A touchscreen and light make the new X4 Pro the best version of Xteink’s tiny e-readers

The familiar story with Xteink’s tiny e-readers plays out once again with its new X4 Pro: upgraded hardware held back by frustrating software. The company’s latest tiny e-reader adds a touchscreen and lighting, so choosing it over a Kindle or a Kobo feels like less of a compromise — until you use it. The new touch controls and some welcome software updates do manage to make the X4 Pro easier to use, but frustrations still abound. There’s a happier ending to the story this time, however, as the team behind the excellent CrossPoint Reader software plan to have their alternative firmware ready for the new device at its launch. If you’ve been considering one of Xteink’s e-readers, the X4 Pro is the one to get, even if it’s the most expensive yet.

The X4 Pro is available for purchase today through Xteink’s online store for $99, making it slightly more expensive than the company’s $79 X3 and $69 X4 models . That also brings the X4 Pro closer in price to the $110 entry-level Kindle featuring Amazon’s polished e-reader experience and on-device access to a well-stocked digital bookstore. The X4 Pro lacks both of those things, but with a 4.26-inch, 800 x 480 E Ink screen, it’s another extremely pocketable device from Xteink that’s slightly smaller and thinner than the company’s first e-reader, and considerably smaller than Amazon’s 6-inch Kindle.

That thin profile means you’ll need to be prepared for a big compromise: There’s no longer an actual USB-C port. You can still benefit from USB-C functionality but will need an adapter to deal with an uncommon magnetic pogo-pin connection. The adapter is included, but I’d still opt for a slightly thicker device with an actual USB-C port.

On the back of the X4 Pro you’ll once again find embedded magnets so you can attach it to compatible smartphones like a wireless battery. The magnets feel stronger, but still not strong enough to make me confident the e-reader is going to remain stuck to my phone while jostling around in my pocket. The X4 Pro’s size also makes the tiny e-reader awkwardly extend past the bottom of my iPhone 16 Pro when attached, and at this point I think Xteink should just abandon promoting this functionality. Its e-readers are better as standalone devices.

The added touchscreen allows for a much simpler button layout on the X4 Pro, and I’m glad the company still includes dedicated page turn buttons on each side in addition to being able to tap the edges of the screen. There’s also a power/wake button and, for the first time, a touch button on the front of the e-reader below its screen for jumping back to the e-reader’s homescreen.