This tiny e-reader is smashing sales numbers, beating Amazon's Kindles

Amazon has long sat atop the e-reader tree, the unassailable king. But it seems that king may have feet of clay, as a plucky upstart device without the backing of a massive sales empire is starting to beat it in sales.

The Xteink X4, a tiny e-reader that's become an internet hit thanks to its small size and low price, is now in Amazon's top 10 for e-reader sales, beating a number of Kindles.

The Xteink X4 is riding high on viral popularity

It's rare for anything other than Amazon's own e-readers to land in its top 10 sales numbers, but that's exactly what's happened here. Thanks to a combination of viral marketing, a small size, and a cheap price, the Xteink X4 has landed at the number seven spot on Amazon.com's top 10 e-reader sales. In that position, it's beating out the 32GB variant of the Colorsoft, and the Kids-focused Kindles. Other variants of the Colorsoft, and of course, the Paperwhite and basic Kindle have the tiny titan beat, but hey, it's an incredible feat to get here in the first place.

The $70 price obviously has a lot to do with the device's success, but there's also a lot to be said for the many short videos the e-reader has found itself starring in. The device includes internal magnets that can attach to the back of phones with Qi2-compatible magnets, like the Pixel 10 range and recent iPhones.

It's also extremely small, and so it's very easy to slip into a pocket and read on the go. Combined, the X4 is clearly a product that bookworms love, and rightly so.

Speaking as an X4 owner, I never expected it to get so popular. I ordered it as a fun oddity, and was surprised at how much I enjoyed using it. The stock software it comes with is pretty shoddy though, and any owner is well advised to upgrade to the much better Crosspoint software instead. But once that easy process is done, it's a capable and very portable e-reader. I've read an enormous amount of books with it, and I love it.

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This success couldn't come at a worse time for Kindle. Amazon deciding to shutter a number of its older devices has turned previously ardent fans against them, and those people may be browsing webstores for a possible replacement — at which point, they're likely to see the Xteink X4 in Amazon's own top 10 list.

Xteink X4

Screen
4.3 inch
Resolution
220 PPI
Battery
650mAh
Weight
74g

$69 at Xteink
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