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by sleepycatgirl 728 days ago
I personally have Hisense A9, with LineageOS 21, and man, it is just the most comfy device I have had.

Let's see.. Reading is absolutely top tier with KOReader + volume buttons as page turning. Being able to play idle games like Kittens Game, also extremely pleasant. Maps outside? Amazing. As a phone, in Europe at least? Also works. Battery life, is pretty comfy, when I mainly read. And, the specs are decent. 4/6/8GB, 128GB/256GB ROM RAM options (personally I had gone with 6/128 option, because 8/256 was a bit too expensive)

The only minor flaws... well, the camera is not the greatest... (My old OnePlus 6 makes much better photos, as I keep it as backup device, just in case. And for e.g youtube or color content on the go. Just... things that A9 is not exactly the way to go with.) And just lack of microSD card slot.

And on side note, I just adore how simple, and elegant the design on the phone itself is. It just... is. Quiet, simple, unlike most of the modern phones with their.. loud... everything, like notches, too many cameras and such. (Note, its just opinion, just because they have such designs, that doesn't meant they are bad. For others that can be a gooood thing.) (I also like Sony's phones designs, they cute)

And in general.. I just love e-ink. Truly blessed technology, as a user.

2 comments

With root and installing LineageOS, do you feel confident that any stock malware/spyware is eradicated? Or do you feel that the risk, or whatever may be left over, is worth it for the benefits?
Ah, I run lineageOS without root. Well, while, I have yet to see if it still does any outgoing... malicious connections, it is certainly safer than stock rom with massive amount of bloatware, and all.. the built in things..., and the version itself, being quite outdated.

And to be fair, this is good enough for me. If I worry about such built in firmware every time I get a device, well, my hair would be gray by the time I hit 30s lol.

As for benefits, I mean, in the end, this is what I wanted. An e-ink phone, with a proper, normal ROM. And because LineageOS is cute.

I don't see the Hisense A9 as a supported LineageOS device. Are you using an unofficial build or a GSI?
Yeah, the tl;dr is that people who did the amazing work of cracking the bootloader open, also, went for making the GSI ROMs actually usable. So... I it works by the way of patching the system image, by adding a service that deals with e-ink stuff (It works surprisingly well), and, alongside phhtreble patches, pretty much everything works (The only thing I have found to not work, is the Jack. But aside from that? Perfectly fine.).

And considering how niche the device is... I think, GSI was the only way in the first place. Considering how well it works. I mean, it would be nice to have actual proper rom, but... I will take what's given >:D

Would you mind linking me to their efforts? ^^