r/Bigme

Unpleasant surprise.

didn’t have an issue with import duties in May.

in USA

Hi all, i wanting to buy el Hbreak pro but i seem some comment of people who his hibreak were frozen after a time. What about you? How many time are you using the dispositive snd how it works? Should I waiting for hibreak pro 2?

So I've seen alot of debloating threads on this subreddit and was eager to debloat my B7 Pro.

Yesterday evening (monday) I've finally took the time to set up my bigme as it was delivered on Friday morning.

I've encountered a few things and lessons I would want to share with anyone deciding wether to debloat or not.

Step 0: Updating to latest firmware
First of all updating the bigme was a hurdle on its own, BE PATIENT!
I thought it was stuck, so I clicked update again and as a result i had to factory reset my bigme, so please be patient else you will brick your bigme into an update loop without having done a single thing to it.

Step 1: Installing canta & shizuku
Nothing special here, just CTRL C and CTRL V both APK to your download map and open it on the reader.

Step 2: Use canta to delete all recommended apps and lists on reddit
So this is where the "fun" began. I've encountered a few lists and deleted the ones deemed save.

Step 3: Profit?
Well this was where i was thinking, was it all worth it?
- Bigme os5 became very unstable
- Duraspeed is still installed as not everyone recommended deleting this.
- 4GB Ram available before debloat, 4,5GB ram available after debloat, not as big increase as expected
- Device seems a bit more responsive, if the buggs dont occurs (F.e. Bigme os5 has stopped working)
- All app icons of deleted apps were still there and now causing bigme os to fail over and over, ended up combining them all in a folder to declutter, all apps just say "app is not installed" leaving their icon
- Browser is gone after debloating, not a big issue but still for downloading apks maybe a bit a pain
- Disabled all google play related services in hopes to reduce power drain, i solely use Mihon anyways for reading manwhas.
- Gboard was preinstalled so i had no issue with disappearing keyboards luckily
- Data management app is removed during debloating with canta and lists online, so to acces your data files you now have to navigate to Settings -> Storage -> and then something like all data. It will just open the android explorer with all yours maps and data. I used this to put APK's on my bigme through my PC.
- Power saving settings and customizeable keys stopped working due to the debloat. Keymapper can solve the customizable keys issue, all be it a hurdle to remap the keys, but the powersaving disabling with the debloat seems strange, but perhaps its not needed.
- Power drain before debloating was approximately from not using the unit at all for days. 69% at arrival on Friday -> 20% before doing the debloat on monday evening. So without using the device at all for days the power drain in standby was 49%. Keep in mind, No wifi was connected, no google play account connected, no bluetooth, no airplane mode, no power saving settings tweaks. Just factory settings nothing more.

Step 4: Data (current)
I have charged it last night to 91% before bed and havent touched it so the power drain would be mainly focussed on standby mode, I have wifi turned on and as most power saving settings are unavailable I've no clue wether my device will turn of all wifi etc. on standby or deep sleep or w.e.

Expectations:
I've read people who got 10-15 days of battery life with debloating and disabling google play services. Based on the factory settings power drain I would've had approximately 5-6 days on standby not using the device at all.
To achieve 15 days, with all the tweaking, if I take my bigme tonight (24 hrs after the last charge) I would expect it to have dropped with at most 6-7%. If nothing has been achieved at all, it would've been reduced with 14-16%.

Debloating is not worth it if powerdrain >10% IMO. The system has become way more buggy and less user friendly, although still doable, but if the drain still occurs with its usual pace, I rather factory reset it again and just disable google play services and perhaps just stuff like bigme gpt as i have no use case for it. Customizeable keys and power save settings i would rather keep then deleting them.

I recently got the Bigme HiBreak Pro and honestly I love it. A couple of things bugged me though, so I built a small app to fix them: SideKeys.

1. The two extra side keys. Out of the box they only do Bigme's fixed list (Home, Back, screenshot, page turn, E Ink Center, flashlight…) and you can't make them launch an app. SideKeys lets you map each side key freely — and the volume keys (or any hardware key) too — with separate actions for single press, double press, and long press:

• Launch any installed app
• Open Google Wallet, start Google Assistant
• System actions: Home, Back, Recents, Notifications, Quick Settings, Power menu, Lock, Screenshot
• Flashlight, media controls, volume up/down/mute, Do Not Disturb
• A custom-intent option for power users

2. A Battery Saver Quick Settings tile. The stock HiBreak Pro quick settings doesn't have one, which drove me nuts. SideKeys adds a Battery Saver tile (and a key action for it). It uses Shizuku — grant it once and it works natively afterwards, even without Shizuku running.

