Important details to remember: No SD Card slot, Google Play services can not be installed (there are some hacks to get it 'kind of' working but not fully), the phone only works with a few carriers (not Verizon for example).
Thanks for the warning :| I hope that someone comes out with an eink smartphone that works in the US someday. I know there's not a huge market for it, but there of course can't be a market for it if they aren't selling the things here haha.
No SD card slot anymore - they silently discontinued it, certain blogs + articles say it has MicroSD storage expansion available. But apparently its not true - this is very unfortunate i was hoping to move my entire media library (everything) onto a 500gb or more microSD card!!
Hisense has come the closest to making useful color e-ink phone (great processor, smooth refresh display for e-ink) and all they had to do was include bandwidths that work with the US and other non-Chinese regions. Amazed they haven't addressed that major flaw yet, in color or even this phone, and released an international model. Parents trying to look for smartphone alternatives for their kids and themselves would make a great starting market. Also, no SD card? Strange downgrade from previous models.
Strange downgrade indeed! Ive been looking for an alternative to the best phone that is a phone on the market. Google is kind of the best phone device right now but im actually sick of the internet. Need to learn to get downtime again, need to get back to paper.
Really disappointed. Was waiting years, bc I thought it was a no brainer that they would add the US bands for any of their eink devices but I might break down and buy an light phone at this point bc they have no competition in the US for eink phones
@@AffyisAffy Yeah, if full band coverage is a must, Hisense isn't there yet. I think there's some good news in that bands like n41 are getting more usage in some US areas, and the A7 CC uses that. But that's hit or miss depending on where you live. I'm still a fan but they're missing out on this midmarket of non-addictive/non-eye-tiring e-ink smartphones.
@@yuvilio thanks I'll check out if I have that band in my area. It's just crazy to me because even b/w mode on my smartphone 'calms my brain' and less distracted. I think if the research came forward that having your phone be b/w it would help people be more productive, people would view this as a productivity phone and less of a 'detox' or minimal phone situation. Plus there's stuff I can't abandon for work, like authentication apps and my last place forced us to use a laundry app. So end the end, even if I get a light phone I'll still need 2 phones and that's why a lot of people can't commit to light phone. We are forced to have a smart phone regardless. Restaurants sometimes even only publish their menu online through QR codes the expectation is so ingrained that everyone has a smartphone
Love to see it. Obviously colour would be best, but things are at least moving forward with Eink, and that's not nothing. The 8gb of RAM is especially important - up to now Eink devices have been using 1 - 4gb Max, on average 2gb.
A few things: Is this think water-resistant at all? I don't expect it to be waterproof but being in the great outdoors reading on an e-paper screen means that you could suddenly get hit with rain, bird poop, etc. Would any liquids damage it? The second thing is how does this perform with something like a Zoom call. I know the refresh of the others will be choppy, which can't be helped with the state of the art, but is it usable, how does the outgoing video/audio perform? How's battery life?
I’ve been into e readers since around December and genuinely it has been a game changer for me. Having even a basic kindle has allowed me to be more mindful about my life in general. Always tempted to get a phone like this too
Correct, is looks and feels nice, but I too was expecting A9cc variant of it with a coloured screen, sadly they don't seem to be interested in offering it :/
Glad to see e-ink technology moving forward. Thus far I’ve been loyal to Kobo devices. Looking forward to when they start using color e-ink on their ereaders.
The Hisense EINK Phone is great for outdoor use and reading. It has a clear and crisp display that doesn’t strain your eyes or drain your battery. However, it has some drawbacks too. It is slow to type on, it doesn’t have a fingerprint scanner, and it doesn’t run Google apps well.
Have you seen the Modos display? It's able to get an incredibly high refresh rate for an e-ink display. I'm really hoping the creator is able to get a product to release for it
Even without a color option, its a great device. Web browsing in speed mode would be really nice. I just do not understand why have they removed sd card slot.
is there anything limiting them from only having speed mode enabled in regions of the screen that demand high refresh rate? that way it can dybamically adapt in areas that need it, and static areas stay clear
I like the concept of a regular screen on one side and a e-ink display on the other. I frequently would like to read from my phone when on the train and wish I could just flip it over to an e-ink. The problem is I want the rest of the phone experience to be top notch from someone like Apple or Samsung
What is better between A9 or A7? Can't decide if the better processor of the A9 or the 5G if the A7 would serve me better. Also is the color in the A7 something that can make it harder to see in lower light vs B&W version?
