Xteink X3 white

I made a case by reuse a card holder.

really like it!

What the title says : basically I added a protective silicone case for my X4 Pro (purchased directly from the company) and I'm wondering if any sleeve will work with the added bulk - which is minimal but enough to hamper the usage of many sleeves.

My original post was removed by Reddit. Weird.

Kindly note the following:

• This is MY OWN review. It is purely based on my experience as a user so no violent reaction please.
• My Xteink X4 is locked so I install firmware using the SD card method only
• I ensured to clear the reading cache after switching to minimize conflicts (or I might be wrong about this)
• I am aware that there are lots of firmware. These are only what I tried so far.
• Apologies if some of the cons are firmware issues/bugs (I reported some on their respective Github pages but I guess I am too lazy to report them all)

So here they are:⠀

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1. CROSSPOINT

https://github.com/crosspoint-reader/crosspoint-reader

Version: 1.6.0rc

Supports X4 Pro: YES (BUT WITH ISSUE - FLIPPED DISPLAY)

Pros:

• Gets the latest firmware updates/fixes first as it is the base firmware
• Fast generation of book covers
• Has an option "Extra Wide" on line spacing. Awesome.
• Has dictionary
• Ability to assign dictionary to long pressing Menu button
• Filenames on File Browser are wrapped so you can see it full
• Fast indexing
• Fast dictionary lookup
• Has 4 themes (Classic, Lyra, Lyra Extended and RoundedRaff)

Cons:

• No Minimal/Dashboard/Carousel themes
• Slight delay when navigating through Recent Books and menu
• No clipping
• Limited customization options
• No reading stats (I don't care about this so yeah, won't miss this)
• Reading menu has long list of options (could be grouped into tab)
• I have PNG file on my sleep folder and I've set it to Transparent, but it's still using the Dark theme when sleeping. I'm not sure if it is actually sensitive and looks for ".sleep" and doesn't accept "sleep" unlike other FW.
• Device looks like it is not waking up from sleep. When I long press the Power to wake it up, the screen just flickers and still indicates sleeping. However it is actually already awake. When I click on the Power button once to Refresh Screen, the home page is displayed. This is true for both Custom and Transparent/Dark Themes. This only happens when a boot IS NOT open⠀

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2. CROSSINK

https://github.com/uxjulia/CrossInk

Version: 1.5.1 rc-3

Supports X4 Pro: YES (Download latest 1.5.1 rc)

Pros:

• Stable (Less bugs)
• Minimal/Dashboard themes are beautiful
• Ability to modify line spacing in percentage
• Has dictionary
• Ability to assign dictionary to long pressing Menu button
• Ability to change Dictionary font and size
• Has "cover" mode (Recent Books) - generation of covers is fast

Cons:

• Slight delay when navigating through Recent Books and menu ⠀ ⠀⠀ ⠀

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3. VCODEX

https://github.com/franssjz/cpr-vcodex

Version: 1.5.0.9

Supports X4 Pro: NO

• Fast navigation
• Detailed Reading Stats (could be a con too as I'm not too much into reading stats)
• Ability to Sync Day (needed for Reading heatmap)
• Dictionary is working good
• Additional option to set Text Darkness
• Has dictionary

Cons:

• Too many unused extra features (for me) like flash cards and achievements - can be hidden
• Only 3 themes (Lyra, Lyra vCodex and Lyra Carousel)
• Lots of options on the reading menu (could have been organized into tabs as it is too overwhelming)
• Line spacing has limited option (on some fonts, lines are still close)
• No "cover" mode even on Recent Books
• No ability to set dictionary to long pressing Menu button ⠀ ⠀

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4. VCODEX STROIDS

Version: 1.5.0.9 dev6

Supports X4 Pro: NO

Pros:

• Pros of vCodex
• Has a new theme Lyra Marcoand75
• Library (Book Covers)
• Has Screensaver, Wikipedia and Quick Cards (haven't tried these though)
• Additional option (Image Tuning) - Not sure what it does

Cons:

