Hisense A7 5G

[kandwo]

Today Hisense announced the release of their new e-ink smartphone, the A7 5G. What do we know? I haven't been able to find much information about the phone as I don't know Chinese and the webpage won't load for me fully. It is said to be a global release, so I guess that means Google Play?

Here is a link to the phone: https://item.jd.com/100009643325.html

According information posted to a reddit thread, it's going to be bigger than the A5: https://old.reddit.com/r/eink/commen...ves_1999_yuan/ (6.7 inches, according to the post) and will be followed by a colour version in February.

What do you think?

Myself, I'm a bit torn - I don't need a bigger screen and 5G, which I think has the potential to be a big battery drain. But if it has a faster processor than the A5 Pro and warm frontlight, I might consider it.

[pdurrant]

Here's a Google translation of the jd.com page

It does look very interesting.

Here's an English article at Gizchina.com

RRP of US$306, apparently.

The volume buttons double up as page turn buttons (hooray!)

I think the screen is Greyscale only, but that's not completely clear to me. It is a 300ppi screen.

A Russian site (Google English Translation) seems to have more info.

Android 10
4770mAh battery
Unisoc Tiger T7510 (four Arm 2.0 GHz Cortex-A75 cores, four 1.8GHz Cortex-A55 cores)
6GB RAM, 128GB Storage
USB-C
Headphone jack

It seems that there may be two versions, one with a Greyscale screen that's available for order now and due to ship 1st Jan 2021, and one with an updated colour screen will go on sale on 1st February 2021.

It's not clear to me whether these models are China-only, or are going to ship globally.

[kandwo]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Here's a Google translation of the jd.com page

It does look very interesting.

Here's an English article at Gizchina.com

RRP of US$306, apparently.

The volume buttons double up as page turn buttons (hooray!)

I think the screen is Greyscale only, but that's not completely clear to me. It is a 300ppi screen.

A Russian site (Google English Translation) seems to have more info.

Android 10
4770mAh battery
Unisoc Tiger T7510 (four Arm 2.0 GHz Cortex-A75 cores, four 1.8GHz Cortex-A55 cores)
6GB RAM, 128GB Storage
USB-C
Headphone jack

It seems that there may be two versions, one with a Greyscale screen that's available for order now and due to ship 1st Jan 2021, and one with an updated colour screen will go on sale on 1st February 2021.

It's not clear to me whether these models are China-only, or are going to ship globally.

Here's another article from a Chinese site: https://translate.google.com/transla...20550192.shtml

The screen size is 6.7 inches, so that's bigger than a Kindle? Seems a bit much for a phone? It doesn't seem too portable to me. Also, according to the information in the Chinese article it doesn't seem to have warm frontlight.

The colour version described at the end seems interesting, though. From the description it sounds like they are optimizing the technology, which is highly promising.

For now, I think I'll just order a A5 Pro Classic and wait another couple of years for the technology to improve. The big selling points are the bigger size and 5G, none of which I need. The 300PPI would be nice, though

[Question Mark]

Originally Posted by kandwo

The screen size is 6.7 inches, so that's bigger than a Kindle? Seems a bit much for a phone?

I don't really understand the trend toward such large phones. If anything, I would prefer one a bit smaller than the A5 or A5 Pro models. If I'm going to be carrying around something large, better to have an 8" or 10" device.

Originally Posted by kandwo

For now, I think I'll just order a A5 Pro Classic and wait another couple of years for the technology to improve. The big selling points are the bigger size and 5G, none of which I need.

That's what I would do if I were in the market for a new phone.

Originally Posted by kandwo

The 300PPI would be nice, though

The larger battery size would also be appealing.

[kandwo]

Originally Posted by Question Mark

I don't really understand the trend toward such large phones. If anything, I would prefer one a bit smaller than the A5 or A5 Pro models. If I'm going to be carrying around something large, better to have an 8" or 10" device.




That's what I would do if I were in the market for a new phone.




The larger battery size would also be appealing.

I've now ordered the A5 Pro Classic. We'll see how I like the screen size. I think it'll be alright - annoyingly large for a phone, pleasant for an e-reader, so some sort of compromise. I just realized, however, that it's going to be even bigger than my 5.1 inch smartphone that I have now (and I thought it was a bit too big when I bought it).

Yes, the larger battery does sound good, and also the (improved?) hifi chip! I expect to use my phone as a music player, too.

Hopefully, in the future they'll make another colour phone with higher definition the size of the current A5. Although, I am a bit unsure if that would add anything to the experience. It would probably be more useful with a hi-def colour e-reader for comics and the like.