Hi, at the end of the video you say it may not be able to take SD cards in the duel sim tray, but on your website it says under pros "256 GB of Storage, with SD Card Support" can you please confirm which is right 😂, thanks.
You are very correct. As we saw it, one of the two slots for the card was not elongated much like a hybrid dual SIM Instead we're identically shaped therefore we feel that it will accept two SIM cards. We will have a follow-up comment for you tomorrow :-) thank you for the observation.
Looks ok if you don't mind having little to no animations. And I hope the battery life is huge. A little expensive compared to common phones but the idea of eink smartphones is slowly becoming a viable option every year.
Next you review an eink device do you think you could test the screen refresh rate on blur busters. I think it would be interesting just to see how far eink screens refresh rate has improved in hz
One of the largest power draws on a mobile device is the screen. Any color LCD need to have it's backlight on anytime you want to be able to see the screen. LCDs continuously draw power to refresh the screen. Additionaly LCDs can be very difficult to read in direct sunlight. E-ink displays address all these concerns. An E-ink display only draws power to refresh the screen. The information remains static even after the device is powered off. If you're using it to read books, you can have amazing battery life, as you only sip a tiny bit of power when you turn pages. E-ink displays are very much like paper, with them becoming easier to read in bright ambient light, and direct sunlight. It's also possible to edge light one too, so you can still read it in the dark.
I see Good e-Reader uploading a lot of videos on Hisense e-ink smartphones. But the problem is none of these smartphones work on US networks. I would really love to have one of these devices but whats the point of having a phone that cannot make calls. Hopefully Hisense makes something that supports 4G bands in the US
There are several reviews on Reddit reporting massive problems with messages. I was all about to order the A9 Pro, but those reviews are scary. Especially, the problems with the unreliable distribution of short messages. GPS does seem to be problematic as well. Damn. I am waiting for an e-ink phone forever. And wouldn't mind giving up the fluidity of Apple's iOS, but if it can't handle simple messages, that just wouldnÄt work for me. Can someone here, confirm the problems, or are those devices mainly used a s a reader?
I really could see myself using an E-ink phone at some point soonish. I generally don’t watch videos often on my phone and I can’t think of anything much I would need the OLED for that I can’t do later on with my iPad. I don’t really take photos on my phone much, and even if I did, you can still take the photos on the E-ink phone and transfer them. I think I would wait until a western selling manufacturer like Apple or Sony did it though. At least until I get sick of waiting and a new colour one comes out.
I had a yotaphone once, but this is really different. I would consider buying one for holidays. Always a screen that is readable in the sun is a dream. 😌
@@goodereader ah that's a shame. I was thinking of getting a small device to serve the main purpose of an electronic dictionary. Thanks for the reply though
This is a cool device because of e-ink technology. But it seems to me like there should be some processor that refresh screen at least in 30fps, or the e-ink display should be able to do this. If there will be an android smartphone with e-ink 30+fps display and ability to take and make calls in VoLTE (4g) and will cost $200-$250 (for east europe) I will buy it for sure
![Seungmin "그렇게, 천천히, 우리(As we are)" | [Stray Kids : SKZ-PLAYER]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/kAzmhLHePqU/mqdefault.jpg)
To me this is such an amazing device, I'm in love with all the E-ink technology.
Important details to remember: No SD Card slot, Google Play services can not be installed (there are some hacks to get it 'kind of' working but not fully), the phone only works with a few carriers (not Verizon for example).
Yup, this is definitely, the points i'm waiting them to improve to change my pro CC, please hisense : Make an international version
Thanks for the warning :| I hope that someone comes out with an eink smartphone that works in the US someday. I know there's not a huge market for it, but there of course can't be a market for it if they aren't selling the things here haha.
All I want is Google play store🙏
How do you know it doesn't work Verizon
No SD card slot anymore - they silently discontinued it, certain blogs + articles say it has MicroSD storage expansion available.
But apparently its not true - this is very unfortunate i was hoping to move my entire media library (everything) onto a 500gb or more microSD card!!
