When PocketBook announced the InkPad X Pro last August I knew it was going to fail miserably, and it looks like that’s exactly how things are playing out.
The PocketBook InkPad X Pro has a pitiful 2.4-star rating on Amazon with only 6 reviews, and the price keeps going lower and lower and still nobody wants to buy it.
The price started out at $420 last September when it first showed up on Amazon, and it has been dropping like a stone ever since. They’ve been selling it for $329 for the past several weeks, but now the price has gone down even further to $299 with free shipping.
It’s not very often you see a 10″ eNote selling for less than the Kindle Scribe, but that’s the case with the PocketBook InkPad X Pro, at least until the next Kindle Scribe sale.
The biggest failing with the InkPad X Pro is the outdated operating system. It was one of the first PocketBooks to run Android instead Linux, but they chose to use a ridiculously outdated version of Android from 2017 (Android 8.1) instead of a newer version that comparable eNotes are using.
The InkPad X Pro has a few redeemable qualities, like the fact that it’s one of the only 10″ eNotes available with a flexible Mobius E Ink screen, which is lighter and more durable than standard glass-backed E Ink screens that crack easily under pressure.
At 350 grams, the InkPad X Pro is over 80 grams lighter than the Kindle Scribe, and it’s a full 100 grams lighter than the Onyx Note Air3 (too bad Onyx stopped using Mobius screens on their 10″ eNotes because that’s a huge difference, and cracked screens are a common problem with Onyx’s Note Air line).
It’s also the only current 10″ eNote with actual page-turn buttons, and it comes with a Wacom stylus and a cover. Outside of the ancient Android OS, it’s not a bad device on paper, but it’s surely slower than similar models like most PocketBooks are in general.
If you don’t expect much from Android apps and just want to use the built-in reading and note apps, it might be getting to the point where the low price outweighs some of the issues. How much lower will the price go before it gets discontinued?
Ok so now the device is:
– Cheaper than the Scribe
– Doesn’t need to be jailbroken in order to install Koreader on it
So it can actually be interesting for people who want an e-reader with a big screen and have no interest in paying $100 extra for the note-taking feature that they are never going to use.