Hisense A5Pro B&W e-ink smartphone

[Tar]

Please don't mistake with A5C or A5ProCC, both of which are color display models.

From what I've read, it seems that A5Pro will be an enhanced A5.

Since we only have half-translated information about this phone yet, I will share all the information I read and differences from A5 (could be wrong!):

- Basically same display (at least size) as A5 model. Maybe faster refresh rate.

- Same hifi audio chip (great!)

- Possibly an independent speaker (Kudos to Hisense for listening to the feedback!)

- Possibly better frontlight ( I read "warm light" mentioned, which would surely contrast with the one on the A5 which is white/blue.) Hopefully not PWM controllwed brightness though.
Here is the quote:
During the night, the device will utilise the diffuse reflection technology through warm light sources mounted on the front side of the device display. Compared with other electronic devices, A5 Pro CC is totally blue-light-free for daytime reading and reduces the content of blue light by 95% for reading at night. It protects eyes greatly by decreasing the harm caused by the blue light to eyes.
So this mentions the CC version, but I think it is highly likely the A5Pro would have improved fronglight as well. Very good!

- Android 10 as opposed to Android 9 on A5.

- UNISOC Tiger T610 processor. They seem to be proud of it. I'm sure it will be enough for an e-ink device and it is better than the one on the regular A5.

- Speed refresh mode

- Fullscreen reading mode

- Dual SIM

- Type C

- Fingerprint

- NFC

- Same battery and camera (both decent)

- Will support more 4G frequencies

- Volume keys now turn pages

- No disturb mode (messages only appear in notifications bar.)

- Camera: upgraded image processing and AI capabilities. Hardware is likely the same.

- Probably no Google Services. Very good!

TLDR: Overall, it sounds like a greatly enhanced Hisense A5. Most importantly, the frontlight is likely greatly improved and hopefully no longer uses PWM. It is also great they will retain the wonderful hifi sound chip and will add an independent speaker, too, so the phone will be very strong in the audio department. Android 10 and a better CPU are nice bonuses, too. If all this is true, Hisense truly deserves a thumbs up for listening to the fan's feedback on the A5.
A5 was a very nice device already and this feels like it will be a huge improvement for but a minor price increase.

[lowsense]

I'm more interested in the color ones, since they are just a little more expensive than the black and white.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by lowsense

I'm more interested in the color ones, since they are just a little more expensive than the black and white.

I'll be very surprised if the colour models aren't less sharp due to the colour filter even reading B&W text.

I'll be very surprised if the colour models aren't greyer due to the colour filter even reading B&W text in ambient light without a front light on.

If you mostly read colour content (then a 7"+ screen is likely needed), then colour makes sense. A colour eink is of almost no value for reading novels and short stories. I hope they will use the trick of colour subpixel addressing for the edges of characters on monochrome text or serif fonts will look poor.

[stumped]

Buying into colour e-ink now is a huge gamble on reliability, quality.... Setting aside all the risk and hassles of imported tech, it's still surely wiser to buy LCD, for colour now, ( comics etc) or stick to grey scale for a pure text reading experience

Maybe I am just a luddite, but I can't see the attraction.. and if I can't actually get hands on one in a store and can't easily send it back if I don't like it....

It may or may not be an otheriwse great smart phone, but this site is mostly about readers and reading. The URL is a clue