I want to see this thing running Google Maps.
It can
@VintageKrisItsMe yeah for sure, terrible
@@blues03 just watched a video on that.
Was pretty good!
Suprisingly so.
yeah map's and browser it's very important!
@@goodereader you are terrible reviewer, just stop
Hisense has come the closest to making useful color e-ink phone (great processor, smooth refresh display for e-ink) and all they had to do was include bandwidths that work with the US and other non-Chinese regions. Amazed they haven't addressed that major flaw yet, in color or even this phone, and released an international model. Parents trying to look for smartphone alternatives for their kids and themselves would make a great starting market. Also, no SD card? Strange downgrade from previous models.
Strange downgrade indeed! Ive been looking for an alternative to the best phone that is a phone on the market. Google is kind of the best phone device right now but im actually sick of the internet. Need to learn to get downtime again, need to get back to paper.
Really disappointed. Was waiting years, bc I thought it was a no brainer that they would add the US bands for any of their eink devices but I might break down and buy an light phone at this point bc they have no competition in the US for eink phones
@@AffyisAffy Yeah, if full band coverage is a must, Hisense isn't there yet. I think there's some good news in that bands like n41 are getting more usage in some US areas, and the A7 CC uses that. But that's hit or miss depending on where you live. I'm still a fan but they're missing out on this midmarket of non-addictive/non-eye-tiring e-ink smartphones.
@@yuvilio thanks I'll check out if I have that band in my area. It's just crazy to me because even b/w mode on my smartphone 'calms my brain' and less distracted. I think if the research came forward that having your phone be b/w it would help people be more productive, people would view this as a productivity phone and less of a 'detox' or minimal phone situation. Plus there's stuff I can't abandon for work, like authentication apps and my last place forced us to use a laundry app. So end the end, even if I get a light phone I'll still need 2 phones and that's why a lot of people can't commit to light phone. We are forced to have a smart phone regardless. Restaurants sometimes even only publish their menu online through QR codes the expectation is so ingrained that everyone has a smartphone
I've heard that Hisense has disbanded the department related to eink phones, so the A9 may be the swan song for Hisense's eink phones.
I want to see more companies do this kind of devices, great review by the way.
I can’t believe videos can play THAT smoothly on an e ink display!
I love how much you learn from different e-ink readers on this channel,.Iys just great🙌
Love to see it. Obviously colour would be best, but things are at least moving forward with Eink, and that's not nothing. The 8gb of RAM is especially important - up to now Eink devices have been using 1 - 4gb Max, on average 2gb.
Phone such as these are making more and more sense. Definitely considering it as a second phone on hands. Good review guys. Keep it up.
Always glad to see more products in the E-ink category.
Why is this phone not listed on hisense official website?
HiSense is doing some good job on sticking to e-ink screen phones
A few things: Is this think water-resistant at all? I don't expect it to be waterproof but being in the great outdoors reading on an e-paper screen means that you could suddenly get hit with rain, bird poop, etc. Would any liquids damage it? The second thing is how does this perform with something like a Zoom call. I know the refresh of the others will be choppy, which can't be helped with the state of the art, but is it usable, how does the outgoing video/audio perform? How's battery life?
I’ve been into e readers since around December and genuinely it has been a game changer for me. Having even a basic kindle has allowed me to be more mindful about my life in general. Always tempted to get a phone like this too
Correct, is looks and feels nice, but I too was expecting A9cc variant of it with a coloured screen, sadly they don't seem to be interested in offering it :/
Glad to see e-ink technology moving forward. Thus far I’ve been loyal to Kobo devices. Looking forward to when they start using color e-ink on their ereaders.
Absolutely beautiful phone. Clicked as soon as the video as soon as it came out 👍
I think e-ink is one of the most underrated technologies.
It's so exciting to see how the technology is improving. I can't wait to see the future!
The Hisense EINK Phone is great for outdoor use and reading. It has a clear and crisp display that doesn’t strain your eyes or drain your battery. However, it has some drawbacks too. It is slow to type on, it doesn’t have a fingerprint scanner, and it doesn’t run Google apps well.
Have you seen the Modos display? It's able to get an incredibly high refresh rate for an e-ink display. I'm really hoping the creator is able to get a product to release for it
I think that I would probably consider getting this if it were a color screen. I just can’t give up color in my daily driver phone!
