$70 in the US, 90€ ($105) in Europe :3 https://www.xteink.com/products/xteink-x3

I guess West Coast shipping from China is much cheaper

I got an X4 (slightly larger model) less than 2 months ago and I already finished 9 books on it. It is always in my pocket and I started reaching for it instead of my phone during tiny moments of boredom. Sometimes it's just a few paragraphs when I'm waiting for a train, but it is also surprisingly good for longer reading sessions.

• yoavm

  today at 12:28 PM

  Same experience with the X4 Pro. Can wholeheartedly recommend. It feels like reading became much more accessible to me all of a sudden.

  • trymas

    today at 12:57 PM

    It's so sad that X4 Pro does not have USB-C.

    They have added backlight, but still left charging/connecting to proprietary magnetic adapter.

I really didn't think I would, but I really enjoy using my X4. The only thing I wish it had was a backlight. It seems Xteink is hellbent on including pogo connectors on all their other models, and that the original X4 with USB-C was an unfortunate outlier in this regard.

https://archive.is/Lb2Bf

I had only heard about these things on HN, and thought they were primarily popular as a toy for people to hack on. I didn't realise they are so popular amongst "normies".

I have no current need for one as I am happy with my cheap second hand Kobo but it's great that they exist, especially with the open source alternative firmware. Hopefully they don't clamp down on that in future.

I have one and am very happy with it. I vibe coded a bilingual ebook reader, which is what I bought it for. However a Kindle is a way better deal and is much better as far as screen quality etc. But I like how small my XTEINK X4 Pro is.

The fact that you can use it one-handed is the killer feature for me, both for reading and as a generic dashboard/remote control for stuff in my home.

• puzzlingcaptcha

  today at 1:06 PM

  It's great on public transport too.

I got one and it is a neat fun device.

And it's pretty hackable, with an open firmware, bunch of community involvement in developing third party alternatives for the default software.

I have even vibecoded random software to run on it.

https://archive.is/Lb2Bf

The X3 seems nicest as it’s smallest and a good deal lighter.

After the x4 was marketed as having MagSafe that would work with a phone, while the magnet doesn’t align with MagSafe.

Neat little esp32 eReader with the standard bs around the company.

I'm tempted, despite being wedded to Kindle. I can search for and borrow a library bok on Libby in 30 seconds, then have it automagically appear on my Kindle; I doubt the experience is so seamless with Crosspoint, and of course the progress won't sync. But otherwise, an e-ink screen on the back of my phone is something I have always wanted. Hey Amazon, how about a Kindle counterpart to this?

• samizdis

  today at 12:22 PM

  Going back a decade or so, I bought a Yotaphone 2, which had a full-sized e-ink display on the rear. Fantastic for any text reading/writing in bright sunlight (I was based in Sydney at the time). Yotaphone is now dead, but I really don't understand why the idea hasn't been taken up by other makers.

  Review (overly lengthy) from 2014: https://www.expertreviews.co.uk/technology/phones/yotaphone-...

  • Cthulhu_

    today at 12:40 PM

    > but I really don't understand why the idea hasn't been taken up by other makers.

    Same, but now that it quickly looks like smartphone-sized e-ink readers are the 2026 hardware trend, I can see them making a comeback now. Or as an "outside" screen on foldable phones.

• jacek

  today at 12:23 PM

  - Libby on Xteink: https://www.theverge.com/tech/976390/xteink-x3-x4-x4-pro-e-r...

  - There's KOReader sync in Crosspoint

  But the biggest issue with Kindle is the vendor lock-in and the books don't even belong to you. There were many cases of Amazon deleting books with no refunds. That's why I am not getting any Kindle ever again.

  • akho

    today at 1:03 PM

    I've owned several Kindles, and haven't bought a single ebook from Amazon.

"In a sense, it is that. Xteink sounds less like a real brand name than the kind of garbled text you’ll find in AI-slop memes."

I think it's a great name. To me it reads like "extend e-ink", crazy how perception can be so different.

• Ekaros

  today at 12:58 PM

  XT eink. For whatever XT has ever stand for with computers. XT has been around for ages with various meanings. So it is rather tech letters for me.

• kulor

  today at 12:10 PM

  I read it as a play on extinct & ink

The CEO of this brand once portrayed himself as a first-time entrepreneur, launching a small batch of products at extremely low prices, then raising prices and quickly rolling out new models. But earlier this year, one of his competitors publicly presented a series of allegations that were subsequently substantiated, including that he had actually been involved in multiple previous ventures with a highly questionable track record, and that some of the products' key specifications had been seriously misrepresented. The company later apologized for the inaccurate specifications, claiming that the misinformation was unintentional. However, it offered neither a recall nor any meaningful compensation to affected customers. Soon afterward, the brand launched yet another new product, only for customers to discover after receiving it that the promotional images were also misleading. At the end of the day, this brand's business model seems to be little more than assembling cheap off-the-shelf components and using aggressive social media marketing to convince people that they need its products.

• shinycode

  today at 12:54 PM

  X4 pro launched in July and I could buy it for 89€ now it costs 119€. And I bought the x3 in June for 50€ now it’s 89€.

  So yeah that’s the strategy

  • hasperdi

    today at 1:02 PM

    I suggest buying M5Stack PaperMono instead. It's an esp32 board with an eink screen and a battery. I bet someone will make an open source firmware for it

• jacknews

  today at 12:27 PM

  So who is the original manufacturer of these readers?

• boxed

  today at 12:15 PM

  Ok... but.. are there other companies with comparable consumer level products? If so, can you name some?

  • ZeroGravitas

    today at 12:45 PM

    The crosspoint software lists a few different manufacturers devices:

    https://crosspointreader.com/devices

    • boxed

      today at 12:48 PM

      40% of which are the company the poster complained about :P

      • ZeroGravitas

        today at 12:58 PM

        Yes, it was originally written for those devices. It's now branching out to support similar devices from other manufacturers.

  • jacek

    today at 12:25 PM

    Onyx Boox will be releasing one soon ("Picco" AFAIR?). But they break GPL.

    • postepowanieadm

      today at 12:40 PM

      I own Palm and software is a mess.

    • boxed

      today at 12:48 PM

      Soon? Come now.

    • wahnfrieden

      today at 12:46 PM

      And no Android