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Hisense A9 Pro E-Ink Android Smartphone
- superamit 3y agoVery curious to hear experiences from anyone who has one of Hisense's e-ink phones. I recently bought a Boox android e-reader in this form factor, but I was eyeing this phone!
- fortytw2 3y agoI have a HiSense HiReader Pro that I picked up right when it came out. It's absolutely loaded with nonsense + makes zillions of requests to Chinese IPs and it takes ages to figure out how to disable / block it all. It also only works on a single GSM band in the US (which to be fair, I knew before I bought it), but I was hoping that single band would be usable. I went back to using a Kindle because the experience is so much better all around. Vaguely intrigued by the new Boox Palma though.
- gjsman-1000 3y agoI was briefly looking at the Boox Palma - which appeared to be an e-ink smartphone. I then discovered that the marketing page never mentions 4G or 5G support - because it doesn't actually have a cellular modem. I can see how most people would take that foregranted. Ouch.
- bhpm 3y agoIt’s a shame Boox violates GPLv2. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23735962 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23735962
- warkdarrior 3y agoI'm a happy user of Boox Nova Air, this is news to me. Has anyone sued Boox? I'm looking at a new device, maybe an Air 3, but I do not want to get one if I'm subsidizing their legal costs.
- bhpm 3y agoSadly there’s not a lot of money in defending open source.
- carlosjobim 3y agoIs it so incredibly important that it has to be said every time the brand is mentioned? Boox devices are good, and I don't think there is any other hardware that compares to what they offer.
- bhpm 3y agoOpen source is a cause near to the hearts of many people on HN. So, yes.
- jauntywundrkind 3y agoThis one notably really is a phone! There's some good Android e-reader devices, for much cheaper. I nearly picked up a Boox Palma, which looks very slick. $300. I then found the Moaan Inkpalm lineup; the newest gen of their Inkpalm 5 has a decent rk3566 core and is $160. This at $480 is a much steeper price, but for someone who is a strong reader it could make a lot of sense.
- jxdxbx 3y agoThe Book Palma is great. I had been vaguely dissatisfied with other Boox devices--and it turns out, it was because they didn't have enough RAM and were too slow. The Palma is responsive enough to actually use for other things than reading. But, reading is the primary use case.
- frakkingcylons 3y agoYep my Palma works great as a pocket-size ereader that is also very capable for reading Wikipedia and web sites too. I typically use it tethered to my iPhone.
- ortusdux 3y agoI picked up a Meebook M6 android e-reader for $170 and I've been enjoying it so far. As an e-book reader alone I would put it on par with a kindle, but the fact that I can access my local library's catalogue and use Pocket makes it much better option for me.
- cmrdporcupine 3y agoIs this new? Because the product I saw like this before wasn't actually phone because it didn't take a SIM, was basically like Apple's old iPod Touch. And I don't see any copy in here about GSM bands, SIM tray, etc. Is the "news" here just that they now support Google Play? I would jump at something like this in a second if it a) took a SIM and b) can run Android Auto for when I'm on the road. EDIT: it helps to actually read, the copy does say : Cellular: 4G/LTE Looks like the Android version here is pretty old, so I'd be worried about the viability of b).
- natpalmer1776 3y agoThey do offer a music-player version of the device, as shown here: https://hisenseeink.com/products/hisense-touch-lite-e-ink-music-player https://hisenseeink.com/products/hisense-touch-lite-e-ink-mu...
- natpalmer1776 3y agoAnother interesting phone they offer is the dual-screen A6L that has a typical LCD on the front and an e-ink screen on the rear! https://hisenseeink.com/products/hisense-a6l-64-128-gb https://hisenseeink.com/products/hisense-a6l-64-128-gb
- Agree2468 3y agoThe YotaPhone did something similar back in 2012, I'm surprised it took this long for someone else to try it again. IIRC they had oodles of crowdfunding support but fumbled the logistics side of things.
- croes 3y agoHisense produces e-ink smartphone at least since 2018, they also got one with a colored e-ink display.
- someotherperson 3y agoI had a chance to play with one, it was a phenomenal phone. It's a shame it fell apart.