It's always interesting to see what Hisense has to add in the e-ink market
@xiaomeinv7Even colored ones? Sad. 😢
this is so interesting! thanks for the review because i've never heard of hisense ebook reader!
Great review. A really nice, simple, but solid looking device. And props to Hisense for the packaging. Love seeing that.
Even without a color option, its a great device. Web browsing in speed mode would be really nice. I just do not understand why have they removed sd card slot.
Cheers always on all the content!
Thanks for your videos!
is there anything limiting them from only having speed mode enabled in regions of the screen that demand high refresh rate? that way it can dybamically adapt in areas that need it, and static areas stay clear
I like the concept of a regular screen on one side and a e-ink display on the other. I frequently would like to read from my phone when on the train and wish I could just flip it over to an e-ink. The problem is I want the rest of the phone experience to be top notch from someone like Apple or Samsung
I'd love a phone like that exclusively for chat, I like the idea of having one like that for chat
It sure would be great to see more brands doing this kind of stuff
i would like to know if i plug Xreal glasses on it, will I see the screen content in colors ?
I already got one. Please, how do I activate the Lock screen reading? As I used it, the battery was bad.
But I purchased Hisense’s eink phone before and it only has 2G data in US. Customer service told me they could not help.
What is better between A9 or A7? Can't decide if the better processor of the A9 or the 5G if the A7 would serve me better. Also is the color in the A7 something that can make it harder to see in lower light vs B&W version?
Hi, at the end of the video you say it may not be able to take SD cards in the duel sim tray, but on your website it says under pros "256 GB of Storage, with SD Card Support" can you please confirm which is right 😂, thanks.
You are very correct. As we saw it, one of the two slots for the card was not elongated much like a hybrid dual SIM
Instead we're identically shaped therefore we feel that it will accept two SIM cards. We will have a follow-up comment for you tomorrow :-) thank you for the observation.
@@goodereader Where is the follow up?
Does the Hi Sense A9 have the ES9038 + ES9603 chipsets installed on them?
Phone back to being a phone first and all the other things as a bonus... I like the concept!
Looks ok if you don't mind having little to no animations. And I hope the battery life is huge. A little expensive compared to common phones but the idea of eink smartphones is slowly becoming a viable option every year.
An idea would be to have a dedicated page-up/page-down button on the side, to make scrolling less painful.
Yeah, but what networks allow you to use the BlackBerry Torch 9800 or Curve?
Nice Device. Would live to see some ereader cases back on the market. Good luck for everybody.
What smart E-ink phone will work in the USA. I use a lightphone 2 now but want an eink smartphone for work hours
are those 'screen protectors' built in? able to be removed? or will it damage the screen to remove them?
can it run any google services? like youtube or docs? also can you use this with any sim card, like phone service provider i mean.
Next you review an eink device do you think you could test the screen refresh rate on blur busters. I think it would be interesting just to see how far eink screens refresh rate has improved in hz
Nice video!!
One question: Does it support android Auto?
Does the A9 PRO work in Europe with European phone carriers such as Orange and SFR?
I really would love to try something like this but the delay of e ink would put me off a little.
When connected to a monitor, does the phone have something like Samsung Dex?
such an amazing device, I'm in love with all the E-ink technology.
What carriers would it be compatible with in USA?
Limited t mobile coverage or MVNO like mint mobile. Probably only in populated areas.
T-Mobile. It has plenty of international standard bands.
Any sucessor for this phone in the making?
I really like this phone, brands should use this type of technology more.
what are some advatanges of having an eink smart phone as opposed to conventional ones?
One of the largest power draws on a mobile device is the screen. Any color LCD need to have it's backlight on anytime you want to be able to see the screen. LCDs continuously draw power to refresh the screen. Additionaly LCDs can be very difficult to read in direct sunlight. E-ink displays address all these concerns. An E-ink display only draws power to refresh the screen. The information remains static even after the device is powered off. If you're using it to read books, you can have amazing battery life, as you only sip a tiny bit of power when you turn pages. E-ink displays are very much like paper, with them becoming easier to read in bright ambient light, and direct sunlight. It's also possible to edge light one too, so you can still read it in the dark.
