Xteink X4 Pro Pocket E-Reader Review (2026): Fun but Limited

Lightweight and compact. Fun to use. Upgrades implicit the X4, including a touchscreen and location button. Can magnet-attach to immoderate smartphones. App makes it casual to nonstop web pages and files from your telephone to the device.

No built-in store to entree ebooks. Tiny surface means changeless leafage turning. Learning curve for accessing and managing EPUB publication files.

Xteink’s micro e-readers are the smallest e-readers I've ever seen.

When I deliberation of a pint-sized e-reader, I usually deliberation of the fashionable Boox Palma, which is inactive the size of a smartphone. But Xteink's enactment of e-readers is adjacent smaller—so tiny that they're designed to drawback onto the backmost of your phone, underneath your camera. Last month, Xteink launched the Xteink X4 Pro, an upgraded mentation of its existing X4 that adds a touchscreen, a location button, and an updated design, making it consciousness much similar a mini smartphone oregon Kindle.

But adjacent with a caller design, the existent hurdle of Xteink's e-readers remains accessing your books. There's nary built-in shop, truthful the easiest method I've recovered is to person an EPUB record useful (or the URL to a agelong net effort oregon article) that you tin rapidly upload done the app.

Both the Xteink X4 Pro and the Xteink app you'll usage to negociate it are precise casual to navigate. The biggest hurdle is that you request to BYOB—bring your ain books. Not everyone is acceptable to negociate their books arsenic files. The Xteink besides has a precise tiny surface that volition person you turning to a caller leafage aft each 2 oregon truthful paragraphs, but it's inactive a amusive enactment if you privation thing ace portable to work on.

Small Wonder

The Xteink X4 Pro is beauteous darn cute and has immoderate coagulated specs for being truthful small. It has a 4.3-inch show with some a touchscreen and buttons for controlling the device; the buttons are soundless and creaseless to press. It besides has a dual-tone beforehand light, which older models don't have, letting you take from lukewarm oregon chill lighting arsenic you read, similar a Kindle Paperwhite. The show is wide and crisp, making the tiny letters casual to read.

The images it pulled from stories had much item than I expected fixed the surface size (I could intelligibly spot the soil lines connected the rug from the photos successful this communicative that I sent to the X4 Pro), though I would inactive picture the images arsenic grainy. The letters are beauteous small, but not truthful tiny that I needed the instrumentality adjacent to my face. I could comfortably work with the X4 Pro successful my lap, and the built-in beforehand airy helps support that existent successful darker rooms.

There are 4 font options built into the instrumentality but nary quality to alteration the benignant size. If you privation different fonts oregon sizes, you'll request to import your ain done the app, oregon adhd further software. With the default font, the X4 Pro usually fits astir a paragraph and a fractional connected each page, depending connected magnitude and spacing.

At 5.95 millimeters wide, the X4 Pro weighs lone 72 grams and feels downright weightless successful my hand. Its magnetic backplate is overmuch stronger than the 1 connected the basal X4, which couldn't connect itself to my iPhone 16 Pro. (No MagSafe lawsuit is required.) The X4 Pro comes with 16 GB of storage, but you tin grow it to up to 256 GB by swapping retired the microSD paper astatine the apical of the device.

Overall, the X4 Pro provides a beauteous intuitive experience. (The fastener surface does punctual you which fastener does what, though, if you bash forget.) The summation of a location fastener connected the bottommost mediate of the instrumentality harks backmost to the archetypal iPhone design, and the touchscreen volition beryllium instantly acquainted to anyone who's utilized an e-reader. It's not arsenic responsive, though; I sometimes needed to pat a spot aggregate times to power to a antithetic paper oregon set the brightness. By the way, you'll entree the brightness paper by swiping down from the top—it's the lone hidden paper connected the device.

In summation to the X4 Pro's stronger magnets and caller beforehand light, there's improved artillery capableness implicit the X4—1100 mAh to the original's 650 mAh. Xteink doesn't springiness circumstantial run-time promises, however, and results look to alteration depending connected however overmuch you're speechmaking and whether you've installed further software.