- maxglute 3y agoEspecially wit how many extra screens in folding phones these days.
- vzaliva 3y agoOne missing feature which caught my eye is water-resistance. It is pretty much standard on modern phones and for me it is critical. I still remember times when you can ruin your expensive iPhone by "water damage" not covered by the warranty.
- gjsman-1000 3y agoI'm still frustrated that Apple (or really, any manufacturer), for all their money, can't figure out how to make a water resistant laptop. I would bet top dollar that even Tim Cook has had a spill once.
- pquki4 3y agoTim Apple once said that he spent 80% of his time on iPad: https://9to5mac.com/2014/07/17/apple-ceo-tim-cook-says-everyone-should-do-80-percent-of-their-work-on-an-ipad-just-like-him/ https://9to5mac.com/2014/07/17/apple-ceo-tim-cook-says-every... So you are looking for a spill in that 20% of the time. Watch your wallet.
- Erratic6576 3y agoyeah I have developed a ritual protocol of appropriate and unacceptable water glass shapes due to a fatidic incident which cost me a MacBook Air. It could have been prevented if Steve Jobs had had any interest in making laptops more resistant. So, glasses whose mouth is wider than their bottom are prone to collapse because the centre of gravity is higher
- user_7832 3y ago> I'm still frustrated that Apple (or really, any manufacturer), for all their money, can't figure out how to make a water resistant laptop. Depending on your luck and your laptop's vintage, many business class laptops offer(ed) keyboard spill protection. I think my HP ProBook 430 G3 had it, I've definitely spilled a lot of water once from a big bottle and it was mostly "fine". (The headphone jack didn't work but I don't remember if that was a pre-existing issue.) Iirc thinkpads may also offer it.
- 3y ago
- ahamilton454 3y agoI just started using this phone a couple weeks ago. It runs android 11, and the Ink OS that is runs is actually pretty clean and simple. I use Mint Mobile as my provider since TMobile is the only carrier that really supports it in the US. I am located in NYC and while the phone's coverage isn't like my older iPhone's its still pretty good. You can also get it off AliExpress for about $360 (At least I was able to). Not quite sure if it can use Android auto yet. Overall I have had a good experience using the phone. My goal was to reduce my daily eye strain while not giving up the phone essentials, and it has certainly helped me do that.
- cmrdporcupine 3y agoI am very curious to see if Android Auto works on it, because if it does I'd seriously consider it. Does it have a lot of Chinese junk-ware on it, though?
- ahamilton454 3y agoI will check in a few days if it can run android auto and update here. To be honest, it probably has a lot of junk-ware on it, this really isn't my domain of expertise though. I can tell you from a user experience, it has been very easy to use.
- idontwantthis 3y agoHow is the battery life?
- ahamilton454 3y agoAbout 3 days long with normal usage (maybe 4)
- silisili 3y agoAre you able to find or guess the screen on time per charge? 3 days is wildly different for someone who uses their phone an hour per day, vs someone who scrolls social media for 12 hours a day.
- notorandit 3y agoNot 5G! Shame on them.
- Someone 3y agoThey have another model that claims to have that. https://hisenseeink.com/products/hisense-a7-5g-e-ink-smartphone-1 https://hisenseeink.com/products/hisense-a7-5g-e-ink-smartph...: “It will support most 5G bands thanks to the T7510 chip with NSA/SA support.”
- cmrdporcupine 3y ago... for what... so you can stream some 4k YouTube videos onto your e-ink screen?
- sofixa 3y agoFor the coverage. Most network deployments nowadays are 5G, and older 3G and earlier are getting decommissioned/replaced.
- BadHumans 3y agoI want a phone like this but I'm not willing to pay $500 for it.
- weare138 3y agoThat's the part I don't get. I like the concept overall but I don't see the point of having high end specs. Like it has a 13MP camera for example. How do you view color HD pics or video on an e-ink screen?
- stonogo 3y agoLots of people take pictures on their phone and then look at them on other devices.
- sleepycatgirl 3y agoThere is always aliexpress, I suppose. I myself paid ~320$ total, for the 6/128GB version.
