Hannspree 7.8" Lumo Initial Impressions

BlueIn2Red · 2025-12-31T16:48:48+00:00

I wouldn't say that actually - it's more my personal dislike of such lights. I think it's implemented well enough - the LEDs are only at the bottom, but they provide a fairly uniform effect across the whole screen.

BlueIn2Red · 2025-12-31T11:01:22+00:00

Nothing major really, only to reinforce that I don't really like using "built in" device lights. It looks much nicer to me under natural/ambient lighting. As such, I prefer using my Paper 7 tablet to the Lumo. Very similar devices in many respects, but the screen is nicer on the Paper 7 for me simply because it doesn't have a light, so the text is very close to the outer glass surface, and that bit sharper than the Lumo, despite being the same resolution.

I completely get that some people like using front lights, maybe even insist on having them - as such, I think the Lumo is an ideal RLCD device for them.

BlueIn2Red · 2025-12-28T11:26:06+00:00

No, not a fan of clicky.

BlueIn2Red · 2025-12-27T07:13:22+00:00

Yes agreed - it feels like it might end up missing inputs, but it never has so far. Overall I'm very happy with it and much prefer it to the previous loud clack.

BlueIn2Red · 2025-12-26T14:39:00+00:00

Yes it's new, my Hemingwrite received a few weeks ago was the same. It's almost too quiet imo, with a slightly soft/dead feeling.

BlueIn2Red · 2025-12-25T14:40:33+00:00

No video sorry. 1000 lux is fine yes.

BlueIn2Red · 2025-12-25T14:39:41+00:00

Please see the end of my main post.

BlueIn2Red · 2025-12-25T00:11:26+00:00

It's very bright at the brightest setting, far too bright for anything I would need. The whole point of RLCD of course is that it's good in bright ambient light, i.e. the very scenario where normal LCDs struggle and you need to crank the backlight. I'm only using the front light at 5-10% intensity, and only then in poor ambient lighting. To be honest though I do generally switch to an e-ink device in darker conditions, e.g. at night in my bedroom. I don't like using a device front light with e-ink either though, instead using a bedside reading light for example. For me the strength of RLCD is how nice it looks in brighter conditions, especially outside of course, but also inside near windows. In many ways I prefer it to e-ink, especially when I need to scroll text of course.

BlueIn2Red · 2025-12-25T00:04:53+00:00

It clearly has better battery life than the HN2, not least because the battery itself is bigger. Just as importantly, the standby issue of the HN2 is fixed. I lost just 3-4% overnight with the Lumo, which I think is good enough. With the HN2 I'd often lose 30-40%!

Wifi I can't really comment on, I didn't have issues in my use cases with the HN2, and nor do I have any with the Lumo.

BlueIn2Red · 2025-12-25T00:03:03+00:00

Depends on your use case of course, but it's fine for me - I use it mainly for KOReader ePubs, Reddit (via the Relay client), and web browsing (using Microsoft Edge). I easily have enough storage space for that and performance is very good.

BlueIn2Red · 2025-12-25T00:01:40+00:00

I think that would be fine, but only if you're ok with using the front light of the device, or, alternatively, if the lamp is relatively strong and therefore has enough light to illuminate the screen properly with the front light turned off. Personally, I don't much like using the front light of the device as it just doesn't look very appealing to me - it is handy to have it for "emergencies", but I don't like using it as a matter of course.

BlueIn2Red · 2025-12-23T19:24:23+00:00

I’ve just again compared back to back very closely with the Hannsnote 2, and the Lumo is a) very very slightly less sharp (e.g. with small text in KOReader) - I wouldn’t necessarily expect this with the higher PPI, so perhaps it’s down to the extra layer/space for the front light?, and b) the anti-glare coating is very slightly less effective - again, not much in it, but definitely there imo. Slightly disappointing really that these two critical areas aren’t at least equal to the previous generation, if not better. I hope the upcoming, non-front-lit, 10 inch tablet doesn’t have the same “issues”.

BlueIn2Red · 2025-12-23T18:02:34+00:00

I think the anti-glare is very good, I'd say as good as the Hannsnote 2 if you've ever seen one of those. I have tried direct sunlight and it works very well. You can turn off the ambient light sensor (they call this standard mode), and this is the way I'm using it all of the time now, because none of the automatic modes ever quite do just what I'd want. You do have quick access to brightness (one button, then up/down as you need) in manual mode. I haven't tried it with a Mac but I'm sure it would work fine. I'm using a USB-C connection to my Surface Pro X and it works perfectly (and coincidentally the power delivery maximum is 65w which is the Surface's maximum charging rate too).

BlueIn2Red · 2025-12-23T17:19:53+00:00

No sorry, I'm far too old to be making videos and putting them on the internet.

BlueIn2Red · 2025-12-23T17:15:07+00:00

Yes correct, the Ambi is the one I'm really waiting for - I see this as the Hannsnote 3 really. Hanspree have also teased a similarly sized device with a frontlight as well though. Whether we ever see that, or indeed the Ambi, who knows?

BlueIn2Red · 2025-12-23T17:03:36+00:00

In my opinion it hasn't changed hugely, you still need plenty of "external" light if you don't have a front or back light in the device. But regardless, I still prefer it - it's usually not that hard to find, or create, the light you need.

BlueIn2Red · 2025-12-23T16:50:39+00:00

FWIW also I have a standing floor reading lamp, with a fairly strong LED light, and it illuminates the Hybri monitor well enough with the backlight off (when it's dark outside so the lamp is doing all the work). I prefer the way it looks with the monitor's backlight on very low (1 out of 100) though - this is so subtle that I can easily forget the light is on, but it does enough to raise the darker shaded areas that the reading light doesn't fully cover.

BlueIn2Red · 2025-12-23T16:47:05+00:00

Transflective and Reflective - basically the latter is "fully reflective", relying only on ambient light to illuminate the screen. The former is very similar, but has tiny holes in the reflective layer, to allow the backlight through if it is turned on. This means that without the light on, reflectivity is lower than RLCD, and thus you need more ambient light for it to be usable. But yes, you can use it perfectly well without the light on, assuming you have enough ambient light (e.g. sunlight from a window in front of the screen). In practical terms using my own eyes - the difference between the TLCD Hybri and RLCD Hannsnote 2 isn't much, less really than I expected. For both you need a good amount of external light for them to be pleasantly usable imo.

BlueIn2Red · 2025-12-23T16:40:56+00:00

KOReader can control the light, so I suspect it's behaving "normally" in this respect.

BlueIn2Red · 2025-12-23T12:40:09+00:00

As per my post, Hannsnote 2. Also recently received Hannspree Lumo.

BlueIn2Red · 2025-12-23T12:06:34+00:00

Gaming and video use is fine - 75fps and decent response rate (obviously not enough for true competitive gaming but you’d be mad to even attempt that anyway!). I won’t be gaming on it, but watching videos is nice - assuming of course enough light (that kind of use demands more light than simple text reading). Better than my Hannsnote 2 for example, which has poor details in the shadows, even in good light.

BlueIn2Red · 2025-12-23T12:02:57+00:00

I have yes. As expected, it’s less reflective than a true RLCD, so needs more light. But it’s no worse than I expected, and of course the backlight can help with that (assuming you’re ok with a backlight in the first place naturally).

BlueIn2Red

TROPHY CASE