I had a feeling this was going to happen, and now Xteink has confirmed it. The much-loved Xteink X4 ereader is in the process of getting phased out.
This morning the above message was posted on Xteink’s official Facebook page saying goodbye to the X4. I guess the rumors of an updated X4 Gen 2 coming out soon were untrue. If they were planning to make some minor revisions to the X4, they wouldn’t need to say goodbye to it.
Update: It sounds like they are going to release an X4 Gen 2 version. After they sold out the X4 on their website they added the following message:
Thank you so much for your support! XTEINK X4 is now officially sold out, and there are no plans for future production.
We invite you to explore our X3 or X4 Pro models for your reading needs. Stay tuned for the upcoming new X4 series.
This isn’t surprising with the new X4 Pro getting released earlier this month. Xteink found a way to charge 42% more by adding a frontlight and a touchscreen, so now they’re moving forward with that instead.
They’re still selling the smaller X3 is you want a basic model without a frontlight or touchscreen, but some people don’t like how Xteink did away with the USB-C port on the X3. Moving forward, all Xteink devices will have pogo pins instead of USB ports.
For the time being, you can still buy an X4 from Xteink’s Amazon store and from the Xteink’s website, but they probably won’t have them in stock for very much longer. I was tempted to buy another one since the X4 is my favorite portable ereader, but I have the X3 for a backup and I like it too.
This is a boneheaded move by Xteink, along with their decision to lockdown the software on domestic units, which didn’t go well. They should’ve kept the X4 around for those that don’t want the frontlight and touchscreen on the X4 Pro, and for those that prefer having a USB-C port. The X4 Pro costs as much as the basic Kindle, and it offers far less features with much worse stock software. It’s not nearly as good of a value as the Xteink X4 was for $69.
I’m not entirely convinced that the rumours about a new version of the X4 are false. If anything, I think this is the first step towards its imminent launch. We’ll find out soon enough.
Yeah, I guess you could be right. I was thinking it would make more sense to announce the new version and then discontinue the original X4, especially if they’re going to reuse the name, but I guess they’re already kind of doing that with the X4 Pro, so it wouldn’t be that much of a stretch for them to release an X4 Gen 2 maybe.
The no backlight was a deal breaker for me on the other models. I don’t necessarily like that there’s no USBC, but I can live with it by carrying around an adapter. My x4 pro is almost here. I’m excited for it still. I’m also excited to see what Boox does with their small ereader, but I didn’t wanna wait for that one.
I realised no USB-C wasn’t that big a deal as I only charged it at most once a week. While I would still rather have a USB-C port its not a deal-breaker.
Well, what a stupid move. *sigh*
So glad I bought the last X4 available at our local vendor (didn’t know it was the last at that point)
Sometimes you just need a small dumb little device, no frills, for a stupid cheap price, to read when you don’t expect to have any time to read, and have no space to carry a full-size ereader.
Since X4 Pro costs as much as an ordinary Kindle, at that point you might as well save up a bit more for a normal 6 inch reader and call it a day.
One of the reasons I never cared for Palma and similar devices is that for Palma price I could get a 7 inch device. I’m just not obsessed enough with tiny carry to throw that kind of money around when I generally prefer reading on a standard proportions screen.
I also find decision to discontinue X4 quite baffling because there appear to be issues with light on X4 Pro.
I saw posts on Reddit with people complaining that light turns off too fast, and several reported that light completely stopped working after 2 hours. Minority maybe, but Xteink hadn’t shipped many devices at this point.
Why discontinue a device that works when you haven’t worked out the kinks with your new release?
Wow. Glad I bought one two weeks ago before the made this decision. I’ve had a Kindle Paperwhite for a few years but never liked the screen redraw and so I stopped using it (will pass it onto my youngest son who I’m trying to get into using a e-reader instead of buying books).
The X4 redraw is fast and page transition barely noticeable. Love the pocket-friendly size — I wanted to get more intentional with digital media overall and get away from using a phone or or tablet which invariably leads me away from the original tasks — and I am reading more now with the X4.
All that said, if they iterate the product to have a good backlight and even better performance in a pocket-friendly form factor and keep the price sub $100USD I’d consider an upgrade (also, I do want to keep using Crosspoint or a variant — if they lock the device down from custom firmware usage, I’ll stick with the X4).
😭 That is so sad!!! (and IMO a really bad move on their part) I’m just glad I ended up purchasing a backup device during their last big sale! I do not want a touch screen/frontlit device; there are plenty of those out there, albeit not ‘pocket size’. I prefer the tactile feel of the device & being able to just click the buttons for page turns, etc. I’m sad, but grateful to have an X4 nonetheless. Hopefully everyone who wanted one has one. I’m sure the prices on eBay skyrocketed after this announcement.
Thanks for keeping us in the loop!
Gratefully my X4 is working great, and when the time comes to replace it, the replacement will probably not be another XTEInk.