- BadHumans 3y agoHow do you like it? Do you use it day to day as your primary phone?
- johndhi 3y agoHow is it with Slack and email?
- seam_carver 3y agoEmail with outlook is fine. I imagine slack is also fine.
- ploum 3y agoI’ve been using an Hisense A5 daily for the last 4 years (so it is the previous model, which is less powerful and without Google Play store). https://ploum.net/se-passer-decran-avec-un-telephone-e-ink/index.html https://ploum.net/se-passer-decran-avec-un-telephone-e-ink/i... Ask Me Anything about not having a true screen on your phone.
- zirror 3y agoHow's the battery life?
- ahamilton454 3y agoabout 3 days long (maybe 4)
- ploum 3y agoBattery life was about a week and is now about 3 days but it really depends on which apps you want to "freeze" and which apps you never want to "freeze" (to receive notifications). There’s also a "super saving mode" which allows only 6 apps, no notifications. I use it during long bikepacking trips, recharging every other day when stoping for lunch in a restaurant. It is great. Also, I leave the "super saving mode" if I need to use another app. So it is perfectly possible to get very long battery time but you need to really configure it and figure out how to use it. I’ve lost a lot a battery time by disabling freeze for Adguard VPN. In day to day use, I prefer to use more battery and send less data to China (the stuff is full of spyware). Even with that, I charge it every three days but I don’t use it much (which is the goal)
- srge 3y agoCan you use navigation apps like Waze ? Et Spotify ? And chatting apps like Telegram and Whastap ?
- ploum 3y agoI’m using Pure Maps and OSM And perfectly well. The only downside is that, on some maps, the grey-water is the same as the grey-road and it happened a few times that I thought a canal was a road when doing bike trip. Google Maps is working but sometimes loosing the position, probably due to the fact there are no Google services on the smartphone. So Google Maps is very unreliable. It may loose positioning in the middle of a trip (suddenly, position is not updated anymore). Well, really good to degooglize yourself ;-) Never tried Spotify nor Waze nor Telegram. Whatsapp was working if I remember well but I’ve deleted my account year ago. Signal is working fine except for notifications which are sometimes held until you launch the app. This doesn’t happen all the time, I suspect the aggressive battery "freezer". For me, it is a feature as I’m disturbed less (the phone is in silence mode most of the time anyway). If I expect a message, I simply open Signal before locking the screen. Note: there’s a way to forbid freezing for specific applications if needed. I just didn’t wanted to do it. Using signal has not been always easy. See : https://ploum.net/2023-03-09-losing-signal.html https://ploum.net/2023-03-09-losing-signal.html
- jsheard 3y agoIt's a shame Sharps MIP-LCDs haven't been scaled up to phone or tablet sizes, those could be a nice balance with almost the power efficiency and comfort of e-ink but with fast enough response times to keep up with animation and smooth scrolling UIs. That's the screen technology the Pebble smartwatches used, and the Playdate console more recently.
- jimktrains2 3y agoI loved the reflective mode on the olpc xo1, but have never seen it in use anywhere else.
- user_7832 3y agoFully agree, in this race of "2000 NIT ULTRA BRIGHT OLED FOR DAYLIGHT!!!" screens, transflective displays make sunlight seem like a gift. My previous smartwatch (Amazfit Bip) had one and it's a real pity no one bothers too much with them.
- jsheard 3y agoGarmin still uses MIP-LCD on a lot of their smartwatches, though even they have started offering more OLED variants which trade battery life and sunlight readability for better aesthetics.
- ncann 3y agoOne thing that people tend to not expect for these e-ink smartphones is that their battery life, while good compared to normal phones, is nowhere near the "expected" battery life for an e-ink e-reader. This phone for example has a battery that lasts ~3-4 days, while a normal e-reader can last weeks.
- gcr 3y agoThat's an interesting point. Is this because of the modem and always-on background tasks / push notifications?
