I have the X4, and I adore it. I wasn’t sure if I’d like it or not but got it on sale, and I’ve been thrilled with it and encouraging folks interested in something more portable than a typical larger e-reader. I just turn it on and read, no need to set a do-not-disturb mode, I just get to focus on that.
“Smaller screen” also sounds bad unless you have flavors of ADHD that cause you to restart the page regularly, and this actually helped me in that regard.
Like, I still have to strip DRM from books I buy if they aren’t DRM-free, but I don’t buy on the Kindle shop anymore, and most others use Adobe Digital Editions, which is fairly easy to rip using plugins for Calibre.
I got my X3 a few months ago and I’ve read more books since then than in the last 3 years before that combined. Love the little thing.
Meanwhile, phone-sized readers like the Boox Palma exist and are much more capable.
why would you run android on eink anyway? refresh rates are garbage for anything but reading and owning a distraction free device is one of the biggest upsides of ereaders, for me anyway
i did root my kindle (got it as a present) and even a terminal is horrid to use… actually just ordered an xteink and really looking forward to an unlocked bootloader from the factory ^^
p.s. also i just got an email that they released a newer version which seems to have a better soc (don’t read comics but if that’s a reason maybe they’re already improving on that) edit: and it’s still half the price, most of which is probably the display itself tbf D:
There are high refresh e ink displays capable of drawing and even playing videos
And in color, but then what is the point of eink.
Not having to actively light up those pixels, reducing power usage, especially when idle? Unless you have videos playing all the time you see bound to have some times when the change in pixels is infrequent enough to have some savings
i have no data on it, but i’d honestly doubt you’d get much power savings when watching video?
also high refresh rate displays were stupidly expensive last time i checked. there is, after all, just a single company making them…
Not what I meant, I said unless you’re watching a video all the time there will be times when you’re not actually using the full refresh rate to change the display, so it should be all the benefits of eink without the major downsides.
Also yeah the displays are more expensive compared to getting a cheap kindle, but considering you’re getting into more tablet territory with drawing capabilities it seems like the benefits are worth it to me.
a fair, didn’t read that properly! guess for tablet replacement that does sound nice, but for reading i think i’d still prefer something like the xteink (actually very curious if the size will be an issue but i always hate how heavy the paperwhite feels)
You can install other reading applications, like Kindle, Kobo, Libby, Hoopla, etc to greatly expand your reading selection.
.Can confirm. I’ve rooted my Leaf and outside of ebooks/manga, the hadware is just too anemic to be enjoyable.
I never understand how people can read their phones all day, and then get all gatekeepy when it comes to books, and suddenly it’s impossible to read it on a phone.
I’m not one of those people because idgaf if someone wants to read on their phone, but I do own an e-ink device for my books.
I think there’s a big difference in eye strain and comfort when it comes to actually reading a substantial amount of text, which isn’t what most people are doing on their phones all day.
The possibility of being distracted by all the apps on your phone is probably another big reason to use a separate device.
Not justifying gatekeeping, but there are legitimate reasons for people not wanting to read on their phones.
I have one of these and I enjoy using it. If you have a lot of drm-free ebooks and you want a tiny device with good physical buttons, then it might be worth getting one of these.
It only supports drm-free books that you load on to the sd card, so you’re hosed if you buy all of your books through the kindle store.
No libby app or other workarounds. Edit: I just got access to the article. Apparently the newest version of Crosspoint has Libby support. On the plus side there’s a nice 3rd party firmware scene. I use Crosspoint, which makes the interface more straightforward. It is also easy to sideload new lockscreen images and my preferred fonts for ebook reading.I only use it for basic epub ebooks.The processor/screen combo makes comics and pdfs a bad experience. Due to this Crosspoint doesn’t officially support pdfs or comic book files.
From a hardware perspective, I REALLY like it. It takes up minimal pocket space and I can fit it into the bonus pocket on my jeans. The physical buttons on the front and side are very nice and responsive. Screen is small but more than adequate. Battery life is fine.
Removing DRM from kindle books is trivial with a calibre plugin.
