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.
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.
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