Just out - the first colour e-ink android phone ... XCSoar folks take notice

[Stephen Szikora]

Just out - the first color e-ink android phone ... XCSoar folks take notice.. I’ve searched and read through many thread on sunlight readability and devices in the cockpit and those that lament the lack of a new Dell Streak 5 with transflective display. Sure, newer OMELED phones are brighter but they still have one fundamental problem ... reflections off the glass. Some have wandered off to the light side (pun intended) and gone with modded e-ink readers but size is a problem and you lose the colour. There are some e-ink phones from Hisense or the defunct Yotaphone, but I just read today about a new phone, the Hisense A5C that has only been out for a couple of weeks that may be the answer to XCSoar users’ everywhere. It is the first android cell phone using a colour e-ink display and the screen measures 5.84” (not too big, not to small.) Cost new is $310 and battery life like all e-ink devices is supposed to be very good. It has GPS but doesn’t have a barometric sensor. Could be an interesting option for XCSoar users. I saw some early reviews and then found it for sale on the GoodEReader website.

https://goodereader.com/blog/product/hisense-a5c-color-e-ink-smartphone

Not connected in any way and posting link for information.

[Stephen Szikora]

Just found this video from CES 2020 when it was first shown. About 3/4 of the way through you can see the colour display being used. Again, it might be perfect for XCSoar’s limited use of colour.

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On Wednesday, May 6, 2020 at 6:54:29 PM UTC-4, Stephen Szikora wrote:
> Just out - the first color e-ink android phone ... XCSoar folks take notice. I’ve searched and read through many thread on sunlight readability and devices in the cockpit and those that lament the lack of a new Dell Streak 5 with transflective display. Sure, newer OMELED phones are brighter but they still have one fundamental problem ... reflections off the glass. Some have wandered off to the light side (pun intended) and gone with modded e-ink readers but size is a problem and you lose the colour. There are some e-ink phones from Hisense or the defunct Yotaphone, but I just read today about a new phone, the Hisense A5C that has only been out for a couple of weeks that may be the answer to XCSoar users’ everywhere. It is the first android cell phone using a colour e-ink display and the screen measures 5.84” (not too big, not to small.) Cost new is $310 and battery life like all e-ink devices is supposed to be very good. It has GPS but doesn’t have a barometric sensor. Could be an interesting option for XCSoar users. I saw some early reviews and then found it for sale on the GoodEReader website.
>
> https://goodereader.com/blog/product/hisense-a5c-color-e-ink-smartphone
>
> Not connected in any way and posting link for information.

Cool. But don't count on the battery life: e-ink when used to read e-books uses very little power (idle most of the time), but when running something like XCsoar which updates the display constantly that's a different story. I use Tophat on an e-ink Nook and it seems to use about 2 watts (400mA at 5V of external power). Hooked up to the main glider battery that's OK, and having GPS built into this Hisense device is a plus.

[Stephen Szikora]

I hadn’t thought about the constants screen refresh and battery life. One thing mitigating that is that the device has a 4000mah battery which is much larger than other phones and the same as the Galaxy Note phablets.

[Stephen Szikora]

More colour e-ink technology available now ... for those of you who like the Kobo-sized screens. This review shows a colour e-ink reader and importantly to us, shows it being tested outside for readability. I have no doubt tag Kobo itself will quickly release a colour version.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aLEPgP-8hAs

[Stephen Szikora]

Just found this brief video of someone running XCSoar on a colour e-ink phone.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_zVj5bqBfA