Governments are tapping directly into your brain.
Sorry, come back with a colour eink screen AND especially Google Services/Play Store until then I can't have it as a daily driver.
If the display can be switch between ink version and color screen for the price
I would love to have one of these. eink for phones as makes a lot of sense. So difficult to see the screen when outdoors.
I see Good e-Reader uploading a lot of videos on Hisense e-ink smartphones. But the problem is none of these smartphones work on US networks. I would really love to have one of these devices but whats the point of having a phone that cannot make calls. Hopefully Hisense makes something that supports 4G bands in the US
i am temted to get into this e ink screen lifestyle,just one thing, does anyone know does hisense provide software support for this device
participating in the kindle contest, good luck!
this looks soo interesting!! the screen looks amazing!!
You have a great channel keep up the great work you;re doing.
There are several reviews on Reddit reporting massive problems with messages. I was all about to order the A9 Pro, but those reviews are scary. Especially, the problems with the unreliable distribution of short messages. GPS does seem to be problematic as well. Damn. I am waiting for an e-ink phone forever. And wouldn't mind giving up the fluidity of Apple's iOS, but if it can't handle simple messages, that just wouldnÄt work for me.
Can someone here, confirm the problems, or are those devices mainly used a s a reader?
Does this work with the USB C - Ethernet adapters for Android phones?
Yes
when i know about hisense, i really wanna have it. it's just like hold book in my hand since my phone is always with me
I really could see myself using an E-ink phone at some point soonish. I generally don’t watch videos often on my phone and I can’t think of anything much I would need the OLED for that I can’t do later on with my iPad. I don’t really take photos on my phone much, and even if I did, you can still take the photos on the E-ink phone and transfer them.
I think I would wait until a western selling manufacturer like Apple or Sony did it though. At least until I get sick of waiting and a new colour one comes out.
I had a yotaphone once, but this is really different. I would consider buying one for holidays. Always a screen that is readable in the sun is a dream. 😌
love the channel! keep it up
this is wild, the battery life must be crazy
How well do these work in the US?
I was hoping for a coloured version. It's 2023. It's about time!
How about a "folding" e-ink phone?
Great review. It would be great to have this one!
Can you give me a recommend that smartphone Eink with no camera (both front and back), thank you
Doesn't exist as far as I'm aware not many eink smartphones
Hisense hi reader pro I think?
@@eink-reviews thank you very much, Hisense Hi Reader none pro. I will find the way to buy it
@@PHUONGFIBO depending where you live, AliExpress maybe
Am I correct in assuming that this does not have pen support?
No, this is just a smartphone, no wacom layer or pen support
@@goodereader ah that's a shame. I was thinking of getting a small device to serve the main purpose of an electronic dictionary.
Thanks for the reply though
I love this device! I can't find it anywhere online to order tho :(
always intrigued by e-ink phone but not sure how usable it is especially for watching video
First time I am checking an EINK phone!
Could you make short movie how Google maps navigation works on this phone? Thanks.
Such a neat concept!
Great device! I want one for my next phone!
But is it compatible with Google’s playstore? Or only the China stores?
Not officially but it can be rooted.
Great review on a very interesting product!
at night does it have backlight?
does it have Google PlayStore?
does it have English language?
how do I download apps?
Eagerly waiting to launch in my country
I confused about "is it turned on or turned off?"
Does it come with nfc ?
I want to see how it performs as a daily driver taking calls and gmails
Love these videos
Waiting for the e ink revolution..
When will this be available in India?
December 2023
Really hope in the future there will be e ink displays with higher refresh rates
If it will available in India good for us
Still no out of the box support for Google play services?
I'd assume so, insure he would have mentioned of otherwise and no root likely
@@killsweep4588 yep, I wanted to believe lol
No nfc? Why? I hope Hisense will use nfc again in eink phone.
Which American carrier does this work on?
This is a cool device because of e-ink technology. But it seems to me like there should be some processor that refresh screen at least in 30fps, or the e-ink display should be able to do this. If there will be an android smartphone with e-ink 30+fps display and ability to take and make calls in VoLTE (4g) and will cost $200-$250 (for east europe) I will buy it for sure
I wish it had google play so we could download things like whatsapp and google maps.
Any suggestions?