Many of us should read more often. And I definitely include myself in that statement.
I’m not talking about self-help books or business books, either: I’m talking about fiction books. Stories that are good for the soul, that teach life lessons, that transport us somewhere new.
Yes, reading is fantastic for the brain and for focus (especially) but it’s also much more than that. It’s good for the soul.
Stories offer some of the very richest media it’s possible to experience. They teach life lessons, and empathy, and help us to explore new ideas and philosophies – all in a way that is restorative and non-stimulating. They can inspire us and fill us with possibilities and hope for the future.
Reading engages our imagination and immerses us entirely. It can make us feel powerful emotions and offer an escape from boredom or stress. If you have a book, you can escape into a different world at a moment’s notice.
So, then, why is reading increasingly rare?
For me, the problem has been finding time to read. I’m a busy parent and business owner who loves to work out. In the hour I occasionally do get to unwind in the evenings, I have to choose between all my various hobbies: reading comics, writing, playing computer games, coding, tinkering with old computers, digital art… and reading books.
Given how tired I usually am at this time, it does tend to be computer games that win out.
Don’t get me wrong: computer games can also be a wonderful form of escapism, inspiration, focus, and mental challenge. But the unfortunate result is that I haven’t read a fiction book from start to finish in a long time.
That was UNTIL I got the Xteink X4 – a device that has genuinely transformed how much I read while also reducing my screen time on other, more stimulating devices.
What is the Xteink X4?
In a nutshell, the Xteink X4 is a tiny e-reader that’s just a little bigger than a credit card. It can literally fit in some wallets and is so light you’ll be able to slip it a shirt pocket and not even notice you’re carrying it.
It’s very cheap and very basic. The software is the very definition of “bare bones.” And there is no touch screen, no colour, no annotation. Basic formatting.
But the magic is the size. Being so small means you always have a book at your fingertips. So that, when you have a spare five minutes while you wait outside the toilet to wipe your son’s butt, you can escape into a story.
I don’t want to pitch this as some trendy brain-boosting hack or digital detox quick-fix – because I think that’s a very reductive way to think about fiction. Sometimes, it’s just good to chill out and read a book, whether it’s good for you or not… you know?
But the Xteink X4 absolutely can be those things for you. And it’s one of the few options that actually works and does everything that all those productivity videos promise.
Xteink X4: Hardware
As you can probably already tell, I am very much going to be recommending the Xteink X4. But if I’m claiming this is a “review” I also need to tell you a bit about the hardware so that you can make an informed decision (I used to work for Android Authority, don’t you know!).
With that in mind, the Xteink X4 comes in either black or white and weights just 77g. It has a 4.3” display and the body measures 114 x 69 x 5.9mm. Again: just a bit larger than a credit card. It comes with a 16GB memory card (expandable up to 256GB), USB-C port, and a 650mAh battery that according to Xteink will last up to 14 days if you read 1-3 hours daily.
There are a few buttons around the sides but no touch screen. There’s also no backlight, so reading in the dark is off the table.
I’ve heard people both praise and bemoan the lack of light or touchscreen. On the one hand, these are potentially useful features for certain scenarios. On the other, removing them keeps the device feeling a little more minimalist, old-school, and analogue. I kind of like reading by a little desk lamp, for example. I have this little lamp that folds up and fits in my bag – the takeaway being that I really like little stuff. There’s also a tactile satisfaction to be had by clicking through pages. This is all subjective, your mileage may vary.
The Xteink X4 comes in either black or white. It also comes with this magnetic loop that you can attach to the back. The idea here is that you can then magnetically attach it to the back of your phone for easy storage. I don’t know if I like that idea or not. What I do know is that I attached mine wrong and now it won’t fit underneath the camera bump on my iPhone… That’s my bad, of course, but it’s a bit of a shame that it can’t be removed and that it’s so easy to permanently damage your device.
Which goes for the build quality in general, actually. The Xteink X4 is so small and light that it is very easy to drop or lose. I dropped mine in a carpark the second day I got it and it took a huge chunk out the side right away. It still works just fine but it’s has taken the sheen off, slightly.
