ePaper Hiking Phone

I am a bit paranoid about backups. That includes planning for a backup gear when going on a multi-day remote hikes. On one hand it is really prudent to take as little gear as possible to travel light and thus reduce the risk of orthopedic injuries. Unfortunately there is no way to take backup ankles and knees...

Smartphones - even if out of network range - are great in combining multiple functions in one device - a camera, a map, a satellite locator, a notepad, a book reader, a chess board, a music player etc. But no matter how good they are protected, there is still the elevated risk of damaging the phone on a trek. A simple screen crack may render the touch function inoperable and the whole device suddenly becomes useless.

There is one other aspect to phones - they run out of batteries and are not ideal to use in full daylight. Displays get better, but for true daylight use like reading books, we still use Kindles. But then Kindles are limited in function - no maps, no GPS, cannot be used as backup communication devices.

Couldn't Kindles just include a smartphone chip? Or could there be a smartphone which behaves like a Kindle while offering broad application support and location / communication support?

Yes, it could. Enter the Bigme Hibreak Pro ePaper Smartphone.

Actually Android - based ePaper book readers have been around for a while. But they were WiFi-only devices. Which means no GPS function (as GPS nowadays is integrated into a mobile network chip).

The Hibreak Pro is a proper smartphone. It runs Android 14 (with official Google Play store support), has a SIM slot (dual SIM, but sadly no eSIM though...) and 256GB of storage. It even has a fingerprint reader located on the side power button. And yes, it has a 6.1 inch 300 PPI ePaper display, perfectly visible in full sunlight.

At around 200g it is a tad heavier than the 6" Kindle (2024) and a tad lighter than the 7" Signature Edition. But aside from running the Kindle App, it can do all smarts that a modern smartphone can do. 

For through hikers the most important part is the support for mapping applications, with the vastly improved Gaia being my favorite. 256GB of storage is enough to download a full resolution New Zealand and still have room for books and music.

Is it an ideal device? Definitely not - the camera is not great (and despite the B/W ePaper display being relatively fast, it cannot be used for taking nor viewing photos). Then, as I mentioned, there is no eSIM (which nowadays is really helpful when traveling). And no water resistance.

But it is really great as a functional backup plus can be used for many hours (days!) in full sunlight as a mapping / navigation device. Also the 6.1" form factor is really good for reading books. The display is also nicely backlit, so you can continue route planning or reading after sunset.