The XTEINK X4 made me read more again

Contents

1. A tiny reader with a big effect
2. Why the small screen works so well for me
3. The community firmware is a huge plus
4. My conclusion

A tiny reader with a big effect

I recently bought an XTEINK X4 on AliExpress and I have been surprisingly excited about it ever since. The device is tiny. Tiny enough that I can just put it in my pocket and take it with me everywhere without having to think about it.

That has changed my reading habits much more than I expected. Instead of automatically reaching for my phone and doomscrolling for a few minutes, I now often read a couple of pages instead. The threshold is just much lower when the reader is already in my pocket.

Why the small screen works so well for me

At first, the small screen size felt like a compromise. But in everyday life it turned out to be one of the best parts of the device.

Short reading sessions suddenly feel much more natural. I do not have to commit to a full A5 page or a longer uninterrupted session. Reading a few small pages while waiting somewhere feels completely reasonable. It is small progress, but still much better than not reading at all.

And that tiny progress adds up. Since I got the X4, I have already read four books on it. That alone says more about the device than any spec sheet could.

The community firmware is a huge plus

Another thing I did not expect was how much I would enjoy the community around this device. Very quickly after release, people started building custom firmware for it. Since the X4 uses a simple ESP32, it can be reflashed directly through the USB-C port. That makes the whole thing much more approachable than I would have guessed.

I am currently using the crosspoint firmware , and it is a massive improvement over the original firmware for me. The interface feels cleaner, more polished, and much more practical in daily use. crosspoint also only recently added support for inline images, which feels like a huge quality-of-life improvement, especially considering how minimal the specs of the ESP32 are.

The two standout features are KOReader sync and OPDS support. I can browse books from my existing OPDS setup and import them directly onto the device. And because I use KOReader on other devices as well, syncing my reading progress works exactly the way I want it to. That makes the X4 fit neatly into the rest of my reading setup instead of becoming yet another isolated gadget.

I am also quite excited about the XTEINK X3, which is currently available for pre-order. It is a bit smaller, which should make it possible to magnetically attach it to the back of my iPhone 17 Pro. The X4 is just slightly too tall for that to work well. And the nice part is that the X3 still allows custom firmware as well, so it looks like the same kind of fun device in an even more practical form factor.

My conclusion

What I like most about the XTEINK X4 is that it solves a very specific problem for me extremely well. It is not trying to replace a larger e-reader. It is the device I always have with me, and that alone makes it useful.

It turned reading into something I can do in all those small in-between moments where I would otherwise waste time on my phone. And because of the active firmware community, it also feels like a device that gets even better once you start tinkering with it a little.

For such a small piece of hardware, it had a surprisingly big impact on my daily routine.