Hisense A6

[eReader fan]

Originally Posted by Amnesiac

I can confirm that Google Maps doesn't work.
I'm using Nokia "HERE WeGo" which seems to do the things I need it to do, and has download-able maps for offline use too.

In general I'm finding the phone perfectly usable. I've had to substitute some of the apps I use because they are too heavily tied to Google play services but the phone is now my day to day device and for my use it's working well.

I tend not to install new apps all the time, so once I have what I need/want working well I tend not to add/remove things all the time.

YMMV.

Thanks for telling us your experiences with the phone.

I have the A2 pro, and have problems with the GPS. It works but its not accurate enough to be usefull. Idk if its important, but I am from Europe.

How is the GPS on the A6? Its totally precise?

[Amnesiac]

Originally Posted by eReader fan

Thanks for telling us your experiences with the phone.

I have the A2 pro, and have problems with the GPS. It works but its not accurate enough to be usefull. Idk if its important, but I am from Europe.

How is the GPS on the A6? Its totally precise?

I'm not sure that "totally precise" is a totally precise term for knowing what you mean, :-) but, when it has a good lock I've found "HERE We Go" to be very usable.

I've used it in car navigation mode (In Southern Portugal) and yesterday it navigated me on foot from a (London UK) tube station to an address about 1km away without problem in both cases it was precise enough for me to know where I was and when to turn.

FYI - "Here We Go" indicates the precision it's able to get with the size of the coloured circle around the position it says you're in. The bigger the circle the less precise its fix.

Obviously a GPS monitoring app can tell you how many satellites from what GPS systems it is getting a signal from (and it seems to use the Russian, US and Chinese ones) and where you are and when will clearly influence that. SatStat from location being off got 10 satellites in about 5 seconds with an 11m error band with me sat inside just now.

Hope that helps.

[Amnesiac]

Originally Posted by polemarkh

Just a quick note that I've put the modded official ROM onto my Hisense A6. I've found occasional crashes with the built-in phone dialer, and with third-party text message apps, but otherwise things seem to work fine. With the addition, it turns the A6 into an excellent portable ereader, as well as a quite useful android phone.

A few questions as I've not taken the plunge...

• Did you need to do a factory reset? (I assume yes)
  
• After the update can you substitute 3rd party apps for the built-in ones?
  As an example on other devices I can remove the built-in gallery app for one I prefer (usually ASOP or from Cyanogen) and the link to gallery in the camera app will point to the gallery app I've installed. In the stock A6 it will only work with the stock gallery app. There are other examples of this behaviour I've found, SMS apps for example.
  
• What were the reading app(s) that you needed GAPPs for?
  or was it just the convenience of being in the ecosystem?

I'm actually not missing GAPPs very much now I've found alternatives and having deleted/disabled what I don't want I am much less concerned about flashing than I was before I bought the phone and I'm much less concerned apps are syphoning off my personal information in the background.

Thanks.

[polemarkh]

Hopefully I can provide useful answers here.

Oddly, I didn’t have to do a reset because flashing effectively is a reset by itself. Because the person who developed the image is Korean, note that the phone will come up (mostly) in Korean, so adding the English gboard and then setting the language to English is both a must and (for me was) slightly confusing to do.

Currently I have replaced the gallery app with google photos, and that seems to be working fine. I tried to replace the built in message app with Signal, but signal seems unstable on the phone and so I switched back to the built in app. I haven’t tried the default android app. I had to replace the built in phone app with Simpler Dialer because with the new rom the built in dialer is very unstable and can crash the phone when receiving incoming calls.

Since I mostly use iOS devices (I don’t really like android tablets), I generally use reading apps that work with both iOS and android. Of those, I find google play books has probably the best typography. I also like my ad-free, purchased versions of FBReader premium and CalibreBox, which I could figure out a way to side load, but would then have to remember to update manually.

In non-reading apps, I have the paid 1Password, and use hangouts fairly frequently.

Honestly, it’s fairly easy to get by well enough without gapps, but the flash process was easy enough once I tried it with a fresh windows install (on a virtual machine no less) that I certainly don’t regret it.

[polemarkh]

Originally Posted by cartz

I have an A2 Pro and am almost exclusively using the e-ink screen. Can someone with experience of both, how much different is the A6 e-ink experience. Obviously there is the front light, but that aside how much better is it?

I have both, and can at least give you my impressions.

