While e-ink devices, primarily e-readers, have been in production since the early 2000s, the interest in them still seems to be rising, and so too do options for devices. However, most e-readers last quite a long time, easily being usable after a decade, and so a lot of companies have been trying to provide a sufficiently innovative upgrade in order to tempt older users into buying a newer device.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
First this was the writing functionality, then, more recently, colour e-ink devices – both of these innovations were well received, but from personal observation, most users truly don\u2019t use their devices for any function other than reading, making these upgrades seem frivolous and unnecessary for them – after all, coloured covers are nice, but the letters are still black and white, and the entry level devices one would need to purchase for any sort of good writing experience easily reach over 500\u20ac, when one could use either a tablet (if Cloud services and apps are a necessity) which at their functional budget options, are cheaper and more versatile at the same time – though without the paper feel – or if the digital world isn\u2019t a necessity, a pocket notebook beats the usually overlarge e-readers in both portability and price – as well as paper feel, being made of paper and all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, a Chinese company recently made a device, which, but for one thing, would seem utterly out of the e-ink race – the screen isn\u2019t too good, and there have been some QC issues, it\u2019s a new brand without much user trust, and has fairly basic settings. Yet still, it has had massive success since launch, quickly building a community so impressed that people have been making custom firmware’s, by themselves, to fix some of the software issues such a basic device has, add functions and simple apps, and read stats, and more. The defining feature of the device, making up for the flaws that objectively better quality brands don\u2019t have ?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The size.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
XTEINk X4 is tiny (dimensions: 114 \u00d7 69 \u00d7 5.9 mm), about 3\/4ths of an average smartphone. The trouble with other small ereaders was that they were still usually at least twice the size of this device, and triple the price – X4 is around 60\u20ac on the official website, but has been found for less from official third party sellers, sometimes as low as 40\u20ac. It\u2019s a device that’s simple to use – no touchscreen, purely 6 clicky buttons – with a great community at a low price. And, while small, it can take more ebooks than most other ereaders, given that it works with expandable storage (though admittedly this isn\u2019t a large concern, since ebook files are usually tiny).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While there are no impressive functions, it\u2019s a great addition for any reader careful with their more expensive, more functional ereaders, which are capable of lasting a decade – and therefore guarded carefully. X4 is made to be carried around, be it magnetically attached to the back of a phone (with it\u2019s built in magnets), or simply in a pocket, its small enough to never be inconvinient to carry, and cheap enough to never be too scared to take it on a hike or put it in your pocket – after all, if one reads even just 4-5 books on device, it\u2019s paid its cost back in full. Helpful for the portable nature of the device is a lanyard hole built in, giving some security when opening a book during a commute, and so on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Obviously, making a small cheap ereader isn\u2019t anything revolutionary from a technologiical standpoint, and yet the general response from users seems to be that the simpl ease of access to books, and ability to truly open a book anywhere, without any distractions that a phone might give you, has changed their reading habits for the better, and helped them reach their goals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Personally, I\u2019ve only had the device for a couple of weeks, but it has already made me open some books I\u2019ve been putting off for years, and while my reading has been slow, because of various responsibilities, without the device, it would probably be closer to none. As it is, I\u2019m at around 60% of one book and 40% of another, switching back and forth based on mood.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
X4 isn\u2019t powerful, but its success shows what happens when a company solves a problem users struggled with, and didn\u2019t know how to define, making space for itself next to much bigger, more expensive devices.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The problem with modern e-readers (for companies) While e-ink devices, primarily e-readers, have been in production since the early 2000s, the interest in them still seems to be rising, and so too do options for devices. However, most e-readers last quite a long time, easily being usable after a decade, and so a lot of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-9","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/DerasimovicA.wa.cjm.si\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/9","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/DerasimovicA.wa.cjm.si\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/DerasimovicA.wa.cjm.si\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/DerasimovicA.wa.cjm.si\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/DerasimovicA.wa.cjm.si\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/DerasimovicA.wa.cjm.si\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/9\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23,"href":"https:\/\/DerasimovicA.wa.cjm.si\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/9\/revisions\/23"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/DerasimovicA.wa.cjm.si\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}