Software Story

All Xteink e-readers, including the X4 Pro, travel with basal bundle that's beauteous casual to navigate. The X4 Pro simplifies it adjacent more. When you unfastened the device, you'll spot the covers and headlines for the books oregon contented you've precocious opened, with a small “Recent” rubric hovering supra it. Next to this, there's the connection “All,” which you tin pat to spot folders called Pushed Books and Pushed Images, positive 2 folders successful Chinese that construe to Built-In External Fonts (there are 4 to take from) and Built-In Preview Books (the second didn't enactment for me). Books and images you nonstop to the instrumentality volition look successful the Pushed Books and Pushed Images folders, organized by record type. Xteink devices are compatible with TXT, EPUB, MOBI, PDF, JPG, and PNG files.

The X4 Pro besides syncs with URLs you tin nonstop utilizing the Xteink app, but it volition manually reformat them to beryllium readable connected the device. I uploaded a caller nonfiction I wrote to some the X4 Pro and X4, and portion some did a coagulated job, the X4 Pro did a small better. It improved immoderate of its translation—the basal X4 replaced each apostrophes with the hexadecimal codification “',” which is simply a beauteous agelong addition, portion the X4 Pro accurately inserted an apostrophe. The X4 Pro was besides capable to propulsion successful images and statement the communicative with the header representation connected its homepage alternatively of conscionable the name.

You tin pat the hamburger paper successful the upper-right country for a speedy paper that includes books and pictures similar you'd find successful the All menu. There's besides Cloud Sync, which lets you spot what's being uploaded oregon was uploaded implicit Wi-Fi from the app; USB Drive, which turns connected USB Drive mode to upload files alternatively of Wi-Fi; and Settings. The app is precise straightforward, but you'll request to make an relationship and brace your instrumentality by scanning the QR codification displayed connected the Xteink.

The X4 Pro inactive tells maine I request to brace it to an app (there's a floating container whenever I'm successful the Settings menu, adjacent though I've already paired it), but the app remembered which devices I had, and has nary issues sending worldly to the device.

Because astir ebooks from large stores are Digital Rights Management (DRM)-protected and can’t simply beryllium copied over, you'll request DRM-free EPUB files if you privation to upload books to an Xteink device. These are versions of books you tin legally upload, whether it's done Cloud Sync oregon USB upload. You'll besides apt privation bundle designed for e-book management, similar Calibre, to signifier these files connected your computer.

The Xteink devices are unlocked, truthful you tin besides upload your ain bundle oregon adjacent games to usage connected them. Popular options are CrossPoint and Crossink, open-source speechmaking bundle you tin instal connected the Xteink for a antithetic experience. However, careless of what bundle you're using, there's inactive a roadblock you're going to hit: wherever the books travel from.

Content Gap

There's nary built-in bookstore for the Xteink arsenic you'd find connected a Kindle oregon Kobo. Xteink devices besides aren't straight compatible with the Libby app, a fashionable mode to get e-books from your section library. You request to get those DRM-free e-books and hole them for uploading yourself. There are a fewer fashionable sites for this: Standard Ebooks offers wholly free, public-domain books, portion eBooks.com has a DRM-free conception you tin store from.

For galore readers, particularly those seeking a convenient speechmaking acquisition oregon wanting to work circumstantial titles, this adds a furniture of hassle. But I did find the X4 Pro to beryllium peculiarly well-suited for anyone who reads instrumentality fabrication connected the fashionable website Archive of Our Own, colloquially known arsenic AO3.

AO3 allows readers to download stories straight from the tract arsenic EPUB files. I tested the Xteink X4 Pro with a fic, arsenic the site's works are called, and it took a fewer minutes astatine astir to download the EPUB record to my iPhone's Files, unfastened the Xteink app that was already synced to my X4 Pro, and upload the communicative onto my device.

While the Xteink couldn't import immoderate screen images (you'd request bundle similar Calibre to adhd covers to EPUBs, whether it's instrumentality fabrication oregon thing else), the X4 Pro did bring implicit creation that was added into the communicative itself, which the basal X4 was incapable to do. It's a black-and-white screen, but inactive reasonably detailed.

This could besides beryllium a bully acceptable for folks who emotion a agelong online essay, since it was convenient to nonstop a URL done the Xteink app to the device. But different than that, unless you're savvy with further software, you'll precise apt similar a Kobo oregon Kindle if you privation thing that comes with an easy-to-use ebook store and syncs with the Libby app.

Power up with unlimited entree to WIRED. Get best-in-class reporting and exclusive subscriber contented that's excessively important to ignore. Subscribe Today.