Xteink's credit-card-sized X4 Classic e-reader just hit its lowest price ever, $75.99, ahead of Amazon's October Prime Day event.
Amazon cut the price of the X4 Classic by 15 percent, down from its $89 list price, ahead of Prime Big Deal Days on Oct. 6-7. The X4 Classic launched earlier this month as a replacement for the original X4, adding a bigger battery, relocated page-turn buttons, a real-time clock, USB drive support, and a tilt-to-turn-page feature. It joins a growing lineup from the Chinese startup that also includes the smaller X3 and the touchscreen-equipped X4 Pro. The Classic skips the touchscreen and front light, trading convenience for a sharper e-ink display.
This is a hardware category that barely existed two years ago, and Xteink built a real following on Reddit, including a fan-made alternate operating system to patch the original X4's early bugs. That kind of grassroots community usually forms around gadgets that get one thing very right despite obvious rough edges, not around polished mainstream products. Buyers should also know these devices only support DRM-free e-books, so an existing Kindle library stays locked to Kindle hardware.
A $75.99 pocket reader with no touchscreen and no Kindle compatibility is not for everyone, but for readers who just want text on a screen the size of a credit card, this is about as cheap as the category gets.