I thought a 3-inch eReader was a gimmick—a day later I was hooked

Published Aug 22, 2026, 12:00 PM EDT Adam has a degree in Engineering and has a life-long interest in technology. He has been writing for over a decade for various print and online publications, with a focus on consumer tech. He joined How-To Geek in 2024 while working at Pocket-lint. As well as being a long-term fan of Apple products, he also has a strong interest in smart home tech, running a Home Assistant server at home to automate all his smart home devices. He believes that the ideal smart home should work with minimal interaction from the user, with automations running as if by magic rather than requiring you to push buttons on a control panel. You can find more of his work on Muck Rack. I love reading, but I always find it hard to find the time these days. I read non-stop as a kid, but now I have kids of my own, life seems to get in the way. I'd seen people raving about how a tiny eReader had helped them read far more, and I was skeptical but decided to give it a try. The Xteink X3 is barely larger than a credit card The tiny display is just 3.7 inches Credit: Adam Davidson / How-To Geek Xteink is a relatively new company that makes very small and lightweight pocket-size eReaders. The current range is focused on two models: the X3 and the X4 Pro. The X4 Pro builds on the now-discontinued X4 model, with a 4.3-inch display, touchscreen, and front light. A new version of the original X4 model is expected to be released in the near future. The X3 is the smallest and most minimal of Xteink's eReaders. It has a tiny 3.7-inch display; there's no touchscreen, and no front light. That's not to say that it lacks features; you can shake the device to turn the page, it can snap magnetically to the back of your phone, and even includes a built-in NFC function so you can use your eReader as an entry card. It uses a microSD card and supports cards up to 256 GB, which gives you enough room to fit tens of thousands of typical eBooks. The X3 supports EPUB, MOBI, TXT, and PDF files and can display JPG and PNG images. Xteink X3 $69 $79 Save $10 The Xteink X3 is a tiny eReader that's not much bigger than a credit card. Its 3.7-inch display makes it easy to keep with you, and the internal magnets allow you to snap it to the back of your phone. It uses standard microSD cards, so you can keep a large library on your tiny eReader. I'd seen people raving about the X3 online Credit: Adam Davidson / How-To Geek I first came across the X3 on eReader forums online. There's a significant community of dedicated Xteink fans, and the vast majority of the posts about these tiny eReaders are overwhelmingly positive. People who own them really love them and there's a ton of custom firmware available that can give Xteink eReaders additional features such as custom fonts, offline dictionaries, KOReader syncing, and OPDS support. One of the comments that I kept seeing coming up over and over in forum posts was how much more people had been reading since getting an Xteink eReader. The biggest reason is that the devices are so small that you can slip them in your pocket and carry them around with you wherever you go, which you can't do with a six-inch Kindle. When you have a spare moment, instead of pulling out your phone and mindlessly scrolling, you can pull out your eReader instead and fit in a few quick pages. This really had me intrigued. I hate how much of my life I waste scrolling through my phone, and I'm always on the lookout for ways to stop myself doing it so I can put that time to better use. The problem was that all the images posted on these forums made it very clear just how tiny these eReaders really are. I just couldn't see how reading on such a tiny screen could be an enjoyable experience. The small screen is simply not an issue I don't even notice how small it is anymore I decided to give an Xteink eReader a try to see what all the fuss was about. I opted for the X3 model so I could see if reading on a tiny screen was really possible. The beauty of these devices is that they have small prices to match their small size; at the time of writing, the X3 is available for $69. When the eReader arrived, it seemed even smaller than the photos had made it look. It genuinely is just a shade larger than a credit card, and incredibly light, at just 58 g. It's also very thin, at barely over 5 mm. I wanted to try it out with the stock firmware rather than trying any of the community builds, so I powered it up and loaded a book onto it through the app. You can read in portrait mode, but I switched to landscape to fit more text across the screen. The text is sharp and easily readable, although you're limited to a couple of font sizes on the stock firmware. Turning the pages can be done using the long buttons on the sides or the small buttons on the front. I found that after remapping the buttons, I could hold the X3 in one hand and use the side button when holding it in my right hand and a front button when holding it in my left. In either hand, the necessary button was then in easy reach. You can also turn the page by shaking the eReader if you turn this feature on. It works well, but I found it got a little tiring if you're reading for a long time, since you need to turn the pages a lot. Once I started reading, I just couldn't stop. All my worries about the tiny screen were for nothing; once you're reading, you don't even notice how small it is. The text is more than big enough to read comfortably, and there's enough text on the screen so that you don't feel like you're turning the page every other sentence. I'm reading more than I've ever read I'm pulling out my X3 far more often than my phone Credit: Adam Davidson / How-To Geek On my first day using the X3, I must have read for about three hours over the course of the day. I just couldn't stop using it; every time I had a spare moment, I'd pull it out and read some more. That hasn't really stopped. When I'm at a loose end, when I would usually pull out my phone and scroll, I now pull out the X3 instead. Even in tiny spaces of time such as when I'm waiting for the microwave to finish, I can pull out the X3 and read a few pages. I'm now reading more than I've read in a long time, and I absolutely love it. My only regret is that I held off from getting a tiny eReader for so long. The X3 isn't perfect, but it's close The X3 isn't flawless. It can freeze up occasionally, and the tiny eReader is fairly fragile. I'm yet to find a case I like, so I'm currently carrying it around inside an old cassette box. The lack of front light and USB-C charging aren't issues for me, but may be for some. Ultimately, for the price, it's one of my favorite devices I've used in a long time.