Xteink X4 eReader Review

Price: Bought X4 + case for 69,68 € with shipping
Weight: 74g + 56g case

Review

It’s a really small ereader. It’s magnetic so you can attach it on the back of some phones, and when you stop reading, you could just leave it on your fridge. Beware though, I’ve heard that the screen is not that strong! I never really use this without the case.

Right now this device is going for 53 euros on Xteink’s website, and the case is around 8 euros. That’s the cheapest ereader I’ve heard of. My Kobo Clara 2E was around 130 euros and that was a really good price. Right now the newer Kobo Clara black and white is 170 euros, if you happen to find a discount you can get it for 140.

So even with the case and shipping costs, you have it at half the price of a regular ereader that’s on a discount. But yeah, it is a much smaller device, and I’ve seen people on Reddit having issues with durability. Some even arriving with a broken screen. If you want better warranty, you should probably order from a bigger store like Amazon.

Unboxing

So what comes in the box:

• A MicroSD card reader, by the way the SD card in this device is 16 GB (some have arrived with 32 GB, such as mine)
• A few things you can use to attach this device to anything, like a wallet
• There’s also a plastic screen protector along with some alcohol wipes. I did not install that as I have the case

Case

The case seems good quality. The device attaches to it with the magnet. It doesn’t stay closed well, but that has not been an issue.

The case adds a noticeable amount of weight to the device. The X4 is 74 grams and the case is 56 grams. So the case almost doubles the weight. But the total 130 grams is not heavy by any means.

Display and buttons

The display is a 4,3 inch eink screen with a 480x800 resolution. 220 pixels per inch.

The PPI is good, but a tiny bit less than I expected. It’s not a touchscreen which I think is positive. The buttons are nice. I’ve had some annoyances with a Kobo touchscreen as tapping it is not always reliable and you can have accidental presses. All in all, I really prefer using the buttons as opposed to a touchscreen.

Keep in mind that it does not have a frontlight. So reading in bed with lights out is not possible.

Hardware

The hardware is not strong, but it has WiFi and Bluetooth. The chip is an ESP32, meaning you can write your own firmware for it. If you know how to code... But that's not needed as Crosspoint exists, which I'll talk about in a second.

The exact chip is the ESP32-C3. It has around 400 kilobytes of RAM. I would say it’s just powerful enough for a simple ereader like the X4.

The Xteink store says the SD card is 16 GB, but they sent me a 32 GB. A positive surprise, but even 16 GB would be more than enough, as you probably won’t be reading any manga on a device this small. This is a SD card with their own logo, and it seems like a cheap card. So far it has worked without any problems, and if it breaks, getting a replacement card is like 15 euros.

The ESP32-C3 chip has the benefit that it is really power-efficient. The battery life is advertised for 14 days of reading. That really did not disappoint. I’ve been using this for two weeks and the battery is currently at 61 %. I have not plugged this thing in after getting the device and flashing Crosspoint.

Software (Crosspoint)

And talking about Crosspoint, what is it? Well… Crosspoint is a free community made firmware for this device. The source code is open at GitHub if you want to read it or contribute. Crosspoint adds a nicer user interface, more settings, and better text rendering. Honestly, I did not try out the stock firmware at all, I bought this device knowing that I was going to flash Crosspoint on this. I heard that the stock firmware is not very nice or capable.

Keep in mind that you need to buy the developer edition to be able to flash firmware through the USB-C port. I think the developer edition is sold at Xteink’s website and Amazon. The locked down version is sold on Aliexpress and other third-party stores. Remember to check that it is the developer edition before buying.

Beware though that Crosspoint and many of its forks, forks meaning derivative versions made by the community, are quite vibecoded. Please read about the firmware before installing it. I prefer Crosspoint and have not had any need to look at any of its forks. AI-assisted or even vibecoded projects are not inherently bad, but they can be more unstable and might be abandoned quickly.

Getting books

I’ve been uploading books with the file transfer web server. Sometimes it’s buggy and slow and I think it crashed a few times when I first used it. Currently I am facing an issue with the book I am reading that it crashes on open if I don’t have embedded styles disabled on settings. Reading without those is fine, but it’s missing styling that might be important to understand the content easier.

You can transfer books to this device through Crosspoint’s web interface. Just press Transfer books, connect to WiFi and then the device will show a link and a QR-code you can use to send books from your phone or computer.

You can also remove the SD card and move books directly to that, but that’s not as quick and the SD card is a bit hard to remove. You need some tool to poke the SD card with so you can remove it.

The device supports text-files, epub, jpg, and bitmap files. I have not tested reading manga, and probably never will. Reading manga doesn’t sound like a fun time on this device as I think it’s very hardware limited and the display is very small. Because of that you would need to manually convert your manga to specific file formats.

There is no support for books with DRM, so do not expect your Kindle or Libby books to work. You have to either buy books without restrictive DRM or find them elsewhere. Project Gutenberg provides free ebooks without DRM so I suggest you check that out. I will link that in the description.

It is also possible to sail the high seas and download books for free on the internet. I do not suggest that, but I've heard of something called Anna’s Archive. I heard that the AI companies downloaded all the world’s books through that website to train their AI models :/

Reading

I’ve been reading this book called “UNIX and Linux System Administration Handbook”. Reading on the X4 has been nice, but it has a few quirks. The book has images that show some Linux commands and configs. Those can be a bit hard to read on this device as the text on the image can be very small. So far it has not been a problem. I’ve been able to read most of the images fine, and the book doesn’t really require me to read every single line in those images.

And probably good to mention, I’ve been reading with the landscape mode as I like that. The portrait mode is also nice, but the line length is short.

Conclusion

So what do I think about this device? It has been really nice and has gotten me to read more. It is a great device that’s easy to carry around. It can be used to reduce screentime on your phone. I mainly purchased this because it is a hackable device and I will probably try to code some firmware for this. I thought it would be nice to use the device’s sleep mode as a eink display that shows the weather and bus timetable.

As an ereader, it is great. I have some concerns about the durability but other than that I really like this device. Maybe a frontlight would make this the ultimate device. I heard that the X4 Pro has that. Not having a frontlight can be a dealbreaker, I do tend to read on bed while my partner is sleeping. I like to use the frontlight on my Kobo even if there is some light.

If you are thinking about buying this as your first, and only eReader, take into consideration its limitations. You might benefit from a bigger display if you want to be able to read manga or more technical books. The Linux sysadmin book I’ve been reading has been great on this device, but some other tech books might not work as well.

Something like a Kobo Clara is bigger, still quite portable, has better specs and a frontlight, is more durable, and likely has better warranty. Kobos are also quite hackable with custom software. And the Kobo Clara is waterproof! I could do a review of that, but I don’t think they sell the version I have anymore. It was replaced by the Clara BW. My Kobo has lasted for almost three years now, and I don’t know if I can expect the same from the X4. But if you just need a device to read on that’s not your phone, the Xteink X4 is a cheap and simple device.