I agree with you entirely. Anybody who is comfortable with calibre and with managing their own library of epubs won’t have a problem with a device like this.
I’m glad it got the author of this article to read more, but there’s no real mention of why someone would use this instead of the myriad phone apps for reading already in existence, including the one that you have to download special software to get to run on this thing.
The TikTokification cannot be much different between this and a phone screen. You can only fit a few sentences on a phone screen in the first place, so I can’t imagine there’s a real change even when you halve the size.
Traditional ereaders have a place for a variety of reasons and this seems to go against everything someone would want in an ereader. I really just don’t understand this product and there was nothing that helped explain it’s purpose in contrast to the phone it’s presumably going to be attached to. Really wish they bothered to address that point at all.
Better screen for reading, waaaay better battery life.
While I agree that this sounds like all the drawbacks of an ereader with none of the bonuses of a phone, I think compartmentalisation is a pretty big factor. If the back of your phone is for reading, some people will be less likely to get distracted while their phone is flipped over - even though they’re literally holding the likely source of their distraction.
Edit: I feel stupid, but it occurs to me that you don’t have to have it attached to the back of your phone. I’m actually considering getting one now…
To an extent that’s how it works with my ebook. Got a case off Etsy that has a snap-shut pocket the size of my phone. That couple seconds to unclip it and slide it out in addition to unlocking it makes it a lot less tempting to check on that ding that went off while reading.
you can’t overstate how much nicer it is to read on an eink screen compared to a phone. but the magnet gimmick is silly, it’s hard to use it like that and negates one of the main benefits, which is how light it is
I have an eink ereader, and it really is wonderful, but I absolutely would not use it as much if it was the size and shape of my phone. For short stretches I guess it’s fine, but one of the reasons I got an ereader is because my phone was so ergonomically bad for reading.
i’ll try not to sound like a shill here (i bought the x4 a few months ago) but i thought the same and tried it anyway due to how cheap it was. the text can of course be set to the same size you like it on a normal ereader but it’s so light that you can hold it in thumb + forefinger without effort, i quickly came to prefer it over the old kindle paperwhite i was using
Honestly, people seem to really like them based on the comments here. 70 seems silly to essentially combine two products I already have, but I may give it a week or so and if it’s still top of mind go ahead with it. I really appreciate people bothering to share their experiences with it, since I really was not convinced by the article.
I think of it less as “combine”, and more “separate” on purpose. There’s the images pointing out how much stuff one had to carry before that a smartphone replaces as one slab but… it doesn’t do most of those things as well.
I really like my X4 from that standpoint. It’s much longer battery than my phone screen grants, and I don’t have to open any menus to toggle anything to say “go away, notifications”, or anything like that. I’m separated from everything else on my phone while I read on it.
That’s fair. I did get an ereader in part to have a dedicated device for reading that had an eink display, so I get that desire. Part of me still feels it’s a bit ewaste-y, but whatever gets people to read more is generally good in my opinion.
article is hidden behind a paywall, so i can only speak about my experience with a standard ereader.
i love to read and not get distracted by something during that. a regular phone keeps getting me distracted and a e-ink display is way more pleasant to read than a regular screen imo. the main problem i keep running into is that my regular ereader is too big for most pockets which is the reason i dont have it with me most of the time.
soooo such a small reader would let me read at times and places where i would simply dont do anything at best or doomscroll at worst while i could also judt read a good book.
that being said i dont own such a small ereader and wont buy one because keeping two devices synced while reading a book would be either too much hazzle or simply impossible to do.
The article worked in reader mode for me, sorry you hit a paywall.
I appreciate you mentioning the eink bit. I have an eink kobo which I really like and it’s definitely nicer to use than my phone for reading. I did pick it specifically because I didn’t want one that had other distracting apps or anything, but I used my phone for years without issue.
