Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

The Xteink X4 E-Ink Reader

blog.omgmog.net

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 193 posts

Re: The Xteink X4 E-Ink Reader

#41

Post by ihowlatthemoon »

criddell wrote: post #32
kstrauser wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm with you on every bit. I love my Kobo Libra 2 and it lives on my nightstand table. It's an excellent reader. The X4 with CrossPoint is an alright reader, but I've been chewing through books on my morning commute because it fits in my jacket pocket and I can have it out on the train without bumping into other people. It's not the best reader I own, but it's the best reader I have on me at any given moment when I'm…

Does your reading position sync up between the two devices?

Not the commenter you were replying to, but I have both a Kindle and a X4. No, it does not, but searching for a unique enough phrase (just two or three words) on the current page gets you there fast enough.

Re: The Xteink X4 E-Ink Reader

#42

Post by broabprobe »

I love the X3, light enough I can carry it around without noticing it. Battery lasts forever. I don't feel the need for a backlight at all, I love how simple this is.

I know people favor the X4 for the usb-c, and I'm all for universal charging cables. But in my experience the usb port is often the first component to fail in something like this. And that seems super annoying to replace. The pogo pins on the other hand are unlikely to fail. And the cable is not proprietary, you can get compatible cables on Amazon/etc.

Re: The Xteink X4 E-Ink Reader

#43

Post by cbushko »

aanet wrote: post #34

I've been eyeing the Xteink Reader but cannot decide between the X4 (4.7" diag) and X3 (3.7" diag). FWIW, the X3 requires a pogo pin cable, while the X4 requires a standard USB-C. Anybody got any recommendations? Thanks!

I picked the X4 over X3 because the usb-c is convenient for charging (which you barely need to do)

I love it and use it every day.

Re: The Xteink X4 E-Ink Reader

#44

Post by camel-cdr »

dfee wrote: post #36

i bought a pocketbook era lite recently, and it's a bit too locked down for my tastes - though usable. i kinda just want a dumb appliance. actually, i want a linux appliance. this probably sounds very "not productized" to a PM, but 99% of what's on there i don't want: a book store, games, etc. i wish there was just an SDK for building apps (i'll vibe code towards a great epub experience, i'm fine with that). and, i'm…

> i wish there was just an SDK for building apps (i'll vibe code towards a great epub experience, i'm fine with that)

That seems to be what crosspoint-reader is: https://github.com/crosspoint-reader/crosspoint-reader

Re: The Xteink X4 E-Ink Reader

#45

Post by ihowlatthemoon »

aanet wrote: post #34

I've been eyeing the Xteink Reader but cannot decide between the X4 (4.7" diag) and X3 (3.7" diag). FWIW, the X3 requires a pogo pin cable, while the X4 requires a standard USB-C. Anybody got any recommendations? Thanks!

Go for the X4. Neither supports USB file transfer, so having USB-C charging is convenient without additional things to worry about. Bigger screen is also better if you're a fast reader. The faster you read, the more your reading speed is limited by the page turn speed.

Re: The Xteink X4 E-Ink Reader

#46

Post by cbushko »

hxii wrote: post #20

I’ve been looking at these for a while, hoping the custom firmwares for it will become more popular, as I was considering getting this for my six-year-old. The disabled usb is certainly a bummer. I wonder how they disabled it though – is there a hardware difference?

Crosspoint is very popular and very easy to flash onto the device.

Locking and preventing flashing of firmware only happened in China.

Re: The Xteink X4 E-Ink Reader

#47

Post by lisnake »

criddell wrote: post #40

I've looked at this device and I wonder how good the layout engine is. Screenshots never show text with any hyphenation going on which makes me wonder if it even supports hyphenation. One of the images on the Amazon page for the reader has somebody holding one beside their laptop and if you look at the screen, it looks terrible. There are even words jammed together ("would be most suitable forthe job"). I love that i…

Custom firmwares support hyphenation

Re: The Xteink X4 E-Ink Reader

#50

Post by bouk »

criddell wrote: post #40

I've looked at this device and I wonder how good the layout engine is. Screenshots never show text with any hyphenation going on which makes me wonder if it even supports hyphenation. One of the images on the Amazon page for the reader has somebody holding one beside their laptop and if you look at the screen, it looks terrible. There are even words jammed together ("would be most suitable forthe job"). I love that i…

The alternative firmwares give you a lot more options in this, stock is OK in layout
Post reply on HN