I like books. You’d probably know that if you’ve seen my bookshelf page. But, I don’t like physical books. Yeah they do look good on a physical shelf, and I do like that part of them. I just don’t like reading them.

The main issue for me, is that not every book is printed the same way. Different fonts, font sizes, spacing, page color, etc. With me being mildly dyslexic, physical books can be a dice roll. This is what I love about ereaders. You can make every book, look the same¹.

So when I saw a post on a super tiny ereader, I was mildly interested. And picked one up on a whim.

Smoll

The little ereader in question is the XTEINK X4. Fantastic name I know. And it is small. Here it is next to my Kobo Libra Color.

Despite the size, it’s built really well. Being made out of glass and metal. My only real complaint is that the dual action buttons don’t have a pivot.

Reading on the X4 is actually not that bad. Now to be clear, I’m not running the stock firmware. I took one look at it and said, no. There is a really nice and simple third party firmware out there for this called cross point.

I had to bump the text size up, and thankfully cross point ships with the OpenDyslexic font. My goto font choice for ereaders.

So, Why?

Like I said, I picked this thing up on a whim. I had no illusions of sitting down on the couch, and getting though a whole series on this thing. But the idea of flipping through a few pages when you aren’t doing anything, kinda appealed to me. Be it in the line at Chick-Fil-A, or just taking a piss.

While I like that idea of “idle reading”, I don’t keep my main read on it.

I’ve never had an issue with reading two/three books at the same time. So my main book/series is on my Kobo, for when I want to sit down, and immerse. And I keep a side book on the X4. For when I’m taking a piss, or waiting in line at Chick-Fil-A.

Is that me trying to find a use for a impulse purchase… Most likely. But it is pretty neat.