My Favorite Pocket-Sized E-Readers Are Under $60 Today Only
The Xteink X3 is at its lowest price ever.
AbJimroe
Joel Cunningham Deputy Editor
Experience
Joel Cunningham is Lifehacker’s Deputy Editor. He has 15 years of experience as a writer and editor. Previously, he was managing editor of content marketing for Barnes & Noble, where he founded the Barnes & Noble Sci-Fi & Fantasy Blog.
August 5, 2026
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Credit: Lifehacker / Xteink
Table of Contents
The tech world is usually all about selling you the bigger, better, newer model every year, so I still find it funny that the most talked-about e-reader of 2026 isn't a flashy new Kindle or a pricey Boox tablet, but a tiny, cheap e-ink device from an upstart Chinese tech company. Xteink makes e-readers small enough to fit in your pocket—any pocket—an irresistible form factor that has garnered them a devoted online following despite their slightly janky software.
The Xteink X4 was my own personal tech upgrade of the year for 2025, and this year's smaller X3 and more fully-featured X4 Pro are even better. Every time I'm using one of them in public, I get asked what it is and where I got it, and I can't stop recommending them to people looking to find more ways to reduce their doomscrolling and read more books. If that's you, it's the time to buy, because today only Xteink is offering 15% off on both the X4 and the X3—and the latter was already marked down 13%, so the additional discount takes it to its lowest price ever.
Given the discount takes both devices down to the same sub-$60 price, if you're not sure which one to buy, there's really only one factor to consider: The Xteink X4 is pretty small—with a 4.3-inch screen, it's roughly the size of a small wallet—while the 3.7-inch X3 is even smaller, roughly the size of a credit card. Otherwise, the devices are fairly similar, the biggest differences being slightly better resolution on the X3 (thanks solely to the smaller screen increasing the number of pixels per inch) and different charging cables (in order to maximize space, the X3 charges with an included pogo pin adapter, while the X4 uses USB-C).
What do you think so far?
Personally, I like the X3 better, as the smaller screen is still comfortable to read on, and it's so small I often forget I'm carrying it—until I need to pull it out to read while I wait for the subway, so I can avoid looking at my phone.
