Minimal Phone: Low-priced smartphone with E Ink display and complete keyboard

limerod@reddthat.commod to Android@lemdro.id – 274 points –
Minimal Phone: Low-priced smartphone with E Ink display and complete keyboard
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Man, what I really want is a e-ink smart watch....

RIP in peace Pebble

I wonder how hard it would be to open source something similar with something like an nrf52 or similar and a 3d printed enclosure I might have to look into this tbh

Idk if Bangle.js is open source, but I imagine a e-ink display could be possible?

Main problem will probably be battery life. At least if you want to do more than show the time on it.

I wish Eric had given us pebble v2 instead of beeper, honestly.

I got into Pebble last year, hahah. I have four now because I'm a weirdo (two Times, a Time Steel and a Round). Thank goodness for Rebble!

Hopefully you have better luck with the batteries than I did

SQFMI Watchy exists... And has a chinese supplier now which doesn't suck

The community is also active, recently a few from ground up firmwares have appeared

I was trying to find a link to a supplier, could you link?

Edit: found that it's on mouser, but also discovered they're using USB-Micro still, so that's going to have to be a pass :(

My github has a repo explaining it all, username is the same.

The seller on aliexpress will probably have in the future usbc version with cnc case

Your repo is very useful, thank you!

Man, I've been dying to get one ever since a friend told me about em.
While I can get them via Aliexpress, they come with a very minimal case, with the sides exposed. I'm struggling to find anyone selling replacement cases and I don't have access to a 3d printer to make one myself unfortunately.
I'll keep looking though.

Look up your local 3d printer community

  • The seller on aliexpress will probably have in the future usbc version with cnc case

I have an old Sony eink one which still works and is perfect

I switched from a Pebble Time to a Gaemin Vivoactive 4s. I think it's as close to an eink smart watch as it gets.

Not sure if they are still available, but after pebble shut down, I got this Chinese watch called amazfit bip. It has a color e-ink display and lasts roughly a week on a full charge.

I was able to sync to my phone using FOSS called gadgetbridge so I didn't have to install sketchy Chinese software on my phone.

made me curious, so I decided to look it up. Is yours the original Bip?

Looks like the newer ones all have LCD screens and are more like the Fitbit versa.

Depending on what features you want/need, you can get a used Pebble on eBay and run Rebble on it. More hoops to jump through if you use an iPhone, but android support is pretty straightforward!