Not to shill for a product I was just hating on, but it seems like there’s quite an open source community that has popped up around this thing, so it’s possible there’s an app for it that will auto sync with your preexisting ereader, depending on the device. The article mentions Libby by name, but they possibly have others. I’d just be remiss if I didn’t mention that and possibly help a fellow reader out.
thx, im looking into libby :)
In my case it’s that hard separation between devices. I like reading on the eink screen compared to the phone screen, and there are no notifications to interrupt me. It helps too that the ereader is just ready to use, no decision to fight about what app to open. I tightly manage notifications only phone and it’s still too much of a draw to go doomscroll instead of read. I frequently pull just the reader out and leave the phone so I just use the magnetic attachment to keep them together.
Really cool to get an opinion from an actual user. Thank you for sharing! If it gets people reading, I’m all for it. I have an eink ereader, so I do understand both points you’re making.
So I bought one of these for my wife a couple months ago and she loves it. She likes that the eink screen is easier on her eyes and that it removes the temptation to open up social media and doom scroll. I do however have a few gripes about the X3.
First, the biggest issue for me is the device isn’t backlit. For my usage pattern that’s a deal breaker. The upside is that the company just released the X4 Pro and that is backlit, although it’s also a bit pricier (not by a ton, it’s still just barely sub-$100, but it’s noticeable). My wife has a rechargeable light that attaches to the X3 magnetically which she’s happy with, but that’s not for me.
Second rather than using something sensible like USB-C it uses a semi-proprietary magnetic charger with pogo pins. Not only is that another annoying cord to keep track of, but it’s unacceptably easy to short the charging cable and start a fire. I really hope they see reason and release a later revision of the device that uses USB-C (the slightly larger X4 does include USB-C charging, but that model is discontinued).
Third the buttons are kind of hard to press at times. This is more of a nitpick but I’ve got larger hands/fingers and it ruins the ergonomics of the device for me.
Fourth, these devices have an incredibly small quantity of RAM and as such they have to get clever just to open and display ebooks. They heavily cache indexes to the SD card to speed up access and those indexes take time to generate. When you first open a book and periodically while navigating you’ll be subjected to very long pauses while the firmware generates and saves that books index files.
Overall the devices are interesting, and I can see how some people could find them useful/enjoyable, but they’re also far from perfect and there’s a lot of room to improve.
Really appreciate your detailed write up. I mentioned elsewhere that some of these comments were swaying me towards trying one out, certainly more convincing than the article in my opinion. I appreciate the fact you outlined some pros and cons. I always have my phone, and anywhere I go for more than a quick chore I generally throw my ereader in a bag, so I understand I’m likely not the target audience, but I guess having more ways to read can’t be a bad thing. The lack of backlight and proprietary charger are giving me pause for sure. I might still give it a week to mull it over, but your comment was super helpful and saved me a cursory search before really diving into comparison shopping. Glad to hear they are helping some people read more. Fingers crossed they keep improving them, even if they’re not quite right for me.
For what it’s worth I’m considering getting the X4 Pro for myself. I do like that they added a backlight even if it comes at the cost of the USB-C port, and even with the extra cost it’s still cheaper than something like a Kobo (although also significantly less capable). For something quick and easy you can chuck in a pocket or a bag and make part of your EDC in a way that a Kobo or Kindle is too large and pricey for it sits in an interesting niche.
Look into the m5stack papermono lite. It has a back light.
There is also the seeed reterminal sticky without back light. Cheaper than xteink and usb c. I got one of those. But i do miss the back light.Papermono Lite looks interesting. Really good price point. The only things I’m seeing I wish it had are physical face buttons and bluetooth support (for a page turn remote). Aside from that it looks like it has everything I could want, or is at least as good as the X4 Pro.
Yeah, I just open up Lithium and read on my phone. The only downside is to have to cram Brightness in case I’m out during the sun, but the advantage is that I always have my phone with me, and I can read everywhere. Some years ago I uninstalled all my brain rot apps, and made the switch: feel like scrolling, go scroll a book. Since then I have read hundreds of books.
My dream device would be one with a full eink screen + querty keyboard in the front, and a nice 120hz OLED display in the back with a camera that pops up from the inside of the device at the top.
Yea, I read ebooks on my phone for years, even back when I used reddit way more than I use Lemmy and I don’t think it being on my phone was a huge issue for me, but I do understand how it could be distracting. My main reason for switching to an ereader was the eink and ergonomics because carpal tunnel was getting to me. I don’t bring my ereader everywhere though and sometimes I do miss having it all on my phone for convenience. Really glad you’ve gotten to read so many books since deprioritizing scrolling.