- retrac 3y agoYes. A dedicated eink reader usually goes into full suspend-to-RAM mode, between each page refresh. Also, e-ink displays consume power when they update. It takes a lot of energy to change the state of the pigment cells, and no power when static. So the always updating, graphically busy interface of an Android phone (even if themed for eink) is much more power-demanding to render.
- ncann 3y agoYes, in the end these are (mostly) fully fledged android devices with all the baggage running in the background. Modem aside, wifi is usually the biggest battery consumer, keeping wifi off usually will significantly improve the battery life (which is true even for normal phones, but especially so for these e-ink phones).
- ben7799 3y agoAndroid is probably a big part of the problem here as the eInk phone manufacturer doesn't have the ability to refactor Android for ultra low power usage. Even so, getting it to shut down as much as eReader would probably be very hard if it needs to be able to receive incoming phone calls.
- Erratic6576 3y agoNetGuard at f-droid would double my battery expectancy on an old Samsung A6 by blocking most connections
- strohwueste 3y agoIs there a way to mimic the experience on a "normal" android phone? Making everything b/w with monochrome setting is easy. But reducing framerate and maybe also reducing resolution? Maybe even put a filter over it? Anybody tried that?
- andrewia 3y agoYou can reduce render resolution easily, it's available as the unrooted ABD command `adb shell wm size 1080x1920`. You don't need a computer for it either, you can use an app like Bugjaeger to create a loopback connection on most Wi-Fi networks.
- seam_carver 3y agoIt's really not the same. Eink is a completely different screen technology that physically moves ink particles around. The screen doesn't emit light, only reflects ambient light like paper.
- lostmsu 3y agoThe point is to reduce your desire to watch addictive videos, not to do something with display technology per se. I actually considered that a startup idea - Android fork targeted to restrain addictive content consumption via artificially lowered refresh rates, some color filters and targeted software.
- rfwhyte 3y ago$500 USD is an absurd price for a "Phone" with such limited usability. Unless you're some edge-case who absolutely "Needs" the longer battery life, I really fail to see how this can justify a $200-$300 price premium over a low end Android phone.
- sleepycatgirl 3y agoYou would be surprised how much more comfy reading stuff is on such phone, over conventional ones.
- Version467 3y agoOn the one hand, you're right, the price seems absurd. On the other hand, I've only ever heard this argument from people who don't really want such a device anyway. I don't own this phone, but I paid $500 for a Boox Note Air 2, which is an eink tablet that I use for notetaking and reading and replaced my ipad with it. The limited usability of these devices is a selling point, not a downside. But just because I want a device that does less doesn't mean that I want a device that feels cheap. I still want something sleek, well built and snappy. And eink screens aren't particularly cheap either. So $500 it is.
- carlosjobim 3y agoGo live in a place with a lot of sunshine, and you'll get it. E-ink is absolutely the future for a huge part of the world.
- HumblyTossed 3y agoThere's also one without the phone part: https://hisenseeink.com/products/hisense-hi-reader-e-ink-e-reader-1?pr_prod_strat=e5_desc&pr_rec_id=478cd0bec&pr_rec_pid=8414784127293&pr_ref_pid=8414784618813&pr_seq=uniform https://hisenseeink.com/products/hisense-hi-reader-e-ink-e-r... I've looked at these a few times and I really want one, but not quite at that price.
- 2OEH8eoCRo0 3y agoIt sucks that the CCP makes all this innovation a nonstarter. If the CCP were to disappear the Chinese hardware hackers would benefit hugely and the West would even benefit from the added innovation/competition. I feel robbed in a way.