3. A charge alarm. Sound + vibration + notification when the battery hits a level you pick while charging, so you can unplug to protect it. Works on any device, no root, no Shizuku.

Made with the HiBreak Pro in mind: pure black-and-white, no animations for the e-ink screen, built-in key debounce (these keys love to double-fire), keys are captured at runtime (just press the button), and there's a one-tap enable so you don't have to redo the "Allow restricted settings" dance after each update.

Honest note on a charge limit: I looked hard at stopping charging at, say, 80%. It's not possible on the HiBreak Pro — the kernel exposes no writable charging-control node, so no app (even with root) can stop charging. That's why it's a charge alarm, not a hard limit. If someone knows a device-specific trick, I'd love to hear it.

Also in fairness — the key remapping isn't unique. General-purpose apps like Button Mapper and Key Mapper (free/open source, and people here have gotten it working on the HiBreak Pro's keys) do that too. I made SideKeys because I wanted something small, e-ink-first, and specific to this phone — and as a way to learn.

Full honesty: I don't have much coding experience — I built this together with Claude (an AI assistant). It works well on my device, but I'd really appreciate someone with actual Android/dev experience looking over the code, sanity-checking it, or helping expand it. It's fully open source (MIT) — no internet permission, doesn't read screen content, collects zero data (APK signature is verifiable, fingerprint in the README).

GitHub (code + APK): https://github.com/Yannick158/sidekeys-hibreak Latest release: https://github.com/Yannick158/sidekeys-hibreak/releases/latest

One important setup tip: the Bigme firmware runs its own key handling in parallel. If a mapping screen flashes and disappears, or a key doesn't react, go to the Bigme settings → "Custom key" and set that key's Single Tap and Long Press to "None" so SideKeys receives it.

Would also love to know which keycodes your side keys report and whether it works on your firmware version.

And if you have cool ideas for key automations — clever single/double/long-press combos, actions you wish the keys could do — drop them in the comments! I'm looking for good ideas to build in next. Thanks! 🙏

I've got a hibreak plus and the stock OS is really not doing it for me. Looking to port either Lineage or some other GSI to it but worried about how they interact with the eink screen. I can see that Vasu has done something similar for the Hibreak pro so I'm wondering if the plus and the pro are similar enough for a GSI build aimed at the pro to work on the plus

Hey guys,

I recently bought used Bigme HiBreak B&W from a seller. The box also has the phone name as Hibreak B&W. But it has android 14. So far I have searched, original HiBreak comes with android 11. That's what confuses me. And in about phone it says Model: HiBreak and Product code: S BW

I am confused which model is this. It shouldn't be Hibreak S because it only has one backlight color (cool white) unlike Hibreak S that has two backlight colors (warm and cool).

Since most of the things are similar with original HiBreak BW and HiBreak S its hard to distinguish. Any suggestions how to know for sure?

Have anyone tried alternative os for bigme devices cause the bugme os takes to much ram and is luggyy .... i have bigme b6 and is good enough but not great

i just ordered one—my first ever android ereader! i have a kindle and kobo already but im looking into exploring an android ereader mainly because i want an open ecosystem and i will be most likely leaving the US soon.

i also don’t know if this is the right flair, so my apologies.

for context, my kindle is old and there isn’t a super easy way for me to borrow books on libby with it. i found a way around that issue but i do want a more straightforward way. the way i plan on using it is that it will be my backup ereader, not my main one. i don’t like koreader and im not interested in jailbreaking personally. if amazon made a way for us to borrow books with libby outside of the US (without us having to finesse the addresses on our amazon account, etc), i would 10000% stick to kindle. i love everything about it.

i have a kobo but im planning on selling it. just not a fan for a thousand reasons and i dont feel like getting locked into that ecosystem once i move, with a device i REALLY dislike. and i dont know if the country im going to will have libby/overdrive.

so based on some research, i picked the bigme b6. reviews are a little mixed but it has the main things that i want—color, size, and open ecosystem. i’m fine with tinkering around with the settings.

what i mainly plan on using it for is reading—standard books with occasional manga.

apps i plan on using: kindle, libby and kobo (the kobo app what i will be using for library books i will borrow when i leave the US, if they use it).

i do have some questions:

i know that it comes with a lot of bloatware, so i need advice on how to get rid of that.

also, battery life. are there settings i should tweak that would help the battery a little?

what is everyone’s experience when it comes to the kindle, kobo, and/or libby apps?

what is sideloading like? i have a macbook and i usually will hook up my kindle and kobo to download books.

what’s the syncing situation? i have an iphone and usually i will go on my kobo and kindle apps respectively and continue my progress there.

sorry if this sounds redundant. i tried to do as much research as possible but i just wanted more feedback from people who’ve had this device for more than 6 months. people on tiktok are too focused on the “aesthetic” side of it. i’m more interested in functionality and using it primarily for reading!

