Comment by beej71

I have an X4. I've read about 15 books on it so far, and I carry it everywhere.

I used to read books on my phone (Moon Reader), but it wasn't as compelling. I think it was a combination of the screen and the fact that I'm used to using the phone for other things. But I can't really pin it down more than that.

Things I like:

Flashable firmware. If they disable this capability, I wouldn't buy it. I'm using Crosspoint Reader ATM.

Lightweight.

Good battery life. You can get through a novel on a charge.

USB-C. They sell models with a proprietary connector, best avoided. If they drop USB-C, I wouldn't buy it. I'm not carrying another stupid proprietary charger on trips where I could lose it and render my device useless, and one that's certainly not cheap and trivial to replace.

uSD slot. Plenty of room.

Crosspoint integration with Calibre. Crosspoint lots of features. They just added offline dictionary support but I haven't tried it.

Narrow screen. It's like a newspaper column. Somehow I enjoy this more than a wide screen.

Lanyard attachment point. I don't use this, but it's a neat detail they added to the case.

Magnetic phone attachment. Sticks to the back of my pixel 9 case, or whatever metal you have handy.

Things I'm neutral about:

My model doesn't have a backlight. I make up for it with a front light. :) Sometimes I miss it, but other times I feel like books were meant to be read without a backlight.

Low resolution screen. It's visibly lower than my other e-readers, for sure. Get it under a loupe and... wow. But I don't mind it.

No keyboard. There is a software keyboard, but lack of touch makes it clunky to use. Luckily my needs are rare.

Only DRM-free EPUB support (and TXT). This is HackerNews; you know what you're doing.

Things I don't like:

There's a weird quirk where a screen that's exposed to direct sunlight won't render correctly after a page turn. It fades. I have to turn the screen into shadow before turning the page.

The case is weak. I don't want a cover for it because I stick it to my phone, but dropping the device will result in divots on the case edges.

It generally feels plastic. The buttons (which haven't failed me) don't have a solid feel to their action.

Xteink folks, if you're listening:

Allow firmware flashing, or I won't recommend it.

Keep USB-C, or I won't recommend it.

These are two of your killer features for a device that is a little bit overpriced.