Colorful ePaper Mobile Phone (First Publish: 2020)

Hisense Unveils World's First Color ePaper Smartphone for Avid Readers

The digital reading industry is flourishing, driving people to seek more enriching immersive reading experiences and convenient on-the-go moments of reading. Smartphones, tablets, and other electronic gadgets have become the primary vessels for digital reading content, making it essential for users to have an electronic reading device that offers top-notch reading quality and eye-friendly features.

Discover a world of eye-friendly innovation with the remarkable advancement of ePaper technology, revolutionizing the way we experience electronic devices. Emulating the comfort of paper, it's designed without harsh backlighting, harnessing ambient light for a gentle visual experience. Groundbreaking research from Harvard Public Health reveals that ePaper devices equipped with E Ink ComfortGaze™ front lighting exert three times less pressure on our precious retinal cells compared to conventional LCD screens.

In response to these exciting breakthroughs, Hisense is dedicated to crafting cutting-edge eye-friendly reading smartphones and devices, tailored to the needs of passionate readers. In February 2017 Hisense launched the A2, a trailblazing dual-screen smartphone that merges the brilliance of OLED with the serenity of ePaper, setting new standards in the industry. In 2018 the company unveiled the world's first night-reading-friendly ePaper screen A6, astounding with exclusive dual-sided facial recognition and 3D light-sensing intelligent dimming technology, perfecting the art of immersive reading like never before.

 With Hisense's remarkable release in 2019 - the A5, a single, black and white ePaper smartphone designed solely for your reading indulgence. Straying from the ordinary color displays, whether AMOLED or LCD, every interaction with this device unfolds on the captivating ePaper screen. Embracing this innovative leap demanded crafting advanced ePaper display algorithms while ingeniously adapting the smartphone's software system to create a seamless fusion of functionality, visually stunning aesthetics, and interactive brilliance. 

In the prime hours of the 2019 Double 11 sales, the ePaper reading smartphone A5 made its way to the top 10 best-selling single products on JD.com, receiving a wave of appreciation and suggestions from users for Hisense. Among them, some users expressed their desire for a color ePaper version. Drawing on the technical prowess accumulated from previous generations of ePaper smartphones, Hisense swiftly took up the challenge of meeting this demand.

In May 2020, Hisense unveiled a groundbreaking innovation - the world's first color ePaper smartphones, A5C, and A5pro Color Edition. Introducing E Ink’s Color ePaper technology, this advancement stands apart from the conventional LCD or LED color displays. The color ePaper adopts a full-reflection electrophoretic technology, consisting of millions of microcapsules with black and white particles inside. When an electric field is applied, corresponding black and white particles move to the top of the microcapsules, forming different shades. External light is reflected and passes through a color filter, allowing the human eye to perceive the screen content in a spectrum of colors. This cutting-edge color ePaper technology can present an impressive range of 4,096 colors, providing a much softer and warmer display compared to regular color LCD screens.

The challenge of maintaining the color ePaper's refresh rate and image display on par with traditional black and white ePaper arose from the additional layer of a color filter. To overcome this hurdle, Hisense's team of skilled researchers dedicated themselves to optimizing the display effects of the color ePaper technology.

Understanding the core principles of color ePaper displays, they recognized the need to convert images for proper rendering, leading to visible jagged edges in texts and repetitive color patterns in pictures. To tackle the jagged edge issue, Hisense took the lead in developing a groundbreaking text anti-aliasing restoration technology, resulting in remarkably clearer text interfaces that elevated the joy of reading.

Not stopping there, Hisense delved into enhancing picture quality using their own AI image processing algorithms, raising the bar for picture display. It didn't end with images and texts; improvements were also made to browsing and screen refreshing. This relentless pursuit of display excellence led Hisense to secure an impressive tally of 19 patents for their pioneering display innovations.

Furthermore, addressing the physical characteristics of the color ePaper, Hisense started from the ground up, focusing on human-computer interaction, visual aesthetics, and animations. They carefully analyzed the common scenarios where users utilize ePaper screens, optimizing each one individually. Hisense delved deep, custom-designing 63 system controls across 25 categories, resulting in the creation of their exclusive ePaper display system - vision7.

