Xteink X4 vs Boox Palma: The $69 Reader vs the $250 One

The Xteink X4 vs Boox Palma question looks like a normal e-reader comparison, but it is really a choice between two different ideas of what a “pocket reader” is. The X4 is a $69 button-only E Ink slab that does one thing, show you text, and refuses to do anything else. The Boox Palma 2 is a $249.99 Android computer the size of a phone that happens to have an E Ink screen, runs Kindle and Libby, takes photos, and browses the web. You could buy three X4s for the price of one Palma 2, and five for a Palma 2 Pro. So the real question is not “which is better”; it is “which problem are you solving?”

Here is the honest one-liner most comparisons bury: the Boox Palma does almost everything the X4 does, plus a great deal more, and that “plus” is exactly the reason some people want the X4 instead. A device that can open Instagram is a device that can interrupt you. The X4’s limits are the product.

The Short Version

What You’re Actually Choosing Between

These are not two sizes of the same product. They are two categories.

The Xteink X4 is a 4.3-inch, 220-PPI E Ink reader built on an ESP32 chip. No touchscreen. No front light. No app store. It reads DRM-free EPUB and TXT files you load yourself, and that is the entire feature list, by design. It weighs 77g, costs $69, and its hardware is open enough that the community built CrossPoint and a constellation of firmware forks on top of it. It earned a small place in the mainstream as the first non-Kindle e-reader to crack Amazon’s top-10 e-reader chart, not because it does a lot, but because it does one thing cheaply.

The Boox Palma 2 is a 6.13-inch, 300-PPI Carta 1200 E Ink device running full Android 13, with a warm-and-cold front light, a capacitive touchscreen, an octa-core processor, 6GB of RAM, 128GB of storage, a fingerprint reader, a 16MP camera, and a 3,950mAh battery, at about 170g. It installs anything from Google Play: Kindle, Libby, Kobo, Moon+ Reader, a browser, even email. The original Boox Palma is the same idea on Android 11, and it still turns up on Amazon discounted; the Palma 2 Pro adds a Kaleido 3 color screen and 5G data for $379.99.

So the comparison is really: a minimalist single-purpose tool vs a maximalist pocket E Ink computer. Everything below follows from that.

Factor 1: Price, the Wedge

This is the X4’s loudest argument, and it is not close.

Street prices move: check the current Boox Palma 2 and Boox Palma 2 Pro price on Amazon before you decide.

At $69, the X4 is an impulse-buy, a gift, a “throw it in the bag and don’t worry if it cracks” device. At $250+, the Palma is a considered purchase you protect with a case and insurance-grade care. That price gap changes how you treat the device, not just how you pay for it. If money is the deciding factor, the comparison ends here, and that is a perfectly good reason to pick the X4.

But cheap only wins if the X4 actually does what you need. The rest of this guide is about where the extra $180 buys something real.

Factor 2: Screen and Reading Comfort

The Palma wins the spec sheet; the X4 wins on pocketability.

The Palma’s 6-inch, 300-PPI panel is the same class of screen you find in a premium Kindle, with a front light for reading in bed and on planes. The X4’s 4.3-inch, 220-PPI screen is perfectly crisp for text but smaller, less sharp, and dark: it has no front light at all, so you need a lamp, daylight, or a clip-on reading light. If you read after lights-out, that is a genuine dealbreaker for the X4, and no setting fixes it.

What the spec table does not show: the X4 fits in a coin pocket and the Palma fits in a jacket pocket. At 77g the X4 disappears; at 170g the Palma is a small phone you are aware of carrying. For “always on me, in any pocket,” the X4 is the smaller, lighter, more forgettable object, and for some readers that is worth more than a front light.

Factor 3: Apps, the Real Dividing Line (Kindle, Libby, Kobo)

This is where most people’s decision is actually made, and it is the single biggest reason to spend up for the Palma.

The Boox Palma runs full Android with Google Play. That means the real Kindle app, the real Libby app, Kobo, Moon+ Reader, your library’s BorrowBox, a browser, anything. Your existing Kindle library opens natively. Library loans from Libby/OverDrive open natively. There is no conversion, no DRM workaround, no sideloading gymnastics.

The Xteink X4 runs none of that. It has no app store and cannot open DRM-protected files at all.