It’s fair enough that it’s practically made from cardboard, given the low price. But just don’t go into this expecting a premium finish.
Xteink X4: Software
More important for the way you’ll actually end up using this thing is the software experience. I bought mine on Ali Express for £30 and the software was entirely in Chinese with no option to change the language and no English instructions. This was fine for me as I was always planning to put the custom Crosspoint firmware on my device (after watching the very useful TechDweeb video).
Officially, if you buy the Chinese version of the Xteink X4, then it doesn’t support custom firmware. Except, in reality, the community found a way around that restriction instantly and it requires just one extra step. The whole thing takes about 2 minutes and apparently it’s even easier if you buy your Xteink X4 from Amazon. What I’ve also heard, though, is that Xteink are trying to prevent custom firmware on future devices. I doubt they’ll succeed but it’s worth researching if you’re buying a while after I wrote this review.
You can get Crosspoint here: https://crosspointreader.com/
This gives you more features like customisable typography, bookmarks, custom sleep timer, themed menus, quick resume, tilt to turn pages option, and more. And a big plus is that it’s in a language I can read!
It’s still pretty basic and you won’t be reading PDF files or downloading books from Kindle. You’ll need to source your own DRM-free ePub books, which means you’ll need to find a good online store to get them from. I accidentally bought a whole bunch of ebooks with DRM protection and then spent an entire night working out how to remove it. I did manage to remove it via the excellent Calibre software and then felt smug about myself. I won’t walk you through that process but once you know how to do it, it opens a lot of doors.
It was also nice to step outside Amazon’s ecosystem and, quite frankly, I’m not going back.
In short, the basic software is going to require a fair bit of tinkering if you buy the very cheapest version of the Xteink X4 from Ali Express. I enjoy that a lot, so this wasn’t too much of a problem for me. However,
The Experience
Of course, though, the Xteink X4 is far more than the sum of its parts. It’s very basic software coupled with an aggressively user-unfriendly software… and yet it has absolutely taken the internet by storm.
Thing is, being able to grab a book from your pocket at any moment means you actually have time to read throughout the day. You can escape any boring queue, any bus or car journey, any unexpected delay.
And because it’s so easy to pull out, you end up reaching for it instead of your smartphone.
Sitting and reading a book is infinitely more intellectually stimulating and engaging than scrolling through AI slop on social media or ragebait articles on Instagram. You come away feeling inspired and refreshed, instead of worn out and depressed at the state of the world.
And you can work through your back catalogue of books. I have so many good books to read and re-read lined up now: Neuromancer, There is No Antimimetics Division, Snow Crash, Number9Dream, The Dark Fields, Dune, Blood Music…
You might argue that this is unnecessary if you already have the Kindle app on your phone – and thus already in your pocket. But for me the two are worlds apart: the Kindle app needs to open and load whereas the Xteink X4 opens right on the page I left off. The Kindle app sits on a phone filled with other enticing distractions whereas the X4 does nothing else. The Kindle app is on a glossy, shiny screen, whereas the X4 is e-ink and feels like reading a book.
It works as the “no-friction” solution to reading in just the same way my Ayn Thor has solved gaming for me, and my short home workouts has solved exercise. My day is peppered with exercise, gaming, reading… Facebook can do one.
I want to discuss the potential cognitive benefits of reading (especially fiction) in a future article. I think it’s probably extremely valuable to be able to visualise and imagine different worlds and characters in your mind’s eye, to simulate and empathise with the emotions of those fictional characters, and then to store all that information in your brain until next time…
And I have noticed my own mind wandering less. Initially I found it hard to read without my mind drifting but within a few days I was back to getting fully absorbed. I can only hope that transfers to other tasks, with time.
But whatever the case – that’s not the point. The intangible benefits of reading are what are truly valuable. And the Xteink X4 is a brilliant little tool that brings those benefits into a chaotic and busy modern lifestyle.
