Bigme just announced a brand new 8-inch color e-note that uses E INK Gallery 3-color e-paper technology. It will be able to display over 50,000 different colors and the drawing experience will be unrivalled. It will be able to read and edit color PDF files in addition to comics and magazines. The hardware specs are out of this world and it will feature dual cameras with OCR technology. This will be the first commercially available Gallery 3 product ever. This is tremendously exciting, not just for Bigme, but if they can prove Gallery 3 is ready for prime time, other companies will follow suit. It will retail for $699 and should be out in January 2023. You can Pre-order it from the Good e-Reader Store.
The Bigme Galy features an 8-inch e-paper Gallery 3 color display. It will have a color resolution of 300 PPI, achieved through a four-particle ink system: cyan, magenta, yellow and white, providing a full color gamut enabled at each pixel. There’s a front-lit display and a color temperature system that lets you read in the dark with white and amber LED lights, and there are 36 lights in total. The general build quality is the same as the Good e-Reader X Bigme InkNote Color. It is very slim and the tablet is made from a combination of aluminum alloy and glass back panel to achieve a sleek profile and luxurious texture.
Under the hood is an A53 2.3GHz octa-core processor, 6GB of RAM and 128GB of internal storage. If this mind-blowing storage doesn’t suit your needs, it has an SD port that can handle an additional 128GB of storage. It has WIFI to connect to the internet, browse the web or install and use Android apps. Bluetooth 5.1 ensures you can pair wireless headphones or earbuds to listen to audiobooks, music, podcasts and anything else your heart desires. If you don’t fancy headphones, there are two stereo speakers. The USB-C port allows you to charge Galy from your computer or from a power outlet. There is an 8 MP rear camera and a 5 MP front camera. You can use the fingerprint sensor to unlock your device and set a passcode for more security. 4 noise-canceling microphones take audio dictation, speech recognition or various voice communication apps. The battery is 4,000 mAh, which should be good for a couple of weeks.
A WACOM screen is critical to the success of an e-note. Regardless of how good the included stylus is, users will either want to use their own or buy an alternative, e.g. B. the 3rd generation X-Pen or the Lamy Al-Star. Bigme pen has 4096 degree pressure sensitivity and voice control, the pen is ultra-precise. Besides, its laser light presentation function is ideal for meetings and presentations. It can charge the internal battery by attaching to the side. It can also be connected via Bluetooth, so you can turn pages of a PDF or e-book with just one click, no more swiping, tapping or gesturing on the touchscreen. There is both a page forward and page back button, so this is a super ideal pen for all your needs.
The main drawing app has many cool features. You can select your pen, eraser, undo/redo, insert text, insert photos/clipart, select one of 40 background templates, save or create another page. There are few settings that are really relevant to freehand drawing. One is the writing tools, you can choose between pen and pencil, each has a slider to control the thickness of the lines and the other is the color palette. Write latency is very low when you put the pen on the screen. Everything appears in less than 20 milliseconds. You can easily spend hours just drawing in color. You can insert text, images, vector graphics or use the quad microphones to use speech to text and insert them directly into your notes. I don’t know of many colors the Galy can handle, suffice it to say you should have either a color wheel or dozens of colors. However, this model supports handwriting to text.
The only thing I like about the upcoming Galy is the support for global handwriting. You can write on anything and everything. You can write on a manga, book, comic, magazine, newspaper or even play on the home screen. Write as you go. It supports handwritten annotations everywhere. The 2-1 split screen view is also an underrated feature on E-Notes. You can have a PDF on one side of the screen and the note on the other. You can even open an app in one and a book on the other, the possibilities are endless. Screen sharing via Miracast is also good, so you can easily share your screen with others.
The Bigme Galy runs on Google Android 11 and comes with Google Play pre-installed. This gives users the ability to download and buy millions of apps. That means you don’t have to worry about all the complications of sideloading apps. There are four different speed modes that give you increased performance to stream audio, video, encoding, view high quality images or just want to scroll really fast while surfing the web.
I think the Galy 3 will be a huge hit. Bigme has a solid name in the e-reader and e-note industry and has a solid track record of development and execution. They intend to crowdfund this product on Kickstarter, but you can pre-order it now from the Good e-Reader Store.
Michael Kozlowski has been writing about audio books and e-readers for twelve years. His articles have been picked up by major and local news sources and websites such as CBC, CNET, Engadget, Huffington Post and the New York Times. He lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
