Look. I am a person who owns too many things that have screens on them. I know this. Sarah knows this. The cats know this. The pile of charging cables on my nightstand has achieved sentience and is organizing against me.

So when Harper got me an xteink X4 e-reader for my birthday, my first thought was genuinely “do I need another technology thing to add to my tech clutter?” I already have a Kindle. I like my Kindle. My Kindle and I have been through a lot together.

But here’s the thing about the Kindle — I haven’t bought anything from Amazon since the last presidential election. Which means my Kindle has become this weird relic. It still works, I still load books onto it, but there’s something about owning a device from a company you’re actively boycotting that feels like keeping your ex’s hoodie. Comfortable but complicated.

So I figured what the hell, let me set this thing up.

And holy shit.

The xteink X4 is actually pocket-sized. Not “pocket-sized” the way my Kindle is pocket-sized, which is to say I can technically force it into my jacket pocket if I don’t mind looking like I’m smuggling a paperback and walking funny. The X4 just… goes in your pocket. Like a phone. Like it belongs there. I cannot overstate how much this changes things. I can grab it on my way out the door without thinking about whether I need to bring a bag.

The screen refresh is noticeably faster than my Kindle too. Page turns feel snappy instead of that half-second ghosting thing where you can briefly see the last page haunting the current one like a literary poltergeist. It’s one of those things you don’t realize bothered you until it’s gone.

And the physical buttons. Oh, the physical buttons. Listen, I understand that touchscreens are the future and haptic feedback is supposedly equivalent or whatever, but there is something deeply satisfying about pressing an actual button to turn a page. It’s tactile. It’s real. It makes a tiny click. I feel like I’m doing something instead of vaguely swiping at glass and hoping the device agrees that I meant “next page” and not “highlight this random sentence.”

Getting books onto it took a minute to figure out. You can side-load files and it supports a bunch of formats without any vendor lock-in nonsense — no walled garden, no proprietary formats, no “you don’t own this book, you’re licensing it” garbage. Once I got the hang of it I was loading stuff pretty easily, though I suspect there are even simpler ways I haven’t discovered yet.

Now. The one downside. And it is a real one.

No backlight.

I know. I KNOW. My Kindle has a backlight. I have been spoiled by reading in bed in the dark like some kind of literate bat. The X4 does not have this luxury. I have to read by actual light. Like a pleb. Like it’s 2003 and I’m holding a physical book next to a lamp like some kind of pioneer.

Sarah is, predictably, rolling her eyes at how much I’m talking about this thing. Which is fair. It’s been like three days and I’ve brought it up at least forty times. But she’s going to have to deal with it because this little $69 rectangle has completely won me over.

Harper nailed this gift. I didn’t know I needed an e-reader that wasn’t tethered to Amazon, that actually fits in my pocket, and that has real buttons. But I did. I super did.

If you’re looking for a no-nonsense e-reader that costs less than a nice dinner and doesn’t come with a side of megacorp guilt, the xteink X4 is worth a look. Just bring a reading lamp.