- soupfordummies 3y agoLooks like I'm not the only one that got intrigued by this phone from the comments in the NYT Smartphone article this morning ;)
- yboris 3y agoRelated: The Light Phone https://www.thelightphone.com/ https://www.thelightphone.com/ - uses E-Ink too
- VyseofArcadia 3y agoI really wanted to like the Light Phone. It's exactly what I want...except one of my biggest use-cases depends on a proprietary and almost assuredly ephemeral web service. I want to do basically three things on a phone: 1. Calls and texts 2. Maps 3. Music and podcasts But the only way to get audio files onto a Light Phone is via uploading them to the web dashboard[0]. I contacted support. There exists no other way, or at least not one they are willing to officially acknowledge. Sorry, I don't trust that a hipster minimalist cell phone startup is going to maintain that service for as long as I plan on using the phone. Light Phone people, if you're reading this: don't be weird about it! The device has USB connectivity! Just let me plug in a damn cable and transfer files over! There is absolutely no reason to have this whole thing hinge on a web service that I assume you are paying good money to keep online and working. Transferring audio files via USB was a solved problem in the year 2000. [1] Side note, I'm aware that maps likely also depends on a similar web service, but it doesn't irk me quite as much. [0] https://support.thelightphone.com/hc/en-us/articles/360048240532-Music-Tool https://support.thelightphone.com/hc/en-us/articles/36004824... [1] And this isn't even mentioning that the only supported audio seems to be 256kbs CBR mp3s
- numpad0 3y agoCan't you enable ADB and install something in apk?
- VyseofArcadia 3y agoThere's all sorts of things I could do. Instead I decided to just not buy it and spend my money on a phone which doesn't engage in this kind of BS. (Ended up with a Fairphone 4.)
- bsimpson 3y agoYouTube is watchable on this thing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eA5dIN3aS-o&t=325s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eA5dIN3aS-o&t=325s Not as smooth as on a traditional phone, but maybe more usable than you would have expected for an eInk display.
- bacro 3y agoI already have that on my Boox Note Air 3C and it is pretty handy. I can watch for hours without straining my eyes.
- akasakahakada 3y agoI think the point is that the manufacturer decided to put a absurd strong DAC inside so that it double as a music player.
- chx 3y agoTHIS IS NOT A HISENSE SITE! There's no such thing as Hisense A9 Pro. It's just A9. The site has zero contact information, you have no idea who you are buying it from. Buyer beware! https://reddit.com/r/eink/comments/17oc6jq/httpshisenseeinkcom_is_not_hisense_website_not/ https://reddit.com/r/eink/comments/17oc6jq/httpshisenseeinkc... You can find official jd.com links on https://ereaderx.com/product/hisense-a9-eink-phone-specs/ https://ereaderx.com/product/hisense-a9-eink-phone-specs/ use your favorite proxy, I use superbuy but I won't link because this is not a spam post. Notably it's 266.70 USD from JD this sus website wants 479.99 for the same... shipping will add a little but certainly not even half the difference.
- kramerger 3y agoEdit: Nevermind, I confused HiSense and Huawei's HiSilicon :( With that said, HiSense is more of a white box OEM outside Asia, so maybe this is them trying a new thing with direct sales to West?
- maxglute 3y agoHiSilicon =/= Hisense.
- KennyBlanken 3y agoAnyone considering buying this phone in the US should probably not do so because it has no support for UTMS aka 3G (still common in rural areas), does not support any of the 4G "long range" bands, and no 5G support (an increasing number of rural cell towers are long-range 5G) It does support the majority of non-extended-range Tmobile bands. I did not check other carriers, but this thing is much worse than a Nexus 6 in terms of LTE band support - a phone that came out about 8-9 years ago. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39266008 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39266008
- colinsane 3y agoanyone know how close the kernel/drivers are to mainline? loads of Linux epub/cbz/RSS/etc reader apps are already friendly to small screens, would be lovely if i could just throw a minimal OS on there and rsync my media onto it without going through hoops or fighting the vendor's OS.
- josu 3y agoWhy are e-ink displays still relatively expensive?
- RossBencina 3y agoBecause it's a single-supplier technology.
- booyakasah 3y ago[dead]
- lawrenceyan 3y agoE-ink devices are going to be like fountain pens. Calling it now.
- RossBencina 3y agoRelatively expensive with a dedicated niche audience? We're already there aren't we?
- xchip 3y agoHow often do you have to charge it? Strange they don't mention it.
- aidenn0 3y agoThat's a huge premium for the E-ink screen.
- meatjuice 3y agoCan’t wait to play Call of Duty on this thing
- t0bia_s 3y agoWidth：79.50 mm - thats insane and clearly not comfortable to manipulate with.