Can an E-Paper Second Screen Handle Writing Work? What Six Years Changed
Most of my day is spent reading text and writing text. By late afternoon my eyes feel heavy. Dimming the screen did not change that. Neither did making the text larger.
Six years ago I bought a 13.3-inch e-paper device to read documents I did not want to print, and connected it to my PC as a second display. My conclusion back then was that it worked for things that stayed still. Scrolling left ghosting behind, and the mouse cursor was impossible to follow. There were not many situations where it helped.
Six years have passed. Has e-paper become a tool you can work in?
What I wanted to find out
Whether e-paper is usable as a second display for a PC. Not as a reading device, but as a screen you work on.
The hardware I use
| Six years ago | Now | |
|---|---|---|
| Model | BOOX Max3 (13.3-inch, monochrome) | Bigme B13 (13.3-inch) |
| Use | Second display for a PC | Second display for a PC |
| Since | June 2020 | Around 2025 (about a year of use) |
| Connection | PC HDMI to micro-HDMI on the device (power over USB Type-C) | mini-HDMI and USB-C |
I bought both with my own money and used them. The Bigme B13 has been in use for roughly a year and is still on my desk. The record from six years ago is still on this site, so I can compare against what I wrote then.
Why I chose Bigme
What I actually wanted was the BOOX portable monitor. It was out of stock, so I bought the Bigme instead. There are not many e-paper external displays, and they are not always available when you want one.
What did not work six years ago
Quoting from the record at the time.
What worked — reading PDFs and documents, checking material I did not want to print, keeping a work in progress open on the side.
What did not work — writing with the pen while using it as a monitor, and any operation that required following the mouse cursor.
What I complained about — the cursor was small and blurry, and battery drain was heavy.
Usable for reading something that stayed still, painful the moment anything moved. That was the position six years ago.
Where it stands now
The display is good enough to work on.
- Refresh is fast enough. For work that is mostly text, I do not feel it catching
- Color is not something to expect much from. It has improved to the point of being viewable, but no further
As a way to set expectations, here is a comparison. Newspaper text, or the printed page of a weekly manga magazine — approach it expecting that, and you will not be disappointed. Picture a glossy magazine or an LCD panel and the gap will always be there.
And the relief for your eyes, compared with a self-lit screen, is on another level. LCD and OLED emit their own light. E-paper reflects it, the way paper does. For text-centred work, that difference carries.
Power draw and heat are a separate matter
It uses a lot of power and will not run without external power. It also gets as warm as a tablet.
One thing worth stating plainly. E-paper as a technology is inherently frugal with power. It draws current only when the image changes; leave the image alone and it costs almost nothing. The picture stays there, like ink on paper.
And yet this particular unit is thirsty. I have not verified why, but two things come to mind. Both are guesses.
One is that it does too much. This is not a device that only accepts a video signal. Alongside mini-HDMI and USB-C, it can mirror a phone screen over WiFi. None of that is needed for a second display.
The other is the control side. Even if the panel itself sips power, poorly built software driving it will still burn through a battery. This looks less like a limit of the technology and more like how the product was put together.
It is not what the words “portable monitor" suggest. Treat it as a second screen that sits on a desk with power nearby, rather than something you carry and run on a battery, and you will not be caught out after buying.
You want the remote within reach
This is the part I wish I had known before buying.
E-paper leaves a faint trace of the previous image as it refreshes. You then want to repaint the whole screen once — and that button lives on the bundled remote.
You can operate the unit on its own, but it is not comfortable. This is a device that assumes a remote sitting on your desk. As an interface, that is hard to call good.
Who it suits
Suits — people who spend long hours reading and writing text. People whose eyes feel heavy by late afternoon. People who keep reference material open while they work.
Does not suit — people working with video or photographs. People who judge color. People who want to use it away from power. People who do not want more objects on the desk, since a remote is part of the deal.
What you can buy today
This is the one I use.
The product is sold as a “portable display", but as written above, it needs external power. Buy it expecting to carry it around and it will not match.
For 13.3-inch e-paper monitors there is also DASUNG, in monochrome and color versions. From what I could find, both cost more than this unit. I do not have one, so I cannot compare them. I am noting only that the option exists.
One more thing. This category is not always in stock when you want it. I ended up with the Bigme precisely because the BOOX portable monitor I wanted was unavailable.
What I did not verify
- Refresh rate as a number. The record from six years ago has no figure either, and I did not measure it this time
- How cursor tracking compares with six years ago
- How long it runs on battery alone, since external power is required in the first place
- A comparison against the BOOX portable monitor, which I could not obtain
Conclusion
As an e-paper display, it is well made.
I have listed the drawbacks above. Heavy power draw, no operation without external power, tablet-level heat, awkward controls unless the remote is within reach. Every one of them is something that got in my way in actual use.
Even so, the display is perfectly readable, and it is kind to the eyes. What I wanted from a second display, it covers.
Six years ago the answer was that it worked for things that stayed still. Now it goes as far as staying open the whole time I read and write. That gap feels large to me.
Whether to buy comes down to what you expect from it. Judged as something to carry, it fails the moment power is required. Judged as a tool for color work, it fails as well.
A screen that sits on a powered desk and rests your eyes while you read and write text — read that way, and unlike six years ago, it is worth choosing now. If your eyes feel heavy by late afternoon, I think it is worth trying.