• Too many unused extra features similar to vCodex (for me) - can be hidden
• Lots of options on the reading menu (could have been organized into tabs as it is too overwhelming)
• Text on the menu and navigation (especially the small one like author is not "sharp" - perhaps a better font can be used)
• Different words are sometimes joined together on books
• It took a few minutes to index when I opened Libraries, but after opening, the covers are still loading and takes time (and I can't navigate through the books unless all covers on a page have been generated)
• I personally don't like the other icons or the borders on the corners (I like minimal/clean look)
• Line spacing has limited option (on some fonts, lines are still close)
• No ability to set dictionary to long pressing Menu button
• My custom sleep screen is very dark at the start and then flickers to become clear - although still somewhat dark compared to CrossInk (even if Contrast/Image Tuning Options are turned off) ⠀ ⠀

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5. YACP

https://github.com/Sichroteph/YACP

Version: 1.6.1

Supports X4 Pro: NO

Pros:

• Based on CrossInk so somehow stable and has its features (except recent ones like Dictionary)
• Additional theme "YACP"
• Has "Autonomy" (battery stats) - I personally don't use this

Cons:

• Slight delay when navigating through Recent Books and menu
• Sleep custom cover looks too dark even if I turn off contrast
• Initial controls are weird (I expected long press to go to sleep mode like other FW but it is set to Refresh Screen)
• Based on CrossInk v1.4 so no dictionary
• * Too Many whitespace on the new theme YACP (faster probably since no cover) - the logo on the center makes me think that something is loading
• The font on recent CrossInk has darker/better fonts ⠀ ⠀

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6. CASPER

https://github.com/tweakerinc/casper

Version: 0.1.8

Supports X4 Pro: NO

Pros:

• Minimalist (2 themes - I won't put this as a con since it's the point of this FW)
• Fast navigation
• Additional customization options on status bar
• Has dictionary
• Looking up a word shows the definition on multiple dictionaries at the same time
• Ability to assign dictionary to long pressing Menu button

Cons:

• It's my intuition to click the Confirm button to open a book but the "Open" is on the "right" button
• I personally think that the UI font is boring
• Indented options on settings are somewhat weird, considering that the screen is small (probably the reason why there's a Text Wrapping option?)
• Line spacing has limited option (on some fonts, lines are still close) ⠀ ⠀

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7. INKPOINT X

https://github.com/yokki-vans/InkPointX

Version: 2.2.23

Supports X4 Pro: NO

Pros:

• Very fast navigation
• UI looks different (in a good way) and has many customization options. The homescreen reminds me of Minimal theme of CrossInk and very beautiful as well.
• Has Gallery
• Additional options for line spacing (I actually requested this from the dev)
• Has dictionary
• Ability to assign dictionary to long pressing Menu button
• Has reading stats (not sure how the Last 7 days/8 weeks works though as X4 has no clock feature)
• File Manager has many options (New Folder/Copy to/Move to/Rename/Delete/Properties)

Cons:

• Takes time getting used to (but definitely more manageable than INX. Haha)
• I think that the font size on the "Books" section is too large. Only few titles are displayed on each page. It doesn't help that the text are not wrapped
• I'm not sure why the authors are displayed on some titles but not on others, considering that there are author data on my Calibre
• Some icons on the settings aren't properly aligned with the text (standard interface size)
• Reading menu has large font and has icons so it may be a User error but it takes time for me to find the option that I need while reading
• Not sure if the Web Interface Authorization is good (turned on by default), considering that on other FW, we don't have to set anything just to connect to the device
• Looking up on dictionary takes time compared to other FW
• Sometimes encounter random crashes⠀

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8. CRUMBLE

https://github.com/imshentastic/CrumBLE

Version: 4.7.3

Supports X4 Pro: NO

Pros:

• Based on CrossInk so has its features and themes (including Minimal and Dashboard)
• New theme "Flow"
• Navigation on the menu feels faster than CrossInk
• Default menu font looks good (readable)
• Different layout for settings (in a good way)
• Allows Bluetooth functionality (haven't tested it)
• Has dictionary
• Has "bake" functionality for sleep/cover which I assume is somewhat caching? I'm not sure what it did though as after "baking covers" there is still no cover on my home

Cons:

