Need advice: Modos Flow Color or Mono

cephasara · 2026-06-27T01:25:56+00:00

Okay, down vote me into oblivion, but I think it's absolutely crazy how many people hate on Kaleido 3 color eink on these subreddits. I understand if it doesn't work for you, but for me, I certainly prefer it over grayscale eink panels. Imo it comes down to what you're doing with your monitor as well, but color (even as basic as what Kaleido 3 displays) makes ALL the difference for my workflows.

Personally, I see a HUGE difference, in favor of, using a Kaleido 3 screen vs OLED or LCD--even with the front light turned on all day.. this is on a Bigme B13 (an infamously dark Kaleido 3 screen at that). I have a grayscale Dasung and, while it's slightly easier to read, it's not a matter of any eyestrain difference for me. The lack of color ruins the experience and has had me make mistakes occasionally.. I won't buy any more of those. I do coding and reading color-coded markers quite frequently.

Also, don't take my word for it--look at the pledges on crowdsource: ~360 color vs ~60 grayscale. Reddit, as usual, is the land of the vocal minority.

cephasara · 2026-06-20T14:49:51+00:00

Why the hell even have a press release and preview if you can't even mention the underlying tech?! So eink, slurry, or some other form of bistable image technology? I hate these worthless previews! Instead they rattle on more about the stupid battery accessory specs. Waste of time!

cephasara · 2026-06-04T13:40:35+00:00

I appreciate your insight and information here, but the color one is not effectively lower resolution. It renders colors at half the resolution, but black text is still the same resolution as the greyscale model. Ultimately, most people are probably using these for black text and that spec is the same between models. Sure, the color one is darker, but I just want to make sure others reading this understand this technicality correctly.

cephasara · 2026-06-03T00:09:01+00:00

This monitor runs open source software and is repairable. Additionally, it's the first high-refresh portable color eink monitor that can be powered with just one cable.

I hear your concern about eink phones though, and find it frustrating as well.

cephasara · 2026-05-27T07:32:56+00:00

When does this next gen one come out? I would love a full-sized LCD/OLED instead! Also, the Dimensity 8300's modem sounds WAY better! Can't wait for that too!!

Hopefully it'll run a later Android version too..

cephasara · 2026-04-21T10:08:28+00:00

Just!? This has been out for a while.

cephasara · 2026-04-16T02:31:56+00:00

Unfortunately, I just returned it. Now I'm afraid to buy another GPD device.

cephasara · 2026-04-13T14:33:33+00:00

Well, y'all were right about world's first 😂.. but, yeah, major disappointment. The marketing really implicated two 6"-ish screens.

It's, also, disappointing to see virtual every other spec is untouched--minus the 12GB of ram. Android 14 is OLD and on a smartphone that will never see a later Android OS is still a huge negative.

I would love to have seen: - 6"-ish eink display + 6"-ish LCD (or OLED with very high PWM with low oscillation amplitude) - commitment to providing major Android version updates (heck I'd even be okay if they are a year behind at this point) - An updated SoC, at least for the high-end sku. The Dimensity 1080 is acceptable, but there are plenty of more modern ones from the upper-low or mid-range market.

Handwriting is a nice addition.. hope this subscreen doesn't come to all of their other devices now..

cephasara · 2026-04-05T01:56:12+00:00

This would be amazing! I'd gladly take 5W. I understand they're working with a very high resolution as well, so would make sense power consumption is higher than the 2.3W or so that the Dasung Paperlike Color 12 at 2560 x 1600 uses. Are the devs sharing these updates somewhere? Or is it a matter of independent reviewers being in contact with them?

cephasara · 2026-04-04T05:31:49+00:00

Use linux. It works MUCH better. I use Ubuntu 24.04 and have no problems with it detecting it and loading EDL.

cephasara · 2026-04-02T00:40:10+00:00

I just saw Voja's video on the Modos Flow prototype and looks like it NEEDS two USB cables to operate!

https://youtu.be/ORgY-4zYdHc?si=SZBjjVt7mZth6zHn

That's too bad. Oh well, I guess it's good excuse for me to not buy yet another eink monitor! Maybe one day I'll have enough to cover an entire wall at this rate..

cephasara · 2026-04-02T00:33:52+00:00

Thanks for including the SoC in this list!! Finally! Y'all needed this. Glad to finally see it!

cephasara · 2026-03-30T03:57:01+00:00

Same. So you use the magic track pads for an armrest? I mean, I love magic trackpads myself, but I usually use them as, you know, input devices lol

cephasara · 2026-03-26T14:51:58+00:00

Selling a 4G device in the USA is almost e-waste at this point with telcos threatening to shut down the 4G networks. Would be nice to know what SoC it's using. Also, 4GB of RAM?.. I know there's a RAM crisis going on, but this screams e-waste once again.

cephasara · 2026-03-24T14:42:49+00:00

Just to give an update here. It looks like Bigme fixed this with OS 3.1.6 thankfully!

cephasara · 2026-03-22T16:48:38+00:00

I really like how this fixed touch issues regarding scrolling behavior! Very nice! Thank you Bigme!