Let me know once you find a device like that because I’ll be second in line.
I don’t like reading on my phone because the screen is too small. An even smaller screen worsens the problem. I don’t even like a 10 inch e-reader. I know someone with a 13 inch ipad and while I don’t like Apple stuff, the form factor and screen size seems just about right to me. I get that epaper screens in large sizes are very expensive for whatever reason, but just acknowledge that fact, stop trying to convince us that tiny ones are usable.
You may be pleased to learn about he 13. 3" Boox Tab X. I got it’s predecessor (Max Lumi) specifically for PDFs. https://shop.boox.com/en-ca/products/tabxc
$819.99 and requires their proprietary software, not for me. I had heard about it and I guess it’s nice but it’s not what I meant by affordable and I’d want to run FOSS software. Consider that a 13" Chromebook is in the $150(?) range and see what I mean about epaper being expensive.
There’s a 13" Inkplate now that’s closer to what I want, but the screen refresh is too slow for pdf reading. It would be ok as a static display. The TCL Nxtpaper Android tablets are also interesting (the 14.3" one is $470) but again meh. I resisted buying a Lenovo Yoga tablet/laptop a couple years ago (I’d be able to run Linux on that) when it was $500 for a beefy config, and then the AI ram shortage hit so now a box like that is probably $1K. I should have bought it when I could. Oh well. I might get one of those rotateable desktop HDMI displays sometime.
Would this be comparable to a Remarkable?
I don’t know exactly what you mean by “comparable”. They’re both e-ink tablets. If you’d like actual comparison, may I suggest checking out MyDeepGuide: https://www.mydeepguide.com/articles/categories/e-ink-devices (also search for him on youtube).
This dude started reviewing a few e-ink tablets, and then he became THE guy for reviewing e-ink tablets.
Thanks for the recommendation! I’ll check that dude out.
Pardon for not being clearer, by comparable, I meant more so wondering if it’s a good option as an e-ink “notebook”. The pricing of the Remarkable has kept me away.
Personally, I am very pleased with my Max Lumi (which has been superseded by other models). It was quite expensive, though, but I can say I have used it very often for five years and expect many more of it, still. However, because of its size, I don’t often bring it out with me. I primarily use it for studying at home.
But if you don’t need the largest size (13"), the smaller ones are less expensive. If I were to replace mine, I’d probably go for a 10" one. I think that seems the right balance of size for writing notes and portability.
The market works the other way. You want a lot of adoption at the mobile level which will drive development faster and then those developments can be scaled up.
The iPad exists, in part, because of the iPhones specifically and the development of touch screen mobile technology in general.
Bigger e-readers have been around longer and are popular now, particularly the 7" Kindle size. I find it too small but that’s partly because I like to read full page PDF documents rather than just epubs. As it is, I use my laptop and it’s not too bad.
Touch screens aren’t a particular technological challenge nowadays. It’s mostly about the actual displays and the power that they draw, and the PHB’s making product decisions.
Only a little over 10% of Americans have an e-reader and their popularity is declining.
E-ink screens will continue to be niche technology without the advantages of increased development by competing manufacturers.
Way back in the early 2000s cellphones varied greatly. All the designs and models that were available and all pretty distinctive. Today the market is almost exclusively touch screen smart phones; evolutions of the early designs by Apple, HTC, Samsung etc.
Three years later the first iPad was released and that same year Samsung released the Galaxy Tab.
Widespread adoption and competition drives development.
Meh there is some kind of artificial scarcity making e-ink screens expensive as far as I can tell, especially big ones. If e-readers are declining it’s because people are using their phones instead, just like small digital cameras have declined. Small e-readers just don’t have much to offer compared to phones.
I don’t know how the market in tablets is doing. But there are no affordable large e-readers (13" and up) as far as I can tell. I can’t predict whether such a thing would get traction if it existed, but I’d be interested.
lol
artificial scarcity
That’s called “lack of demand”