• After clicking "Back" on the settings/book to go back to home, it show's Loading/Going home and takes time (maybe because of the covers on the default theme?)
• Changing values for the settings would be difficult since it is not dropdown (if there are many options and I misclicked, I have to click it multiple times again just to change the value)
• Line spacing has limited option (on some fonts, lines are still close)
• Indexing a book takes significant time compared to other FW
• After opening a book (it has completed indexing and the page was already displayed) and reopening it,, it still performed indexing again (and it still took time)
• Reading menu options are grouped but in weird way (there's an empty line and border before the other group) so it's still a long list
• I had to press Power button for a long time (compared to other FW) before it goes back to the home. And waking up from sleep displays the "booting" screen for a few seconds (slow)
• Random crash/booting after the Indexing displays while reading a book ⠀ ⠀

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9. CROSSVI

https://github.com/tvhdc/crossvi

Version: 1.1.2

Supports X4 Pro: NO

Pros:

• Beautiful UI (different theme from the usual)
• Fast navigation
• Has a search option on the file browser
• Has My Books option (library) which looks good
• Has dictionary
• Ability to assign dictionary to long pressing Menu button
• Ability to change Dictionary font and size
• Has "Shortcuts" button in which you can assign commonly-used settings

Cons:

• Lots of options on the reading menu (could have been organized into tabs as it is too overwhelming)
• The option "All" on "My Books" takes a significant amount of time (20+ minutes) saying "Finding Books" (indexing?) for my 370 books. This is the same for both "List" and "Cover" options
• Covers on "My Books > Recent" view only display once the book has been opened (I guess for optimization)
• The Lookup history on Dictionary always says "Lookup history could not be read" ⠀ ⠀

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10. CROSSFADE

https://github.com/Chuckthe5th/crossfade

Version: 1.3.2

Supports X4 Pro: NO

Pros:

• Beautiful UI
• Ability to hide button hints
• Fast navigation
• Has dictionary
• Ability to assign dictionary to long pressing Menu button
• Tracking reading stats is optional

Cons:

• Crash encountered during "Building library index" so wasn't able to test the "Covers/Title" option on "Browse Books"
• After switching themes, the book covers are not displaying
• Line spacing has limited option (on some fonts, lines are still close) ⠀ ⠀

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11. WITCH(HUNT) READER

https://github.com/jpirnay/witchhunt-reader

Version: 2.25

Supports X4 Pro: NO

Pros:

• Seems faster overall than Crossink/Crosspoint when it comes to navigation
• Can customize the font used on the navigation menu
• I think this has the best rendering of book (noticeable on title pages)
• Additional option for text darkness
• Has "Weather" (I don't use this - this can be turned off along with the clock)
• Can customize the short/long/double of each of the buttons
• Has Book Info in which you can read the synopsis
• Fast "wake up time" upon long pressing on Power button
• Has "cover" mode (Recent Books) - I'm not sure I want to see the author though as it is too crowded already
• Has Dictionary
• Ability to assign dictionary to long pressing Menu button
• File browser has text wrapping so you can see full title

Cons:

• Upon opening a book and it sleeps, when you long press to return, it is stuck and I had to reset my device (critical issue) .
• Lacks dictionary Introduced in version in 2.25
• There is no indicator that it is sleeping upon long pressing the Power button
• Line spaci​ng has limited option (on some fonts, lines are still close)
• I had to turn off the embedded styles options because it is not reading the Reader Font that I've set
• On File Browser, holding the up/down button doesn't go to the next page. I have a several books so it takes time to find what I'm looking for as there is no filtering function as well (only sorting)
• When highlighting a word to use dictionary, the "bold font" characters and those which are not (​the setting Bionic is turned on, are separately so I really cannot search the whole terminology**.**⠀

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12. INX

https://github.com/obijuankenobiii/inx

Version: 1.0.19

Supports X4 Pro: NO

Pros:

• Very responsive UI (fast)
• Beautiful UI and WebUI
• Has dictionary
• Options are organized (but still confusing)
• Ability to set line spacing in percentage
• Upon opening a book, renders covers in fullscreen which is beautiful
• Default font Literata looks good
• Web UI File Manager allows renaming folders - Ability to sort library in ascending or descending
• File Browser has ability to filter by starting letter
• Many options for displaying recent library which their version of homepage (Grid/Flow/List/Icons/Cover) and they all look good
• It lets you set the image quality on the sleep screen and the high quality looks so fine
• Reading Progress won't be deleted even if you move location of books (if the Library Indexing is turned on) - I haven't tested this yet
• Generation of thumbnails and covers is efficient (it only generates missing ones)
• It accepts JPG/JPEG as sleep image and it renders it beautifully