Hi! I have a Bigme b751c e reader for about 4-5 months. In the beginning, the battery lasted WEEKS. However I would go through periods of not charging nor using it. Now that I’ve started to use it more, I noticed that the battery drains insanely fast. I’m talking 30-50% in a few hours of wifi online reading (color). Is this normal? Is there a way to troubleshoot? I might have already thrown my manufacturer warranty papers away—who should I contact?

I’ve heard that the battery cannot be replaced on this device. Is this true? If it isn’t, how much would the cost be?

I'm really eager to buy this phone. From what I've read it seems like it would do the minimal things I want. However, I'm having a hard time getting a view of long term use. I've read comments of hardware issues and BigMe not providing replacements.

What has been your experience so far? What is it like after 6 months and more importantly after 1 year?

I’ve been troubleshooting Android Auto´s well-known issue where Android Auto screen constantly flickers/reloads when connected to the car.

After a lot of testing with the help of AI, it looks like the problem is related to Bigme’s per-app DPI optimization for Android Auto. Bigme seems to force one DPI value on Android Auto, but Android Auto can use multiple virtual displays with different DPI requirements. That can cause the projection UI to repeatedly crash/reload.

This ADB command fixed the flickering for me:

adb shell service call xrz_display_policy_service 7 s16 "com.google.android.projection.gearhead" i32 0

After running it, Android Auto became stable and the constant flickering stopped.

How to try it:

You need ADB/platform-tools on your computer and USB debugging enabled on the HiBreak Pro (find a guide for this).

Connect the phone to PC and first make sure ADB sees it:

adb devices

Then run:

adb shell service call xrz_display_policy_service 7 s16 "com.google.android.projection.gearhead" i32 0

You can then check the current Android Auto display policy with:

adb shell dumpsys xrz_display_policy_service | findstr /I "gearhead"

On Windows you should see a long text, find something containing:

isDpiSetting=0

That means Bigme’s custom DPI override for Android Auto is disabled which is what we are looking for.

Then connect Android Auto normally to your car and test it.

*Important*

This does not uninstall or modify Android Auto. It only disables Bigme’s per-app DPI setting for Android Auto package. On my HiBreak Pro, the setting also survives a normal phone reboot, so I don’t need to run the command every time.

However, I found that if I open:

Android Auto → E-Ink Center Bigme automatically enables the DPI setting again (isDpiSetting=1), even if I don’t change anything. So if you open Android Auto E-Ink Center, check it again or simply rerun the fix command afterward.

How to undo it:

To re-enable Bigme’s default DPI control for Android Auto:

adb shell service call xrz_display_policy_service 7 s16 "com.google.android.projection.gearhead" i32 1

You should then see again:

isDpiSetting=1

What to expect:

For me: Before the fix: Android Auto constantly flickered/reloaded making it unusable.

After the adb fix command: flickering completely stopped and Android Auto stayed connected normally.

Maps and other projected apps like youtube music work for me.

*I still have a separate issue where parts of the Android Auto dashboard look somewhat zoomed-in. That appears to be a different Android Auto/car display negotiation issue and not the original flickering problem.

So this is mainly a fix for the constant flickering/crashing, not necessarily every Android Auto display/scaling issue. My car is a Ford Escape, but the setting being changed is on the Bigme side, so I’m interested to see if it also fixes the same flickering issue with other cars/head units. If anyone with a HiBreak Pro has the same problem try it.

I'm considering pairing my Bigme B1051C with a pair of AR glasses (something like a RayNeo Air series or Viture) to watch video content (e.g. YouTube) through the glasses instead of on the e-ink screen.

My question: does the B1051C actually support DisplayPort Alt Mode video output over USB-C? I know the tablet runs a heavily customized Android build for e-ink, and I'm not sure if Bigme included driver/UI support for external video output, even though the underlying Dimensity 900 chipset should support it in theory.

Has anyone actually tried this combo (any AR glasses brand)? Does the glasses' screen show anything at all, and if so, does it work smoothly (normal refresh rate, no lag/artifacts), or does it fail to output a signal entirely?

Any firsthand experience, log output, or workarounds (e.g. via a dock/adapter) would be much appreciated. Thanks!

I have books I want to read that are exclusive on Amazon in the Kindle ecosystem.

I am considering the cheapest Kindle I can find a nice modern ereader with Android so I can use the Kindle app.

That should work from a technical point of view with the Bigme b6.

My question is; how does that works in practice? Is it a friction-less experience?

Or doesn't it really work? Out it works but it is extremely frustrating to do that?