Hisense has just done something truly amazing. They have developed a giant screen E INK Carta HD smartphone that is running Android 10 and has a 300 PPI display. They have various new reading enhancements, so it can pull double duty as a pocket friendly e-reader. It is currently retailing from the Good e-Reader Store for $479.99.
Underneath the hood is a Unisoc Tiger T7510 quad core 2 GHZ processor, 6GB RAM and 128 GB of internal storage. It has a 3.5 mm headphone jack to listen to music or podcasts, but also a speaker. It has a HIFI amplifier, and Hisense has said this is the best sounding speaker they made on an E INK phone. It is 33% louder than the A5 Pro. You can charge the A7 with the USB-C port and plug it into your computer or a wall charger. It has a giant 4770 mAh battery and has quick charging. There is a fingerprint scanner on the back to help keep it secure and also Face Unlock with the front facing camera. There is a button on the side, that is a quick key and can be mapped to do many different things, such as screenshots, launching an app, screen refreshing or anything else.
It will support most 5G bands thanks to the T7510 chip with NSA/SA support. 4G supported bands are B1; B3; B5; B8, B34; B38; B39; B40; B41 and 3G WCDMA 850/900/2100; 2G: GSM 850/900/1800/1900. You can also use your local WIFI network with 2.4/5G, to help conserve data.
The main draw on this phone is the display. It is really nice to have a 300 PPI screen, to make ebooks, comics, newspapers and all sorts of other content look vibrant. In order to help eliminate distractions, while reading, Hisense developed a new feature called Reading Mode. It will d disable all notifications, emails and popups. You can switch between landscape and portrait mode, which is great. It has a new dynamic refresh mode, to eliminate ghosting. You have two different modes, clear mode, which is geared towards reading and speed mode, which is geared towards internet browsing, animations and apps.
Hisense has there own app store on this phone, but it only has roughly 100 apps, that are primarily geared towards there Chinese audience. Now this phone does support hundreds of languages and can pull up native keyboards and totally change the UI. Hisense might have launched this in China, but they see it as a truly global release, since it supports all of the major networks. If apps are a big concern you can simply install Amazon, or the Good e-Reader App Store.
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.
