Teeny-tiny xteink X4 Reader gets an 'upgrade': Light and Touch Screen Added

[ddavtian]

Originally Posted by MSWallack

So I received my XTEink 4 Pro yesterday and thought I'd offer my very quick initial thoughts. First, I was worried that the screen would be too small to read on or that the font would not be clear enough. I don't think either of those concerns actually manifest. Obviously, the screen is much smaller than my Sage but I can read on it (and I've obviously got a different use case in mind). The font isn't as clear as I'd like, but it's not awful by any means (and I'm going to explore the option to sideload other fonts). I did have some difficulty getting content onto the device; some of the steps that should be intuitive weren't, but some of that may have been because I was trying to connect via a hotspot on my phone and move content to the device via the app on my phone. The two don't feel particularly well integrated.

I think my biggest disappointment, though, is that the way the device renders text puts a space between opening quotation marks and the following letter which makes dialogue pretty clunky to read. Further, the device won't indent the first line of a paragraph or add an extra space between paragraphs (though you can adjust line spacing) thus making reading somewhat more cumbersome.

Note that all of the foregoing is after a very minimal amount of time playing with the device. I may have more to report after spending more time with it, but that may not happen for a while due to real life.

I have had X4 and X3 for few months now and X4 Pro for 10+ days (I have Kobo Elipsa 2E and Sage, Boox Air 5C as main readers, plus few old kindles and even older Sony devices).

I highly recommend to put crosspoint or a fork of it on the device, much more customized firmware. Then easy to put your fonts, optimize and send content to X4. Can connect to Calibre wirelessly if wanted too. Can synchronize progress between devices using koreader sync.

X4 Pro screen is not as sharp as X4 and X3, this was expected because of touch screen addition. Light is good enough for reading in the dark even at 5% of full brightness, has control for warm tone.

At home I'm using my other readers (depending what I'm reading), but have one of the xteink devices with me all the time when outside.

[bdub]

x4 with Crosspoint.

https://github.com/crosspoint-reader/crosspoint-reader

It's a complete firmware replacement as far I understand it.

[nana77]

Originally Posted by bdub

x4 with Crosspoint.

https://github.com/crosspoint-reader/crosspoint-reader

It's a complete firmware replacement as far I understand it.

[...]

[Dr. Drib]

UPDATE: Shipping now begins August 22.

[ddavtian]

Originally Posted by bdub

x4 with Crosspoint.

https://github.com/crosspoint-reader/crosspoint-reader

It's a complete firmware replacement as far I understand it.

Yes, it's a replacement of original OS (which can be flashed back if needed).
This page shows different forks of crosspoint (some add read stats, others add games, etc.). I switch between crosspoint and crossink, both are really good.

https://www.readme.club/firmware
Very easy to flash different firmware, takes few minutes.

[ddavtian]

Not a good quality photo, just showing the size of X4, X4 Pro and X3 next to Kobo Elipsa.