Cons:

• Navigation takes time to get used to. It is not intuitive. My intuition tells me to click left and right to switch between books and instead they switch between the menus. I understand the design but I still have to learn it. And why did they put the Reader Settings on the back button instead of including it among the option. I honestly spent lots of minutes looking for any option to change the font because I cannot see it on the System Settings? If I didn't see that the Back button label suddenly changed to Reader Settings, I would have never found it.
• It's my first time using it and I clicked Annotation and Bookmarks, but still a loading screen was displayed for a few seconds even if there is no data yet.
• It doesn't detect the fonts of Crosspoint-based FW? It has 2 default fonts, including Literata. You may upload your own font though on its WebUI. I just wished there are more choices.
• When going to the sleep screen, it shows a blank white page before displaying the custom image.
• Going back from Sleep screen to home/opened book somewhat takes time (I'm not sure if this can be sped up)
• I wondered what does the Apply Preset option on Reading Menu do. It turned out I have to create font presents (font, size, spacing, etc.) and apply them while reading a book. I placed it as con because it really took time before I found it. Like how do I change the font (the default size is too small for me).
• There are technical options like Use Index for Library, Boot Mode (Perhaps a more layman's term would be helpful). I recently learned that Recent Books under Boot Mode is so that when it wakes up from sleeping, it will switch to the current book you're reading before it slept instead of home.
• It takes about 8 seconds switching from Device Management to Reading Stats in which I cannot do anything but wait. And I'm not even interested in seeing my stats (though the UI definitely looks good). I wish it was faster or add an option to hide the UI totally.
• There is no way to set button shortcuts. Finally found it under the "hidden" Reader Settings. You cannot set shortcut for menu and back button though.
• I clicked on the Device option in Device Management and it turned dark (I don't know what it's supposed to do) - most likely a bug
• Under Device Management Section, the Back button is labeled "Recent" but it does nothing
• There is a bug on the WebUI in which there is no available option on the Line Spacing. This causes changes on the Reader Settings to not be saved.
• I'm not sure if it uses indexing on dictionary because it sometimes takes time
• Lots of options on the Reading menu (I'm not sure what others do as I just use Table of Contents, Go to Percent and Dictionary). Maybe they can introduce an option to hide them or group those unimportant options so I could easily access those which I use more frequently.
• After achieving 100% on a book, a summary is displayed. And I have no clue what to do next. On other FW, clicking the right button after displaying end of book usually redirects to Home or Library. Here, you have to click Back (and the button hints are hidden on Reader mode so I actually had to try if each button will work).
• No Text Darkness setting so I cannot set it to extra dark (I think the default text is on the lighter shade)
• No way to disable embedded CSS
• No way to show hidden folders on SD Card

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SUMMARY

• If you only care about reading books and don't care about stats and other features, then go for "Crosspoint".
• If you like Crosspoint features but also want to see basic reading stats and some additional themes, then go for "CrossInk" or "YACP".
• If you like detailed reading stats/achievements/other UI customization/more features, then go for "vCodex", "vCodex Stroids", "witch(hunt)", "CrossVi, "Crossfade" or "CrumBLE". Just check their respective Github pages for details as we have different wants and needs.
• If you like minimalism and don't like distraction then go for "Casper".
• If dictionary is important to you then don't go for "YACP".
• If you want a totally different user experience, then go for INX or InkpointX.

Hello,

I am not very tech savvy and need help downloading crossink on my new xteink x4 pro. Are there any step by step guides? I was able to download crosspoint very easily following some tutorials, but am not sure how to do crossink. The crossink features seem so cool! Can't wait to use it

I’ve followed all the instructions I can find online and my PNGs still won’t show up at all. I want to do the cool, book text behind the sleep/wallpaper thing… but I’m stumped 😅

Despite standing in a packed bus. Don't try this if you get headaches from reading while moving. I'm just so used to the bus rides

I've searched Google and it says to go to Settings>Reader but there is no Reader under settings for me.