I just hope this contributes to the market for e-ink phones expanding! I would love to see some global releases and several companies working on improving the technology.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by kandwo

The screen size is 6.7 inches, so that's bigger than a Kindle? Seems a bit much for a phone?

A Kindle is 4:3, so with a 6" diagonal has an area of about 17 square inches.
The A7 is 16:9, so with a 6.7" diagonal has an area of about 10 square inches.

So a bigger diagonal, but only about 60% of the area

I'd prefer a 16:9 ereader to a 4:3 ereader.

[kandwo]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

A Kindle is 4:3, so with a 6" diagonal has an area of about 17 square inches.
The A7 is 16:9, so with a 6.7" diagonal has an area of about 10 square inches.

So a bigger diagonal, but only about 60% of the area

I'd prefer a 16:9 ereader to a 4:3 ereader.

So if I understand you correctly, it would have a rather elongated form, i.e. not as wide as the Kindle? That does seem preferable in that it would be much more comfortable to hold in one hand. I don't find the Kindle Paperwhite comfortable for this at all; it has an awkward size where holding it with two hands is a bit overkill, but it's too wide for just one.

On the other hand, for a phone it would still not be ideal for mobility purposes. I fear it would suffer from the horrible symptoms described in the beginning of this song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6AvMUR_XMlg

I feel even my 5.1 inch phone is a bit much. But many seem to prefer bigger phones.

I'm looking forward to video reviews where it's easier to judge the size. I might even be interested in buying a colour version that size some time in the future, if the technology has improved.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by kandwo

So if I understand you correctly, it would have a rather elongated form, i.e. not as wide as the Kindle?

Exactly so.

Checking a few paperbacks and hardbacks I have to hand, the text blocks inside the books are:

15cm x 8.5cm = 15.9:9
17cm x 9.8cm = 15.6:9
16.5cm x 9.6cm = 15.5:9
15.7 x 8.8cm = 16:9

So a 16:9 screen seems t match the text block aspect ratio of traditionally published books much more than the 4:3 of most ebook readers.

[binaryhermit]

I'd argue 5G is more of a buzzword right now rather than something you actually want.

I mean, it's the future, but probably not until toward the end of the useful life of a phone you buy today.

And I too question the whole "big phone" thing.

[norweger]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Android 10
Unisoc Tiger T7510 (four Arm 2.0 GHz Cortex-A75 cores, four 1.8GHz Cortex-A55 cores)

Hisense A5 Pro CC
Octa-core, Dual-core 1.8 GHz Cortex-A75, Hexa-core 1.8 Ghz Cortex-A55

Not sure if the bump up is noticable, but maybe. I think the bottleneck is the screen, anyhow, and I'm hoping the newer model has managed some improvements there.

[binaryhermit]

the bump up's probably only really noticeable for hardcore gaming, but that's not something you're gonna do on eInk

[afainber]

Originally Posted by kandwo

Today Hisense announced the release of their new e-ink smartphone, the A7 5G. What do we know? I haven't been able to find much information about the phone as I don't know Chinese and the webpage won't load for me fully. It is said to be a global release, so I guess that means Google Play?

Here is a link to the phone: https://item.jd.com/100009643325.html

According information posted to a reddit thread, it's going to be bigger than the A5: https://old.reddit.com/r/eink/commen...ves_1999_yuan/ (6.7 inches, according to the post) and will be followed by a colour version in February.

What do you think?

Myself, I'm a bit torn - I don't need a bigger screen and 5G, which I think has the potential to be a big battery drain. But if it has a faster processor than the A5 Pro and warm frontlight, I might consider it.

I didn't see any mention of a warm frontlight

[kandwo]

Here's a promotional video of the phone: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0GE4pwpN-g

It really does look huge!

I'm interested in the updated software that they're talking about. I hope it gets backported to the A5 models.

The best thing to happen now would be a global release of both A5 and A7 - that would make me really happy

[Question Mark]

Originally Posted by kandwo

Here's a promotional video of the phone: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0GE4pwpN-g

It really does look huge!

Wow! That's a tablet. Not a phone. Just as well because it means that there is no temptation to get one.

Now, if they came out with something like that, but smaller than the A5, it would be a different story. I would be sorely tempted.

[cqman]

Originally Posted by kandwo

I'm interested in the updated software that they're talking about. I hope it gets backported to the A5 models.

The best thing to happen now would be a global release of both A5 and A7 - that would make me really happy

With the release of A7, the new features were ported to A5 models as well.

I've updated mine to version 2020.12.22.