If your reading life lives inside Kindle, Libby, or Kobo, the math is simple: the Palma works out of the box and the X4 will frustrate you daily. If your reading life is DRM-free EPUBs, side-loaded fanfic, saved articles, and public-domain classics, the X4 does everything you need for a quarter of the price, and the Palma’s app store is a feature you would pay for and not use. See the X4 pre-purchase reality check for the full list of what the X4 will and won’t do.

Factor 4: Focus, the Feature That Is an Absence

Here is the counterintuitive part: the X4’s biggest limitation is also its biggest selling point.

The Palma is a wonderful, capable device, and because it is full Android, it can install the same feeds, browsers, and apps you are trying to escape. E Ink slows them down, but it does not block them. Plenty of Palma owners are delighted; plenty of others quietly reinstall the very apps that put them on a focus device in the first place.

The X4 makes that impossible. There is no browser, no notifications, no app store, no feed. There is nowhere for your attention to leak. The recurring community story is exactly this: an owner who “saved 8 hours and 40 minutes of doomscrolling by… READING! This is the first book I’ve finished in years.”

Factor 5: Everything Else the Palma Does

To be fair to the price gap, the Palma is not just “the X4 plus apps.” It is a different class of device:

If you want one pocket device that reads everything and replaces a few phone jobs, the Palma earns its price. If you want a reader that does nothing else on purpose, those extras are weight and cost you won’t use.

Factor 6: Tinkering and Firmware

This is a quiet X4 advantage that matters to a specific buyer.

The X4’s open ESP32 hardware spawned a real firmware scene (CrossPoint, CrossInk, Microreader, SUMI, Papyrix and more) that adds fonts, reading stats, OTA updates, even an AO3 fanfiction reader. You can flash it yourself and reshape what the device is. (Buy the right unit first: the locked-vs-unlocked guide ranks sellers by firmware-lock risk.)

The Palma is “open” in a different sense (it is Android, so you sideload apps), but you are using Onyx’s software on Onyx’s terms, not rewriting the firmware. For most people that is fine. For the hobbyist who enjoys the device as a project, the X4 is the more interesting toy.

The Buyer Scenarios

Find yourself, then buy accordingly.

How to Decide in 3 Steps

1. Answer the app question first. Do you need Kindle, Libby, Kobo, or PDFs/comics? If yes, buy the Boox Palma: the X4 cannot run them, and nothing else in this comparison outweighs that. If no, keep going.
2. Name your real goal. “Escape my phone” → X4 (the wall is the point). “Reading apps without my phone” → Palma (it runs them). “Smallest possible carry” → X4 (77g vs 170g).
3. Check the dealbreakers. No front light on the X4 (night readers, lean Palma). No DRM/Libby/Kindle on the X4 (app readers, lean Palma). $250+ price on the Palma (budget buyers, lean X4). Whichever device survives all three is your answer.

The Specs, Side by Side

X4 specs from xteink.com; Palma 2 specs from shop.boox.com. Confirm current price and stock on the linked pages before buying.

Final Verdict

The Xteink X4 vs Boox Palma decision is not about which is the better device; the Palma is objectively more capable. It is about which job you are hiring it for:

• Buy the Xteink X4 ($69) (also on Amazon) if you want a cheap, tiny, single-purpose reader whose inability to do anything but show text is the entire point, and you read DRM-free files. Ready to set it up? Start with the X4 buy & flash guide.
• Buy the Boox Palma 2 (~$250) (compare prices on Amazon) if you need real reading apps (Kindle, Libby, Kobo) plus a front light, touch, PDFs and comics in one pocket device, and the price is not the obstacle.
• Don’t buy the X4 expecting a small Palma. No apps, no front light, no DRM books. It is a focus tool, not a budget Android e-reader, and judged as a focus tool, it’s the better $69 you can spend.

Still deciding between the small Xteink models? The X3 vs X4 guide covers that, and the compact e-reader hub puts both next to the rest of the pocket-E-Ink field.

Quick Answers Before You Buy

Sources And Notes

• Official Xteink X4 product page
• Official Boox Palma 2 product page
• Official Boox Palma (original) product page
• Official Boox Palma 2 Pro product page
• “My first week with the X4”: doomscrolling replaced with reading: r/XTEINK, June 2026
• Good e-Reader: the first non-Kindle e-reader to crack Amazon’s top-10
• Community cross-shop: X4 vs Viwoods AiPaper vs Boox Go 7: r/Onyx_Boox, June 2026