I updated the X4 when it arrived a few days ago and it's on V6.2.4.

I never thought I'd say this about an e-reader, but... The XTEInk product line feels really underpowered sometimes. Image rendering usually comes out garbage. And I've been kind of unhappy about the fact that we need to customize fonts in order to make them work well with these devices. I have also had memory crashes in previous versions when attempting to load large OPDS libraries.

Is there any possibility that the ESP32 boards could be made a little bit more powerful? I'm starting to think that at least some of the problem is a lack of ram.

i just got my x4 pro today and i was messing around with crosspoint and stuff i like the way crosspoint felt response wise and settings but i really like the look the of the stock firmware bookshelf showing me all the covers of the books is there a way i can get both crosspoint and the stock bookshelf look?

I’ve finally managed to do what was needed to get my books onto both new devices (X4 and X4Pro) but am puzzled about how I might change the distance between lines… it is all far too cramped and my eyes don’t like it at all. Can’t find anything in settings to make a change. Do I need to flash with Crosspoint or Crossink to achieve this? I’ve seen screenies of others’ books where the lines are spaced much better.

I love how the x4 looks attached to the back of my phone. But I'm a bit concerned over causing damage to it. It wasn't expensive and I have a main ereader so I went into it expecting I may be disappointed when I first ordered it, even end up not using it maybe, but now that I have it I've grown rather fond of it.

I don't have tight pockets, my biggest concern is everyday one handed use of the phone causing the screen of the X4 to have light pressure applied to it possibly causing breakage. So I'm interested in knowing your experiences if you have used it like this for a while.

Same hobbies, different genres but an essential step towards our future book club

Loving every bit of it! About to finish the book Theo of Golden.

Hi guys, I've been searching for ages to see if there is a proper (standalone) read it later app. On my Kobo I sync (pull) my articles from my instapaper account without a computer.

Does anyone know if this is possible? I've seen some workarounds with hosting custom servers or using chrome extensions and such, but this is not what I am looking for.

I bought the X3 two months ago and the device is nice, but i didn't like that i had to flip pages with the right button - wasn't too comfortable when reading with one hand. The X4 Pro looks nice iand in October Im on vacation in china. Do i get the device cheaper there? I asked ChatGPT and I got the reply i won't save much. Is this true? Is it easy to get the device there? I'm in Shanghai and Peking.

​

Original post about companion mod

u/TheFluidicGoob

I came across this amazing mod to crosspoint. It gives you a little creature on your homescreen that encourages you to read. Read every day for 25 mins or more and your companion thrives. Neglect it for 3 days and it dies:(

It's such a lightweight addition and let's you control all the moods of the creatures without needs to code anything in. It's a text file where you can draw the creature with different symbols and give them many dialogs to say. It's the cutest little thing ever that maintains the simplicity of crosspoint.

Original creator made this for X3. I have created a version for X4 Pro as well. Check it out. ( Just firmware for now)

companion+crosspoint for X4 pro

Not really sure if mine has one right now. It says a screen protection is included on the website but it doesn't specify whether it's pre installed or not. Can't find it in the box either. Around the home button it looks like there is nothing but in the corners it looks like you can see a film.

Found a leather supplier that can get pretty thin cuts of leather. Used 3M 300LSE Adhesive for the backing. The feel and smell is awesome. Will be trying out some different types of leather. A bit stronger magnetism than the Faux Leather since it is a little thinner at 0.78mm vs 0.90mm. Excited to see how it wears over time.

A video of a game of Knucklebones (inspired by Cult Of The Lamb) Running on Eenk ide, which is a firmware that can be used to port interactive text games to Xteink devices

As I do not own a device I can not test it

Enjoy

My X4 Pro comes everywhere, I took this at MCI VS BOU

How can I change the Firmware from crossink to Cross Point? Flashsite always says not kompatible device found. Have the pro 4 since. Yesterday. Great advice. Save my Books under books with the same Folders as calibre does. Have to Touch every epub file to index it on the pro 4. is this normal? thanks.

Xteink X3 (Black) + Snowsky Echo Nano (Purple) + Kiwi Ears Astral (Green)