This system follows a "light, agile, and efficient" design philosophy, emphasizing user-friendly guidance, streamlined graphical elements, and breathing room in the layout. Its purpose is to enhance operational efficiency, concentrate visual focus, and minimize information distractions.

For instance, during the UI module design process, certain colors exhibited varying degrees of distortion, which clearly detracted from the friendly user experience. To address this, Hisense's research team meticulously observed 756 color samples on the color ePaper to study their display performance. Taking into account the frequency and performance of colors in various apps, they selected four primary color tones - blue, green, yellow, and red. These colors were then carefully integrated into the overall mobile UI system, redefining and redesigning it to ensure that every detail exudes colors in their most perfect state.

Moreover, as Android system users may already be aware, typical Android animations involve overall graphical enlargement, reduction, or changes in transparency. However, these animations can result in significant shadows and flickering on ePaper. Hence, Hisense specifically designed underline animations for their color ePaper reading smartphones. This innovative approach not only reduces shadows and flickering but also ensures immediate feedback for a seamless user experience.

On popular applications like Weibo, Zhihu, and Manhua Island, the color ePaper screen truly brings the visuals to life, offering a more vivid and engaging browsing experience. Additionally, for areas such as art books, culinary content, picture books, and children's literature, where vibrant colors are essential for presentation, the color ePaper continues to shine brilliantly, delivering outstanding performance in these scenarios.

Based on user behavior, Hisense discovered that the proportion of users making A5Pro their primary device increased by 19 percentage points compared to the A5, especially among those with intense eye usage. Addressing the strong demand for large screens, narrow bezels, high resolution, and 5G connectivity, Hisense launched the first Chinese domestic 5G platform combined with a black and white ePaper smartphone, the A7, along with the world's first 5G platform paired with a color ePaper smartphone, the A7 CC, in early 2021.

In the A7 CC model, Hisense adopts E Ink’s cutting-edge 2nd printing ePaper technology. Compared to the A5C, the A7 CC boasts a more refined color filter with an optimized RGB pixel arrangement, transitioning from the previous 3x3 layout to a sleeker 3x2 matrix formation. This ingenious enhancement brings about smoother color edges, replacing the jagged appearance with a seamless chain-like pattern, effectively eliminating the perception of color ePaper particles and delivering a remarkable boost in clarity. Thanks to this breakthrough technology, the A7 CC achieves an impressive 50% increase in display detail and color space compared to the A5C, culminating in an overall visual experience that surpasses that of its predecessor.

To cater to users' demand for the best of both worlds in black and white and color ePaper, the A7 CC introduces the Classic Mode, enabling one-click activation of the black and white reading mode. This feature effectively restores the resolution of a black and white display, providing a smoother and more comfortable reading experience for texts.

Since 2017, Hisense has been continuously delving deep into the ePaper Phone field, consistently launching or upgrading a new product every year, forming a diverse product lineup. This lineup includes the Dual-screen smartphone series, ePaper reading smartphone series, color ePaper reading smartphone series, 5G ePaper reading smartphone series, and music ePaper e-reader series. Each generation of products has achieved commendable sales and reputation, receiving accolades such as the official CES "Brightest Product," the 2019 IF International Industrial Design Award, the 2020 Innovation Smartphone Award, and the 2021 Innovation Product Award.

Hisense's eye-friendly ePaper reading phone series has undergone in-depth research by ophthalmic hospitals. Compared to color LCD screen phones, these products effectively reduce tear film instability, significantly improve visual discomfort, and are more conducive to myopia prevention and control. Moreover, Hisense has obtained eye protection certification from China's most authoritative eye protection certification organization - the China Saibao Laboratory, further attesting to the eye-protection attributes of their products.

In terms of technological innovation, Hisense ePaper smartphones have accumulated a vast array of patents related to ePaper displays. They have already mastered black and white ePaper display technology, night-reading display technology, color ePaper display technology, and RLCD full reflection display technology. Looking ahead, Hisense continues to explore and apply more new technologies to eye-friendly products.

In the upstream and downstream of the industry chain, Hisense has established strategic partnerships with core companies specializing in screens, chips, and more. Additionally, they have integrated a wealth of reading content resources. Leveraging their profound product and technological expertise in eye-friendly products, Hisense aims to provide everyone with an enhanced eye protection experience through the integration of the entire industry chain.

Below is a list of typical ePaper phones from Hisense: