E ink Phones
 

I know that some of us have used a phone for navigation and daylight visibility of the screen can be a problem. The GPS bicycle computers are mostly built for the race crowd and training. The battery life stinks for the price. The color E ink phones are daylight visible and use very little energy so the battery will last much longer. These phones run on Android and the memory card capacity is 1 terabyte on several of them. I'm considering the Bigme E ink Smartphone Hibreak . This is for Navigation and book reading and its a phone also. Have any of you used an E ink phone and what are your thoughts on doing so.

https://www.bikeforums.net/touring/1...ing-phone.html

Note that the color resolution is lower than the B&W resolution.

njkayaker: I have been following the development of E ink phones for several years. I like a good tool and this type of phone would be easier to use and keep powered with a USB charger from my Son SL hub. I know the resolution is lower. Thanks to the link to the other post on E ink phones. The newer e ink phones have google play. They don't lag as much between screens and the resolution has improved some. So with the phone in airplane mode and the maps downloaded to the phone, keeping it charged while using navigation during the day should be easy.

This is a solution looking for a problem. I tour regularly and use a Garmin 1040 Solar which in battery saver mode is good for 100 hours in moderate battery save mode. That is 12 days of riding 8 hours a day with no access to outside power which would be a very particular use case. The longest I have every been off grid has been 7 days and my battery pack tides me over just fine until I hit a charging point.

The phone you mentioned appears to be a much better choice than the one mentioned in the old thread. I think it's an interesting idea.

The lower resolution for color is going to be somewhat unexpected by most people. So, it's worth mentioning it even if you already knew about it (and I would have had no idea about that).

Not entirely. The solar 1040 is $750. The phone the OP is talking about is $250, with a much bigger screen. And some people might like the software available on Android. The phone could also be used for other things (unlike the 1040).

The 1040 is $650.00 to $750.00. The Phone I posted is $250.00. I would need to carry a phone and a GPS cycling computer. I like the available phone mapping and apps for bicycle travel better also.

how fragile is the E ink phone? Is it one drop away from being a paperweight? I'd like to think that the big names that make the bicycle computers expect the head unit to be skidded across the pavement doing 20 mph+ at times & maybe accidentally stepped on/ran over... I haven't tested the durability out, but that would be my expectation. Whereas a phone.... I'd at least expect some water resistance, but falling off a bicycle going 20 mph... not expecting a good outcome.

I wouldn't expect a good outcome from this for a Garmin 1040 (which is much more expensive). Maybe, they are statistically better but the Garmins do break.

I think the issue of weatherproofing is more significant. The Garmin devices do OK with that (still not always perfectly). There's no information about that for the Bigme phone.

None of them are listing any waterproof info. I'm considering a Ziplock bag. I am also considering a new upstart bicycle computer made by COROS It is inexpensive and has much better battery life. Then I could still use an E ink phone. In fact the solar on the COROS DURA is good enough that you might not need to charge it at all.

That bike computer looks impressive. Do you know if the basemaps can be updated for free using Open Streets maps? I have been using the same Garmin GPS for bike tours and for randonneuring for over seven years, I value the ability to install updated current maps.

As far as I know, the only devices (other than phones) that let you install non-company provided maps are those from Garmin.

The only reason it’s even possible to create non-company maps on Garmin devices is because people managed to reverse engineer the map file format. (There’s a newer format that hasn’t been reverse engineered.)

So, I very much doubt the Dura will allow it.

It would probably be a bad idea for a company to allow it anyway. It would reduce their options to make changes to their software and might increase support costs.

Thanks.

Can somebody tell me which Garmin devises will allow the adventure cycling maps to run on them. I believe they use GPX data in there map downloads.

I’m not sure if the new Garmin 1050 will let you copy map files to it.

It connects as an MTP device rather than a regular drive when plugged into your computer.

I’m supposing you mean routes or tracks.

All of the Garmin devices (*) let you copy GPX track files. The Edges can only use track files.

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* the new 1050 connects to computers differently than the others (as an MTP device). I still believe you can copy files to it.