Three New Tablets Added To eWritable’s Comparison Table: Bigme, Pocketbook & Ruertu

Just a quick note to say that I’ve added three new e-ink tablets to the comparison table; the Bigme B751C, the Pocketbook Inkpad X Pro, and the Ruertu RT-BE-103C.

I’ve not yet used any of these devices first-hand, so the information are what I have been able to gather from the official specifications and my existing knowledge of the software (and there’s still a few blanks I need to fill in).

So, please bear in mind that the following thoughts are based on my first impressions without any hands-on experience. I will hopefully review them properly at a later date.

Bigme B751C

The Bigme B751C is the first 7″ colour writing tablet on the market – I sometimes refer to 7.8″ tablets as 7″ but this is actually 7″ (without the extra 0.8″). I just wanted to make that clear 🙂

So the B751C (I guess Bigme was too busy to give it a nice model name) is very much e-reader-sized. Personally, I have a hard time taking notes a 7.8″ tablet because I like lots of canvas space, so I think 7″ would be way too small for me. But I should also say that this is a facet of my own long-form note-taking style so it might be a good fit for those that have a tendency to write short quick bullet-type notes.

The B751C has physical page-turn buttons, which is unusual for e-ink writing tablets. This makes me think that it would ideally be for someone that will mostly use it for reading-related tasks but will have the need to take occasional notes. It is also super-light at only 140g, which makes it easily portable, and (i’m guessing) comfortable to hold for long periods.

There are also the usual high hardware specs of Bigme tablets; decent CPU, RAM and storage capacity, colour Kaleido 3 screen, frontlight, speakers, microphone, g-sensor etc. and it runs Android 11, so third-party apps from the Google Play Store can be installed.

However, I did notice that it uses a capacitive (touch-sensitive) layer for writing rather than the usual Wacom EMR layer. So I’m wondering if this could result in accidental writing with your finger? It also means that you won’t be able to use your favourite Wacom stylus with the tablet.

Pocketbook Inkpad X Pro

Pocketbook have been making e-readers (and some very nice ones) for several years. And now they’ve moved into the E-Note space with the Inkpad X Pro.

This was released in December 2023 and I must admit it slipped under my radar (hence, the late entry into the comparison table). I did know it was coming (it was announced sometime in Spring 2023) but it took a while to be launched and combined with my inability to get any sort of email response from Pocketbook, I just forgot about it.

The Pocketbook Inkpad X is a 10.3″ monochrome tablet with a screen density of 227dpi. To be honest, the specs are not that great – in my mind, it feels like the sort of specs of e-ink tablets from a couple of years ago and although it says apps can be installed from the Google Play Store, the operating system is based on (a very old) Android 8, which could result in compatibility issues.

The one thing that Pocketbook has going for it is that it is one of the few manufacturers with native support for Adobe DIgital Editions (ADE), which allows DRM-protected ebooks to be viewed on it. I should also mention that one of the users of our Question and Answer forum mentioned that Pocketbook is better for user privacy, security, and control (however, I have to admit my ignorance in this regard until I have done further research myself).

Overall, I feel that there are much better (and more affordable) tablets currently on the market.

Ruertu RT-BE-103C

Another imaginatively-titled model 🙂

I will simply refer to this as ‘the Ruertu‘ because this manufacturer does not have any other products as far as I can see.

In fact, I can’t find a lot of information about Ruertu (as a company) at all. They don’t seem to have a website or any social media handles.

They appear to be a Chinese organisation based on the names of a couple of their representatives that contacted me out of the blue asking me to promote their product. They told me that they wanted me to write an article about the Ruertu and asked how much it would cost. They also offered to send me a review unit.

I explained that I do not charge for writing reviews but I would write an honest review of the product, for which I would have full editorial control – basically, I write my true thoughts and opinions rather than writing a favourable review for a kickback. This is my policy for all e-ink tablets and helps to maintain the integrity of eWritable. That was two weeks ago and I haven’t heard from them since…

Without wanting to sound cynical, looking at their Amazon listing, all their 5-star reviews are from individuals that have received a free unit. However, in the interests of fairness, I must add that my friend Jeff received a free unit under the same terms that I requested (full editorial control) and I believe that his review will be 100% truthful. Check out his channel here.

Having got that bit of background out of the way, the Ruertu appears to be very (very) similar to the Bigme Inknote Color+. So much so, that I am wondering if it may actually be a rebranding of the same e-ink tablet. It’s not inconceivable that Bigme could have licenced their hardware to Ruertu and Ruertu have developed their own software (or, more likely, forked the existing Bigme software).

Like the Bigme, the Ruertu has some impressive hardware specs; 10.3″ Kaleido 3 colour screen, frontlight, speakers, microphone, fingerprint scanner etc. It also runs Android (so supports installation of third-party apps from the Google Play Store) and includes the ChatGPT app (which is also a feature of Bigme tablets).

So, it does look like a pretty neat device, but I’m fairly confident that (like Bigme) it won’t be as good as a Boox tablet in the versatile cutting-edge sub-niche of e-ink tablets. However, I will reserve any judgment until I have tested it myself (or seen Jeff’s final review).