Renowned for smart TVs and projectors, Hisense has also been operating for some time in the ebook reader sector, a segment in which it has just listed the new Hisense Hi Reader, equipped with the Android 10 operating system, with the possibility of installing your favorite apps.
The Chinese brand Hisense is not exactly avulsed to try its hand at products with e-ink screens, so much so that it has placed electronic ink displays even on the back of some of its smartphones. Recently, however, this technology has been used for a more common e-book reader, the Hisense Hi Reader, already on sale in the domestic market, on JD.com, at 1,749 yuan (about 247 euros), with the possibility of obtaining it in Italy through the Aliexpress importer (however at around 430 euros).
The Hisense Hi Reader has dimensions comparable to those of a smartphone, given a thickness of 7.5 mm and a weight of just 177 grams: the back is made of glass, although the manufacturer does not mention wireless charging, while the front shows thick frames. around the 6.7-inch e-ink touch display.
The latter boasts specifications such as 300 pixels per inch, 16 gray levels, DC attenuation according to 36 levels (with automatic adjustment to ambient lighting, also avoiding the annoying flickering at low frontal lighting levels), while still managing to guarantee a value 84% for screen-to-body. If desired, thanks to Bluetooth 5.0 (with LDAC codec), to the loudspeaker, and to the 3.5 mm jack, it is also possible to enjoy audiobooks and podcasts.
The latter, like normal ebooks or comics, are stored on 64 GB of storage, in a processing structure that includes 4 GB of RAM and an octacore processor (1.8 GHz) UNISOC T610 (with six cost-effective Cortex A55 cores and two performing A75) with 614 MHz Mali-G52 MP2 graphics card. The autonomy is entrusted, however, to a 3,000 mAh battery. On the software side, the choice fell on Android 10 to which an ad hoc interface (with customized labels applicable to books, and support for user preferences) was applied four-part in the tabs, scrolled in navigable sequence, library, shop, apps and settings.
The only drawback, in the Hisense Hi Reader ebook reader, is the fact that the Google Play Services and the Play Store are missing. Via sideload via the integrated port, or by tapping into the dual band Wi-Fi, it will be possible to manually install the desired apps (e.g. a program to read epubs or comics, or perhaps the Kindle app to buy some books), even if some online retailers have worked around the problem by pre-installing the alternative store Aurora Store.