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Comment by BSOhealth

7 days ago

it's hard to complain about this device, but here are my random ones:

1. yes, it is small and wonderful to one-handed read with, but _everyone_ around you notices you have a unique, small ereader in your palm. granted, maybe just reflects my self-consciousness. but until these are more ubiquitous, you'll be getting looks on the train/plane.

2. the whole "stick it on the back of your phone" idea is super silly and a bit of a gimmick at least:

2a. I don't want to make my expensive phone larger by volume and weight

2b. I do struggle to not fool around with my phone, and simply using "the back of the phone" is about the equivalent of being given a cigarette upside down as if that will stop me from smoking it.

3. after 14 years of Kindles, it's obvious how much better the eink tech is in premium devices (not a game changer at all, at most a nitpick)

yeah it's a super great device. I got it when prices were a bit lower a few months ago and it was a no-brainer. if you're really into reading and being thrifty/resourceful to get your ebooks, I'd check it out.

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BSOhealth

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embedding-shape  7 days ago

> 1. yes, it is small and wonderful to one-handed read with, but _everyone_ around you notices you have a unique, small ereader in your palm. granted, maybe just reflects my self-consciousness. but until these are more ubiquitous, you'll be getting looks on the train/plane.

This is a new complaint I haven't heard, might I ask where in the world this is? I use my X4 Pro out in cafes, beaches and general public in Spain, and I don't think a single person have glanced in my direction because of it. But I also see plenty of other people with their e-readers too, some larger and some smaller, but no one is giving them any looks or side-eyes, it's relatively common here at least.

  • BSOhealth  7 days ago

    I travel a lot for work and life. NYC, Boston, Chicago, Seattle, Vancouver, Toronto, etc.

    to be clear, these are not "side eyes" in a negative sense. it's more just peoples' curiosity, which can be a bit uncomfortable if you notice that type of thing while you're trying to read.

    I think speaks to the fact that we all expect some normalization around iphones/pixels/kindles/switches in terms of the "expected" devices people might have in-hand.

  • danscan  7 days ago

    The X3 stands out a bit more than the X4. The difference is small but mighty. I was at a restaurant in my small (not the forefront of tech) town, and had two people ask about it!

criddell  7 days ago

I use a Kindle Oasis and love it.

I’ve seen the Xteink devices mentioned here and am intrigued, but the screenshots turn me off instantly. The font rendering or hyphenation or kerning (not sure exactly what) looked terrible.

Fortunately, since these run open source software, this will likely eventually be fixed. The Kindles weren’t great at the start either, so I have a lot of hope for future versions of the Xteink devices.

  • OkCompute64  7 days ago

    I got an X3 the other week when it was on sale for €50. Been enjoying it for "read anywhere" as I can always carry it on me unlike my Kobo Clara BW.

    I sideloaded the Amazon Kindle fonts (Bookerly and Ember) and a few others using the builder at https://crosspointreader.com/fonts obviously you need to be running CrossPoint to load the fonts so have that flashed on first.

    You can download the Kindle fonts from https://developer.amazon.com/en-US/alexa/branding/echo-guide... if you don't already have them.

    That said the Clara BW is still my preferred e-reader as I find the larger screen better for longer reading sessions however you really can't beat having a tiny 3.7" e-reader with you everywhere. All those "micro waits" at places and I can read a few pages or even a chapter of a book rather than using my phone for nonsense stuff.

    Another tweak I do is use the ePub optimiser at https://inky.crossink.dev to give me more "friendly" ePub files for the X3. I didn't have any issue with my regular ePubs but this optimised ones open faster and do look a bit nicer overall so it is worth the few minutes it takes to optimise all your books IMHO.

  • leecming  7 days ago

    font styling is one thing but the xteink devices use very low resolution displays (220PPI for the X4) versus the 300PPI on any modern Kindle/Kobo ereader so you're not going to get around text looking worse on them

beej71  7 days ago

I actually like the magnet and use it to stick the reader to my phone. :) I don't consider it a thing that keeps me from using my phone; it's just a way to carry it in my pocket.

jcul  7 days ago

On point 1, I was imagining that people would just think I was starting intently at a small phone.

Which is a little embarrassing to be so absorbed in a device.