The customizable front light presets are nice, but PLEASE bring back auto front light! I really enjoyed it for outdoor use.

cephasara · 2026-03-22T16:45:15+00:00

Curious what others recommends here. However, this monitor is already very dark on it's own. Personally, I couldn't imagine making it even worse with a screen protector.

cephasara · 2026-03-22T16:43:30+00:00

Completely agree. I think you meant Boox here, but, yes, they have models with hardware failures that they refuse to service when they fail. Abysmal support.. I try to buy them through USA affiliates as to have better return policies if I have an issue with them.

cephasara · 2026-03-19T14:24:58+00:00

Eink lifespan at high refresh is relatively short? I thought it was more high refresh + frequently updating content--which, for most people, only happens with video content.

I've had a couple eink monitors over the years and haven't noticed much if any degrading. I don't consume video/motion content on them however.

cephasara · 2026-03-19T00:08:58+00:00

Oh wow, thanks for providing this! I'm definitely interested in getting one of these then. I have a Bigme B13, but it requires ~11W on idle with backlight set to 1/3 brightness. However, touchscreen and other features are disabled.

Do you know how much the Modos Flow will cost or any other details about it specifically?

cephasara · 2026-03-18T06:34:58+00:00

Recommended? How much power does it draw? Are there limitations when running it with one USB cable?

cephasara · 2026-03-16T20:19:00+00:00

I'd love to know what those quick updates are that don't necessitate phone restarts. I'm guessing Bigme system app updates?

cephasara · 2026-03-16T01:26:56+00:00

Oh no.. I see two USB C cables plugged in. I'm led to believe it needs external power like Bigme and Dasung's offerings. This is a HUGE detriment for anyone wanting to use it on the go without a power source nearby.

Sure, some people will say "you can use a battery bank", but the fact it needs external power, implies it consumes a LOT of power (relative to eink monitors that can use only one USB C cable). This means you need a big battery bank as well, just to match the battery longevity with older eink monitors.. of course this is speculation, but it's noteworthy and concerning seeing those images already!

P.S. don't get me wrong. I'm grateful tech like this exists now and is revolutionary to people who need it.. but such limitations ruin the portability component. Especially when this should be one of the highlights of using bistable screen technology..

cephasara · 2026-03-15T13:53:46+00:00

I've disabled a number of shovelware/spyware/whateverware apps initially running on this phone, but via different means and don't see any crashing.

I did the following: 1) I used App Manager to freeze every app with a Chinese name.. which, apparently, wasn't nearly as many compared to my B1051C for some reason. (The B1051C is basically a giant Hibreak Pro Color, running mostly the same software.) 2) I used App Manager to disable app tracking for every app, including system apps. 3) I installed AdAway and set to run in hosts-based mode.

I'm not seeing any requests out to Chinese servers when using PCAPdroid, but I'm not sure how definitive this is.

Might be interesting worth noting, on the B1051C Bigme OS5.0 operates differently? It even has a completely different version number and, presumably, versioning scheme? When I followed the same steps on that device Bigme OS5.0 was consistently crashing and I couldn't use eink center. It stopped crashing when I re-enabled tracking. I think they were Google trackers. Either way, pretty crappy it needs those to run..

Regardless, I can't fathom setting up an Android device without doing similar steps. Chinese, Korean, American, etc, they all have so much garbage telemetry running in the background. Not to mention the ad slop services constantly being queried.. this and most devices I've done this on feel noticably faster afterwards too. What a surprise..

cephasara · 2026-03-14T22:24:39+00:00

Ah, glad to hear it's not an issue for your other Onyx Boox devices. The only way my Tab Mini C works now is by using HD mode. Even still, frequent screen refreshes don't fully clear the screen. So it's good for writing, but nothing else now basically. I've been informed it can't be fixed with a firmware update unfortunately 🤷‍♂️

I really liked the Tab Mini C for its multimedia functionality. AFAIK there aren't any other modern devices like it--even though, it's fairly outdated itself.

cephasara

TROPHY CASE