Disclosure: Some links on this page are monetized by the Skimlinks, Amazon, Rakuten Advertising, and eBay, affiliate programs, and Liliputing may earn a commission if you make a purchase after clicking on those links. All prices are subject to change, and this article only reflects the prices available at time of publication.

E Ink displays are often associated with eBook readers, but they’re also available for digital signage and other applications. But Chinese electronics company Hisense is one of the only companies producing smartphones with E Ink displays, and the company has also used electronic paper for other devices like tablets and portable music players.

Now Hisense has launched a new device that’s actually positioned as an eReader. But it’d be easy to mistake the new Hisense Hi Reader as a phone: it’s a pocket-sized device that runs Android software and has the specs of a mid-range smartphone. It’s more like a black and white iPod touch alternative than a Kindle alternative.

The eReader has a 6.7 inch, 1280 x 825 pixel E Ink display with support for up to 16-shades of gray, a front-light with 36 levels of brightness, and support for capacitive touch input. It’s shaped more like a phone than a typical eReader, and measure just 7.5mm thick and weighs just 177 grams, making it a bit easier to slide into your pocket than most Kindle or Kobo devices.

But thanks to a Unisoc T610 octa-core processor, 4GB of RAM, 64GB of storage, and Android 10 software, the Hi Reader should be a bit more versatile thank a typical Kindle or Kobo eReader. Not only can you use it to read eBooks or play music or podcasts, but the device can also run third-party Android apps.

You’ll need to sideload those apps though – there’s no native support for the Google Play Store or other Google apps and services. Some international sellers seem to be pre-loading the Aurora Store, which is an open source Google Play Store clone that allows you to download many, but not all apps available from Google’s app store. But some apps, like Google Maps, may not work properly.

But you should be able to sideload apps from third-party app stores or other locations much the same way you can on an Amazon Fire tablet or most other devices running Android-based operating systems.

The Hi Reader is available in China for about $280, but folks in other countries will likely have to pay around $380 or more to pick one up from an international reseller via AliExpress.

Hi Reader specs
Display6.7 inch
E Ink
1200 x 825 pixels
300 ppi
grayscale
Capacitive touch
Frontlit (36 levels of brightness)
ProcessorUnisoc T610
2 x ARM Cortex-A75 CPU cores @ 1.8 GHz
6 x ARM Cortex-A55 CPU cores @ 1.8 GHz
Mali-G52 MP2 graphics @ 614 MHz
RAM4GB
Storage64GB
SoftwareAndroid 10
Limited support for Google Play Store & Google apps
Supports sideloaded apps
Battery3,000 mAh
AudioSpeaker
3.5mm audio jack
LDAC
WirelessWiFi (2.4 GHz & 5 GHz)
Bluetooth 5.0
Dimensions7.5mm thjick
Weight177 grams
Price1,799 CNY (~$280 in China)
$379 and up from AliExpress

If you want to see the Hi Reader in action, here’s a Chinese-language video review:

via GizmoChina and phablet.jp

Support Liliputing

Liliputing's primary sources of revenue are advertising and affiliate links (if you click the "Shop" button at the top of the page and buy something on Amazon, for example, we'll get a small commission).

But there are several ways you can support the site directly even if you're using an ad blocker* and hate online shopping.

Contribute to our Patreon campaign

or...

Contribute via PayPal

* If you are using an ad blocker like uBlock Origin and seeing a pop-up message at the bottom of the screen, we have a guide that may help you disable it.

Subscribe to Liliputing via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 9,545 other subscribers

2 replies on “Hisense Hi Reader is an Android 10 eReader with a 6.7 inch E Ink display”

  1. Didn’t Hi sense already have smartphone with e ink and e colour ink called a5? What’s the fuss of this only?

  2. I think it’s to hard to read on phone the are just to small! I confess when book is acting up I read on my phone out of desperation lol !!

Comments are closed.