While I agree that this sounds like all the drawbacks of an ereader with none of the bonuses of a phone, I think compartmentalisation is a pretty big factor. If the back of your phone is for reading, some people will be less likely to get distracted while their phone is flipped over - even though they’re literally holding the likely source of their distraction.

you can’t overstate how much nicer it is to read on an eink screen compared to a phone. but the magnet gimmick is silly, it’s hard to use it like that and negates one of the main benefits, which is how light it is

I have an eink ereader, and it really is wonderful, but I absolutely would not use it as much if it was the size and shape of my phone. For short stretches I guess it’s fine, but one of the reasons I got an ereader is because my phone was so ergonomically bad for reading.

i’ll try not to sound like a shill here (i bought the x4 a few months ago) but i thought the same and tried it anyway due to how cheap it was. the text can of course be set to the same size you like it on a normal ereader but it’s so light that you can hold it in thumb + forefinger without effort, i quickly came to prefer it over the old kindle paperwhite i was using

Honestly, people seem to really like them based on the comments here. 70 seems silly to essentially combine two products I already have, but I may give it a week or so and if it’s still top of mind go ahead with it. I really appreciate people bothering to share their experiences with it, since I really was not convinced by the article.

I think of it less as “combine”, and more “separate” on purpose. There’s the images pointing out how much stuff one had to carry before that a smartphone replaces as one slab but… it doesn’t do most of those things as well.

I really like my X4 from that standpoint. It’s much longer battery than my phone screen grants, and I don’t have to open any menus to toggle anything to say “go away, notifications”, or anything like that. I’m separated from everything else on my phone while I read on it.

That’s fair. I did get an ereader in part to have a dedicated device for reading that had an eink display, so I get that desire. Part of me still feels it’s a bit ewaste-y, but whatever gets people to read more is generally good in my opinion.

article is hidden behind a paywall, so i can only speak about my experience with a standard ereader.

i love to read and not get distracted by something during that. a regular phone keeps getting me distracted and a e-ink display is way more pleasant to read than a regular screen imo. the main problem i keep running into is that my regular ereader is too big for most pockets which is the reason i dont have it with me most of the time.

soooo such a small reader would let me read at times and places where i would simply dont do anything at best or doomscroll at worst while i could also judt read a good book.

that being said i dont own such a small ereader and wont buy one because keeping two devices synced while reading a book would be either too much hazzle or simply impossible to do.

The article worked in reader mode for me, sorry you hit a paywall.

I appreciate you mentioning the eink bit. I have an eink kobo which I really like and it’s definitely nicer to use than my phone for reading. I did pick it specifically because I didn’t want one that had other distracting apps or anything, but I used my phone for years without issue.

Not to shill for a product I was just hating on, but it seems like there’s quite an open source community that has popped up around this thing, so it’s possible there’s an app for it that will auto sync with your preexisting ereader, depending on the device. The article mentions Libby by name, but they possibly have others. I’d just be remiss if I didn’t mention that and possibly help a fellow reader out.

thx, im looking into libby :)

In my case it’s that hard separation between devices. I like reading on the eink screen compared to the phone screen, and there are no notifications to interrupt me. It helps too that the ereader is just ready to use, no decision to fight about what app to open. I tightly manage notifications only phone and it’s still too much of a draw to go doomscroll instead of read. I frequently pull just the reader out and leave the phone so I just use the magnetic attachment to keep them together.

Really cool to get an opinion from an actual user. Thank you for sharing! If it gets people reading, I’m all for it. I have an eink ereader, so I do understand both points you’re making.

Yeah, I just open up Lithium and read on my phone. The only downside is to have to cram Brightness in case I’m out during the sun, but the advantage is that I always have my phone with me, and I can read everywhere. Some years ago I uninstalled all my brain rot apps, and made the switch: feel like scrolling, go scroll a book. Since then I have read hundreds of books.

My dream device would be one with a full eink screen + querty keyboard in the front, and a nice 120hz OLED display in the back with a camera that pops up from the inside of the device at the top.

Yea, I read ebooks on my phone for years, even back when I used reddit way more than I use Lemmy and I don’t think it being on my phone was a huge issue for me, but I do understand how it could be distracting. My main reason for switching to an ereader was the eink and ergonomics because carpal tunnel was getting to me. I don’t bring my ereader everywhere though and sometimes I do miss having it all on my phone for convenience. Really glad you’ve gotten to read so many books since deprioritizing scrolling.

Let me know once you find a device like that because I’ll be second in line.

Better screen, waaaay better battery life.

So I bought one of these for my wife a couple months ago and she loves it. She likes that the eink screen is easier on her eyes and that it removes the temptation to open up social media and doom scroll. I do however have a few gripes about the X3.

First, the biggest issue for me is the device isn’t backlit. For my usage pattern that’s a deal breaker. The upside is that the company just released the X4 Pro and that is backlit, although it’s also a bit pricier (not by a ton, it’s still just barely sub-$100, but it’s noticeable). My wife has a rechargeable light that attaches to the X3 magnetically which she’s happy with, but that’s not for me.

Second rather than using something sensible like USB-C it uses a semi-proprietary magnetic charger with pogo pins. Not only is that another annoying cord to keep track of, but it’s unacceptably easy to short the charging cable and start a fire. I really hope they see reason and release a later revision of the device that uses USB-C (the slightly larger X4 does include USB-C charging, but that model is discontinued).

Third the buttons are kind of hard to press at times. This is more of a nitpick but I’ve got larger hands/fingers and it ruins the ergonomics of the device for me.

Fourth, these devices have an incredibly small quantity of RAM and as such they have to get clever just to open and display ebooks. They heavily cache indexes to the SD card to speed up access and those indexes take time to generate. When you first open a book and periodically while navigating you’ll be subjected to very long pauses while the firmware generates and saves that books index files.

Overall the devices are interesting, and I can see how some people could find them useful/enjoyable, but they’re also far from perfect and there’s a lot of room to improve.

Really appreciate your detailed write up. I mentioned elsewhere that some of these comments were swaying me towards trying one out, certainly more convincing than the article in my opinion. I appreciate the fact you outlined some pros and cons. I always have my phone, and anywhere I go for more than a quick chore I generally throw my ereader in a bag, so I understand I’m likely not the target audience, but I guess having more ways to read can’t be a bad thing. The lack of backlight and proprietary charger are giving me pause for sure. I might still give it a week to mull it over, but your comment was super helpful and saved me a cursory search before really diving into comparison shopping. Glad to hear they are helping some people read more. Fingers crossed they keep improving them, even if they’re not quite right for me.

For what it’s worth I’m considering getting the X4 Pro for myself. I do like that they added a backlight even if it comes at the cost of the USB-C port, and even with the extra cost it’s still cheaper than something like a Kobo (although also significantly less capable). For something quick and easy you can chuck in a pocket or a bag and make part of your EDC in a way that a Kobo or Kindle is too large and pricey for it sits in an interesting niche.

Look into the m5stack papermono lite. It has a back light.
There is also the seeed reterminal sticky without back light. Cheaper than xteink and usb c. I got one of those. But i do miss the back light.

Papermono Lite looks interesting. Really good price point. The only things I’m seeing I wish it had are physical face buttons and bluetooth support (for a page turn remote). Aside from that it looks like it has everything I could want, or is at least as good as the X4 Pro.