap because factories run 24/7 churning out millions of them. E-ink doesn't have that scale. Even with additional competitors, the production numbers are to low that it would never make financial sense to sell them cheap compared to traditional monitor tech.

    I would say e-ink is pretty reasonable cost in the small form factor. You can find 6 and 7-inch devices around $100. I find mine second-hand for $20-$40 because people get them as gifts and never use them. The basic Kindle is only $110 and gives you 300 ppi, a front light, and 16GB, a steal compared to what I paid over a decade ago and the device is quite capable.

    e-ink Monitors fill a different need. Higher refresh rates a must, and they are superb for light sensitivity individuals, implementation has been so so thus far. Bigme struggles with smart dithering. Both Dasung and Bigme need to take a page from modos flow book and get to direct pixel driving, but that does come with engineering complexity and cost as well as power penalty.
    Reply