Somehow we missed it at CES, but Hisense showed the A2 phone at MWC again, so we caught up. The smartphone is unusual in having a 5.5″ FullHD AMOLED main display, with a touch-enabled secondary E Ink display on the other side of the handset. At the moment, there is no definite plan to launch the phone in Europe – it is, apparently, shipping in China, so few details were being released.
The Hisense A2 OLED phone has an E Ink display on the other side. Image:Meko
The HiSense EPD display has touch, which adds a good function, but reduces the contrast of the display well below the best we’ve seen. Image:Meko
The E Ink display on the phone can also be used to show an image, for example, something amusing, to try to help to get a smile out of the subject. The E Ink display can also be used as a reduced function viewfinder if the user wants to use the main camera for selfies.
Also being shown was the ‘Rock’ phone which is waterproof and can take pictures under water. As the touch functions wouldn’t work when the phone is submerged, the camera is operated with a button on the side. It has a 5.2″ FullHD IPS display and is IP68 certified. It is already shipping in China and will ship in Europe ‘later’.
