this post was submitted on 13 Aug 2023
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Really like the one-handed phone form factor, but the Box Palma being WiFi only was a deal breaker for me.

Instead I got a Hisense A5 from eBay for ~$130 and after rooting, debloating, and installing E-ink optimized versions of Open source android apps it's a perfect companion for my Boox Nova Air C. With KOReader syncing across devices.

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[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago (1 children)

An e-ink phone is an interesting idea! I’m guessing the battery life is great.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

There's one called the Light phone and the battery life is below average. The screen is definitely a hog but cell radios can just as easily chew through the battery.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I used to root and unlock bootloaders all the time is it relatively easy for this device does it work on the color version as well? I really want a eink display phone how do you like it?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Highly phone dependent. Some phones have an official process, others have hacks, many others have fuck all.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (2 children)

That's why they were asking if it was an easy process for this specific device.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

The instructions are not official, but there are some good community ones https://forum.xda-developers.com/t/hisense-a5-pro-cc-how-to-root-unlock-bootloader.4109021/post-88755703

Bit of warning though, they're using a variant of the A5, not a base A5. The CVE and exploit code in the link should still work (if not patched) but the image files will certainly not, and will fuck up your device if you try to flash images made for a different device, even a variant.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

That looks dope. Can you tell us more about the overall experience?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

So cool ! If you could share a video on how it feels to use lemmy on that, that's be great!

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Browsing Lemmy from one of these devices is something that I never thought about.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

TIL that e-ink display smartphones exist.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

@lightsecond @flamingod https://goodereader.com/blog/ has covered a lot of these! Heck they cover everything. Well worth a subscribe to their YouTube channel or rss of their blog.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Thanks for the recommendation. I’ll check them out.