I’ve been using my brand-new XTEINK X4 for a bit now.

I never would have thought to buy an e-reader this small until I started this community and began reading about the XTEINK line.

And wow, I’m glad I did. Holy crap!

This is the first e-reader I’ve bought in quite a while, and I’m loving this thing. The screen is super crisp, page turns are fast, and the size is perfect for carrying around.

The original operating system it comes with is pretty rough. But after reflashing it with CrossPoint, this is probably my favorite e-reader I’ve ever owned. It is perfect for just tossing in my pocket and taking everywhere.

I’ve been reading on it while waiting for my kids to come out of school, during PTA meetings, and even at a school volleyball game last night. Whenever there was a delay or nothing was happening, I just pulled it out and read for a few minutes.

I love this thing.

The company is XTEINK, based in Shenzhen, China. Its founder is Crusoe Hu. Hu described XTEINK as a “small team based in Shenzhen” working on compact E Ink devices.

He said the goal was simple: make a reader small enough that people would actually carry it everywhere instead of leaving it at home like a larger Kindle.

That is exactly why I like it so much. I don’t need a front light, touchscreen, or a bunch of extra features. I just want a tiny reader I can keep with me and actually use.

For this regular XTEINK X4, the specs are:

  • Display: 4.3-inch black-and-white E Ink

  • Resolution: about 220 ppi

  • Touchscreen: No

  • Front light: No

  • Controls: Physical buttons only, including page-turn and navigation controls

  • Processor: Espressif ESP32

  • Storage: Ships with a 16 GB microSD card Maximum microSD capacity: Up to 256 GB

  • Wi-Fi: 2.4 GHz

  • Bluetooth: Yes

  • USB: USB-C, mainly for charging and serial communication rather than normal USB mass storage

  • Battery: 650 mAh

  • Claimed battery life: Up to about 14 days, based on 1 to 3 hours of reading per day

  • Dimensions: 114 × 69 × 5.9 mm, or about 4.49 × 2.72 × 0.23 inches

  • Weight: Around 74 to 77 grams, or roughly 2.6 to 2.7 ounces

  • Magnetic back: Yes

The key thing about the original X4 is how stripped down it is. It is basically a 4.3-inch E Ink screen, an ESP32 microcontroller, physical buttons, a microSD card, and a battery inside a very thin case.

CrossPoint takes that simple hardware and turns it into a much better reading device. Love it.

  • kip@piefed.zipEnglish
    2·
    16 days ago

    mine has developed a faint cloudy smudge in the top left that seems to fade away sometimes and then return. i may have sat on it. unless it gets any worse it doesn’t affect my enjoyment, i’ve had it for a couple of months and getting plenty of reading done. it takes a very short time to get used to the small size and being able to fit unnoticeably into a pocket makes it ideal for fag breaks and lunchtimes. don’t put it in your back pocket like i did

    the video on the official site shows off its quite useless magnetic back, suggesting this is so you can stick it to the back of your phone? it shows a model cheerfully scrolling the internet, flipping the phone round to read, flipping back etc. i can hardly imagine a more frivolous use case, but crosspoint allows you to set custom lockscreens so you could use it for a fridge magnet if you really wanted. it only likes bitmaps, there are various online converters available, i used https://crosspoint-pxc-converter.pages.dev/

    mine came with some sticky metal rings so i can attach the device to any surface i so choose. i have not so far elected to do so

    an actually useful thing in crosspoint is the button remapping, if you notice in the OP photo his thumb is right by the power button, not the page turn button - you can set a short press of the power button to be next page