I like that the screen is higher resolution on the A6. I find the front light incredibly helpful, more than I thought I would before I tried it. The A6 is also just much faster, if only in terms of its cpu. Smooth mode refresh is clearer, and clear mode is faster, both of which are welcome. There are different widgets available, and I really wish that either the A2 or the A6 supported a widget that showed battery status (as the yota 2 does, but even the yota 3 doesn’t). I don’t like that I can no longer just set the eink lock screen to be what I was reading, but instead have to unlock to go back to my original app.

As someone living in the US, I also like that it actually supports 3G and LTE bands that exist here, but that’s a very location-dependent thing.

I hope the above was at least somewhat helpful.

[cartz]

Originally Posted by polemarkh

I hope the above was at least somewhat helpful.

That was very helpful, thanks! I actually find the A2 Pro e-ink Android experience to be very good (so much better than my experience with the Onyx Boox Note and the Likebook Mars). To hear that the A6 experience is noticeably better is great to hear.

[cartz]

Originally Posted by polemarkh

I really wish that either the A2 or the A6 supported a widget that showed battery status (as the yota 2 does, but even the yota 3 doesn’t).

There is a battery icon (along with a clock) on the A2 Pro if you set the e-ink lock screen to wallpaper. Admittedly you then don't get the benefit of any widgets on the lock screen but they are all there and available once once you unlock the screen.

[polemarkh]

Originally Posted by cartz

That was very helpful, thanks! I actually find the A2 Pro e-ink Android experience to be very good (so much better than my experience with the Onyx Boox Note and the Likebook Mars). To hear that the A6 experience is noticeably better is great to hear.

Oh, and I should also mention. I can't give enough praise to the fact that the A6 has a matte rather than glossy e-ink screen. The difference that makes when outdoors just has to be seen to be believed. I don't know why Hisense made a glossy e-ink screen in the first place, but it's a really really failed experiment that I hope no one will repeat.

[Waiting4somethin]

A2 is a great phone. I never thought I'd have another great eink phone. Only features I would like to see added are replaceable battery, lower weight, physical home button, recent apps in smooth mode.

I hardly ever use the lcd screen. Almost never.

Edit: actually i would also like to see the eink screen edge to edge encompassing the whole of its side like modern phones.

[eReader fan]

Originally Posted by Amnesiac

I'm not sure that "totally precise" is a totally precise term for knowing what you mean, :-) but, when it has a good lock I've found "HERE We Go" to be very usable.

I've used it in car navigation mode (In Southern Portugal) and yesterday it navigated me on foot from a (London UK) tube station to an address about 1km away without problem in both cases it was precise enough for me to know where I was and when to turn.

FYI - "Here We Go" indicates the precision it's able to get with the size of the coloured circle around the position it says you're in. The bigger the circle the less precise its fix.

Obviously a GPS monitoring app can tell you how many satellites from what GPS systems it is getting a signal from (and it seems to use the Russian, US and Chinese ones) and where you are and when will clearly influence that. SatStat from location being off got 10 satellites in about 5 seconds with an 11m error band with me sat inside just now.

Hope that helps.

I tried those apps you mention, and being true sometimes it work correctly, sometimes doesnt, so I cant rely on GPS using the A2 pro, but reading about your experience it seems its better with the A6

Originally Posted by polemarkh

I have both, and can at least give you my impressions.

Maybe you could tell how is your experience with GPS on Hisense A6. Is it trully precise?

And also would like to ask to you both if the eInk screen is not as dark as it is on the A2 pro. On yotaphone 2 it was much clearer.

Thanks

[tracey1]

Is is true Google Play and its services don't work on the a6 but do work on the a2pro ?

Is it also true that the E ink Screen of the A2 pro is glossy and not matte ?

And lastly, the new H6L is supposed to be priced around 250. Also, true ?

[pata]

Originally Posted by tracey1

Is is true Google Play and its services don't work on the a6 but do work on the a2pro ?

Yes

Originally Posted by tracey1

And lastly, the new H6L is supposed to be priced around 250. Also, true ?

That’s a rumour from an attendant at the IFA booth. No official confirmation yet but I doubt it’s going to be $250

[Waiting4somethin]

The A5 looks very promising, good screen to edge ratio and I hope it's lighter for getting rid of the other screen. Perfect phone for me as the power button should actually turn the screen on without all that 'touch to unlock stuff' one often does on the A2 pro. Which I don't like.

I am sorry to see a glossy/shiny screen on A5 and A6L in the video.

[norweger]

Is the eink screen responsive enough for flashcard apps?

[eReader fan]

New version of the phone!

Larger and... I don't know if there are more changes. I am too lazy to check every spec... And also I am not interested in a phone as large as this one. 6" for me it's even too much.

Just hopping the normal version becomes cheaper, but probably wouldn't