Introduction
And it's a phone! An Android phone. It's got everything you would want and expect from a modern smartphone. It can record video, play music, and present books. Its e-ink screen is easy on the eyes, especially after a long day of looking at screens at work or school.
We are wired to look for color and moving pictures. So even if we know that we shouldn’t use our phones at night, its hard to resist the call of YouTube and TikTok. Not to mention I’m always on my computer for work - staring at a bright screen, so when I get some personal time, I want to give my eyes a break from the strain
This is why I got an e-ink phone. To totally toss out the opportunity for these attention grabbing ads, videos and colors, and to refocus myself back to what really matters to me
Table of Contents
My Device
Hisense A9 Smartphone.
This device comes in both a e-reader (think iPod touch, but with an e-ink screen) or e-ink phone version (think iPhone with an e-ink screen).
Amazon employs this tech on the 11th Generation Kindle Paperwhite 5
Pro’s
- Less eye strain
- Great for reading at night
- Great for reading during the day too. Ever run into the issue where you can’t see your phone screen outside because its too bright? Well this solves the issue.
- High battery life (1 charge lasts around 1 week as opposed to 1 day)
Con’s
- THERE IS NO GOOGLE PLAY STORE. And you will have to use a work around. See: Getting Apps
- The phone has 2 language settings: English and Chinese. And even though I selected English as my language, half of the content and notifications are still in Chinese.
Getting Apps
Unfortunately, the English Google Play store is not available on this phone However, there is a simple work-around - use android APKs
For my non-android people… An Android Package Kit (APK for short) is the package file format used by the Android operating system for the distribution and installation of mobile apps. Just like Windows (PC) systems use an .exe file for installing software, the APK does the same for Android.
- Know which applications you want
- Start Googling for Android APK’s
- APKMirror
- APKPure
Only download APK’s from trusted websites. I found all the apps I needed on:
Getting your own
I got my Hisense A9 from Good e-Reader - E-Reader News and Reviews (goodereader.com), though I also recommend the Hisense Hi, if you only want e-reader and audio capabilities without the phone or texting aspect.
After you order it says they’ll start shipping after 5-6 days. They didn’t ship until about 14 days after I placed the order and it got to me another 10-15 days after that.
I don’t hold it against them though because my guess is that this is a relatively small buisness. But I do wish they would update their website.