Hisense is best known in the E INK world for releasing quality smartphones, but the company just threw us a curveball and announced the HiSense TOUCH music reader. This device is able to play HIFI audio via their ES9038 flagship decoder chip and the ES9603 independent amp chip, which supports up to 384kHz/32bit output. The actual output will be done through the dual stereo speakers or the 3.5mm headphone jack.
The Hisense Touch features a 5.84 capacitive touchscreen E INK Carta HD display with a resolution of solution of 1440 x 720 with 287 PPI. It has a front-lit display and color temperature system, so you can not only listen to music on it, but also read ebooks. Underneath the hood is a Qualcomm quadcore processor, 4GB of RAM and 128 GB of internal storage. There is a USB-C port for charging the device and WIFI to access the internet and download apps. This device supports Bluetooth 5.1, so you can plugin a pair of headphones, but HIFI audio cannot be outputted through Bluetooth, because it uses different codecs. It is powered by a 3,500 mAh battery and the weight is 155g.
If you have seen any of our reviews for the Hisense line of smartphones, this uses a similar layout. So you can launch various speed modes to boost the performance of the E INK display. This is useful if you decide you want to install some some apps that have animations, such as page turns. One of the most exciting aspects about the music player is that it is running Android 11, which is the first time we have seen a modern OS on an E INK device. Hisense typically supports a myriad of languages, including English.
The Hisense Touch will come out sometime in the next two the three weeks and will only be released in China. Good e-Reader will try and review it and see if it is any good.
Michael Kozlowski is the editor-in-chief at Good e-Reader and has written about audiobooks and e-readers for the past fifteen years. Newspapers and websites such as the CBC, CNET, Engadget, Huffington Post and the New York Times have picked up his articles. He Lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
