The Hisense A5 PRO CC features a single screen E INK color display with a very fast refresh rate. It is capable of 4096 colors and has a front-lit display to read in the dark. Underneath the hood is a Unisoc T610 processor (2 x 1.8 GHz ARM Cortex A75 + 6 x 1.8 GHZ ARM Cortex-A55) and 4GB RAM and 64GB/128GB of internal storage. It is powered by a 4,000 mAh battery, which should be enough for a couple of weeks. The rear facing camera is 13MP and front-facing camera is 5MP. It is running Android 10, which will handle any app you throw at it.
The regular Hisense A5C only has 2 refresh modes, a regular mode that gives you the ideal experience and A2, which degrades the image quality to give you more performance. The A5 Pro CC actually has 4 different refresh modes, that are similar to the Onyx. The best one is the equivalent of X-Mode, where playing games and watching videos can be a reality and there is little to no frame clipping.
The A5 Pro and A5 Pro CC have the same box, well on the front. You would never know you have the Pro CC until you look at the back and in very small lettering it gives the model number. The entire retail box is white, there is nothing on either side of the box, other than the Hisense logo.
When you open up the box, the phone is laying down on its back and it is encapsulated by a static proof bag. Right underneath it is the wall charger, SIM removal tool and USB-C cable. There is a one page plastic card that is a quick start guide, but it is entirely in Chinese. There is also a multi-page warranty card, used if you need to do an RMA.
The Hisense Pro CC is shipped with a regular screen protector on a layer of glass, which makes this ultra-reflective. You would probably want to invest in a matte screen protector to help with the reflection of sunlight or ambient light in whatever room you are in. The front of the phone is flush with the bezel and the sides of the bezel are not that big. There are no physical buttons on the front of the device, but there are volume, power button and a E INK multipurpose button that can be mapped to do different things. You can establish a single press to do one thing, and a double tap for another. There is a camera on the front and a grill-speaker. On the back of the phone is a 13MP camera and micro LED flash. There is a fingerprint button in the middle and some info on the bottom. On the very bottom is your USB-C port, microphone and another speaker. One thing that surprised me was another microphone on the top of the device, above the speaker grill and front-facing camera.
The build quality on this is higher than the A5C, a better speaker and two microphones are compelling. It also has more RAM and a faster processor and a fingerprint reader. This is worth spending the extra money and you can buy it today from Good e-Reader Store for $320 – $350, depending on if you want 64GB of internal storage or 128GB.
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.
