[Jmirko]

A couple of weeks ago my son's Hisense A2 arrived from Hong Kong. I had ordered it on Aliexpress for EUR 214 with free shipping.

This is not meant to be a full review, as I have not had the time to test everything. I set it up for him and tried a few things, and also asked him about his impressions (he used my Yotaphone 2 for a few months before getting the Hisense).

You can find the specs online, so I will not repeat them here, rather I will focus on the experience of actually using the phone. I will sometimes compare it to the Yotaphone 2, as that device is still available, is similarly priced (currently EUR 320 on Aliexpress) and is the only other e-ink phone I know which is available on English-language webshops (other than the Yota 3 and A2 Pro, which are newer, more powerful versions of those phones).

The Hisense A2 comes with a plastic bumper case, which you can easily snap on. This is a frame which wraps around the edges and protects the phone in case of a drop, but does not cover either screen. It is slightly raised on the AMOLED side, but not on the e-ink side - clearly the phone was meant to be placed on the table e-ink side up. The bumper case is not as nice as the Yotaphone 2's hard rubber frame - it is more slippery, and also creaks a bit when holding the phone firmly.

The front screen is a full-HD AMOLED, with excellent brightness, vivid colours, and the deep blacks that AMOLED is known for - one could not ask for a better front display in my opinion. It is very similar to the Yotaphone 2's screen, but slightly larger.

Another difference from the Yotaphone 2 is that the Hisense's e-ink screen is glossy. I think matte would have been a better choice, considering you would normally use the e-ink screen under strong light sources. However I don't consider the glossy screen a show-stopper, I think you just need to be more careful how you hold the phone so that it does not reflect the sun into your eyes. (Pro tip: if you plan on using the phone as a bicycle computer fixed on the handlebars, give it some slack so you can twist it into the right position).

The way you can set up widgets on the e-ink screen is very similar on the Yota 2 and the A2, although I think Yota's implementation is more intuitive to set up. In both cases, you need to first choose a grid, and then select widgets for each part of the grid. One notable issue with the widgets on the A2 is that some of them failed to update: specifically the weather widget and the calendar widget (which could not display agenda items).

That problem could be caused by missing permissions, but this brings me to another bug: I have not been able to access the "Manage applications" menu under Settings - when I click on this, nothing happens. I don't know the reason for this, and frankly, I have no idea how to solve it.

The only other issue I have noticed is that English localisation is not great: some of the menus are in poor English, and there are occasional Chinese popup messages, especially on deeper levels of the settings.

Mirroring the screen from the front to the back works perfectly, which was the same on the Yotaphone 2, but apparently not on the Yota 3.

The reading experience on the e-ink screen is very good, as far as I could tell from a quick test. Opening an epub in Moon+ Reader on the rear screen, everything works as expected. I modified the day theme (black letters on white background) and the night theme (white letters on pure black background), and decreased the font size to see how sharp the screen is. It is indeed very sharp, and scrolling is smooth - better than on the Yota 2, which tended to look a bit messy while scrolling. Contrast is good, and I did not observe any ghosting.

I also opened a scanned pdf - the contrast here was less sharp due to darker paper, but the end result was still very much enjoyable.

The e-ink screen does flash from time to time, and the frequency seems to depend on how intensively the screen is updating. When paging an epub in MoonReader+, the screen flashed only every 50 page turns. When scrolling the same document, it refreshed more, about every 5-10 pages. When watching a Youtube video, flashing occurred every 15 seconds. Flashes are quick and unintrusive. By the way, video on the e-ink screen is surprisingly enjoyable - it reminds me of the black and white TV we used to have when I was a kid.

I cannot comment firmly on battery life, because my son tends to turn off his phone when he is in school, but he usually charges it every other day. With normal use, I think you should be able to get through a long day on a charge.

Overall, I think the Hisense A2 is excellent value for money. It's a hundred euros cheaper than the Yotaphone 2 (currently on Aliexpress), has twice the RAM, a larger screen, and a newer OS (Android 6 vs 5). Its OS is slightly less refined, especially when it comes to English localisation and rear-screen widget implementation, but at this price I think those are forgiveable. Interestingly, the A2 is also significantly cheaper than its stronger brother, the A2 Pro, which comes with a faster processor and better camera - improvements which, to me at least, do not justify the higher price.

I hope this helps anyone looking for an e-ink phone or considering the Hisense A2 in particular.

I will update this post in case anything new pops up. If you have any specific questions, feel free to ask - I will happily check it and share the results.

If you have a Hisense A2 or A2 Pro, I would be interested in your experience with the device!