iReader FaceNote F1 – The E-ink Phone Quick Review
For those who like to read, the advantages of e-ink screen are outstanding: soft, natural, power saving. These are the excellent experiences that only the e-ink screen can bring to users.
China’s e-reading giant iReader probably targeted this business opportunity, so it launched an e-ink smartphone FaceNote F1.
The upper left side of the smartphone is the sim card slot, and the lower button is the so-called “smart key”, which is a unique sell point of this smartphone, the upper right side is the on/off key, and the lower part is the volume key, the bottom of the smartphone is: Micro USB port, microphone and 3.5mm headphone jack.
When the screen is locked, the upper left corner of the screen displays the time and date, and the lower-left corner displays the power.
When I first saw the FaceNote in the locked screen state, I even suspected that the phone in front of me was just a model.
When the screen is locked, the main screen will display a random quote, like: our planet is a lonely speck in the great enabling chemical dark. It’s a quote from Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space.
Every time the screen is locked, the quote will switch automatically, all of the quotes are philosophical or poetic.
On the far right side of the navigation bar at the bottom of the smartphone is the bottom menu icon. The bottom menu will be toggled if you touch the icon, you can switch between smooth mode and clear mode, quickly take a screenshot, and adjust brightness in the bottom menu.
In the clear mode, there will be a black flash in the process of turning the page, while the smooth mode has a lower display quality.
Eject the SIM card slot, we can see that this slot can accommodate a TF card for storage expansion.
This smartphone is equipped with the Qualcomm snapdragon 439 chip, with 4G of RAM, 5.84-inch e-ink screen and 158g of weight.
There are two versions of the ROM: 32GB and 64GB, and you can expand to 256GB by TF card in maximum, so there is no need to worry about the storage.
The front 5 million pixels camera and the rear 13 million pixels camera are enough for an e-ink screen smartphone; on the other hand, the battery capacity is 4000mAh, which is quite abundant with snapdragon 439 low-power processor. To my surprise, the smartphone is even equipped with a face recognition function.
Here, we can take a summary of this phone:
- For those who like to read e-books, this is an e-book reader with the function of a basic smartphone;
- It can be used as a feature mobile phone for young students. The basic functions of a smartphone are all available, but it is not suitable for entertainment other than reading, and it can effectively protect the eyes.
Press the smart key you can make the phone enter reading mode directly, press again to exit reading mode.
It should be noted that in the reading mode, users can set up a no disturb mode to filter out the push of social apps, but you will not miss important phone calls and SMS messages.
In terms of endurance, thanks to the fact that snapdragon 439, which is a low-power CPU, and the e-ink screen is more energy-saving, the official website says the battery endurance can reach 1-2 weeks (if you read half an hour every day).
I made the phone standby for 50 hours, the battery consumption is 18% (unlocked 5 times, made 2 phone calls). Do simple math, the standby time of this smartphone is more than 10 days.
As a spare phone, this is a very qualified result.
In my opinion, this product is an ebook reader in the first place, then a smartphone.
For those who like reading, this is a good choice as a spare phone: it not only solves the problem of eye fatigue of reading on a normal smartphone for a long time, but also brings more features to an ebook reader.
At the same time, I think this smartphone is really excellent for children to use as a feature phone: the e-ink screen effectively protects the eyes, CPU can’t meet the demands of game, but essential apps, SMS and phone are all available.
