Tiny $70 Xteink X3 e-reader

仅需 70 美元的迷你 Xteink X3 电子书阅读器

No matter how you read it, The Power Broker is a serious undertaking. The paperback weighs as much as a brick; to avoid lugging around all 1,344 pages, people have cut it apart at the spine and chunked it into sections. Others have organized in-person Power Broker marathon readings that run continuously for three full days. I decided to try something else. 无论从哪个角度看，《权力掮客》（The Power Broker）都是一部大部头。平装本重得像块砖头；为了避免随身携带这 1,344 页的内容，有人甚至将其书脊切开，拆成若干部分。还有人组织了长达三天的《权力掮客》马拉松式现场朗读活动。我决定尝试另一种方法。

Over the past several weeks, I’ve spent 10 hours paging through Robert Caro’s masterpiece on an e-reader the size of a credit card. It’s magnetic, and small enough to attach to the back of my iPhone without adding any real bulk to my pocket. (Yes, this does mean that I have a screen on the back of another screen.) It’s called the Xteink X3, and at a glance, it looks like a cheap gimmick: more electronic junk made by unknown brands and sold on Temu and TikTok Shop—the kind of thing influencers are always hawking. (Can I interest you in a programmable LED hat for $11.60? Or how about $20 AirPod look-alikes made by “Fhumsh”?) 在过去的几周里，我花 10 个小时用一台信用卡大小的电子阅读器翻阅了罗伯特·卡罗（Robert Caro）的这部杰作。它带有磁性，体积小到可以吸附在我的 iPhone 背面，而不会让我的口袋感到臃肿。（是的，这意味着我的手机背面又多了一个屏幕。）它叫 Xteink X3，乍一看，它像是一个廉价的噱头：又是那种由不知名品牌制造、在 Temu 和 TikTok Shop 上销售的电子垃圾——也就是网红们总在兜售的那种东西。（要不要来一顶 11.60 美元的可编程 LED 帽子？或者“Fhumsh”牌的 20 美元 AirPods 山寨品？）

In a sense, it is that. Xteink sounds less like a real brand name than the kind of garbled text you’ll find in AI-slop memes. (Speaking of which, the official website of the China-based company is full of AI-generated photos of people posing with the device.) And indeed, since the X3’s release on Amazon in May, TikTokers and YouTubers have raved about how the device is a steal and you should buy it right now—just click the link in bio. 从某种意义上说，它确实如此。Xteink 听起来不像一个真正的品牌名称，更像是你在 AI 生成的垃圾梗图中看到的乱码。（说到这个，这家中国公司的官方网站上到处都是 AI 生成的人们拿着该设备摆拍的照片。）事实上，自 X3 于 5 月在亚马逊上架以来，TikTok 和 YouTube 上的博主们一直在吹捧这款设备有多划算，并呼吁大家立刻购买——只需点击个人简介里的链接即可。

And so I did. On Amazon, the X3 is $69 and tops the “hot new releases” list for e-readers, beating out a slew of Kindles. In person, the Xteink is many things: plasticky. Flawed. Finicky. Nevertheless, it is the single best piece of technology that I have purchased in years. In the two months before getting this cartoonishly tiny e-reader, I finished only one book. In one month with the X3, I read three books without even really trying—and my iPhone’s average daily screen time dipped by 25 minutes. 于是我买了。在亚马逊上，X3 售价 69 美元，位居电子阅读器“热门新品”榜首，击败了众多 Kindle。拿到实物后，Xteink 给人的感觉是：塑料感强、有缺陷、难伺候。尽管如此，它仍是我近年来买过的最棒的科技产品。在拿到这个小得滑稽的电子阅读器之前的两个月里，我只读完了一本书。而使用 X3 的一个月里，我甚至没怎么费力就读完了三本书——而且我 iPhone 的平均每日屏幕使用时间减少了 25 分钟。

The X3 is great because of its size, not in spite of it. (For once, “fun-size” actually lives up to the billing.) Because this is such a runt of a device, you can stick it to your phone and have an e-reader in your pocket at all times. As a result, I’ve found myself reading on my morning commute, in line at a museum, even while waiting through Netflix ads. The display on my Xteink may be roughly half the size of the smallest Kindle, but the text is big enough to easily read. Even after three straight hours of inching through The Power Broker, my eyes weren’t strained. X3 的伟大之处恰恰在于它的尺寸，而非尽管它尺寸小。（这一次，“迷你尺寸”名副其实。）正因为它是一个如此袖珍的设备，你可以把它贴在手机上，随时随地在口袋里放一个电子阅读器。结果就是，我发现自己会在早晨通勤时、在博物馆排队时，甚至在等待 Netflix 广告播放时阅读。我的 Xteink 显示屏大约只有最小号 Kindle 的一半大，但文字足够清晰，易于阅读。即使连续三个小时啃读《权力掮客》，我的眼睛也没有感到疲劳。

The device’s size actually helped me develop a different relationship to reading altogether: Because each “page” on the Xteink amounts to just a paragraph or two—and sometimes less—I’m compelled to finish it. And now that I’m onto the next page, I might as well finish that one too. A YouTuber who recently reviewed the Xteink had the same experience—she referred to the uniquely addictive experience of using the device as the “TikTokification of reading.” I know how terrifying that sounds, but consider the outcome: Whenever there’s even a couple of minutes of free time, I now have a healthy alternative to doomscrolling on Instagram. I don’t even have to put my phone down. Flip over the Bad Screen and fire up the Good Screen. 这款设备的尺寸实际上帮助我建立了一种完全不同的阅读关系：因为 Xteink 上的每一“页”只有一两段文字，有时甚至更少，我总会忍不住读完它。既然已经翻到了下一页，那不如顺便也读完吧。一位最近评测过 Xteink 的 YouTube 博主也有同样的体验——她将这种使用设备时独特的上瘾感称为“阅读的 TikTok 化”。我知道这听起来很可怕，但看看结果：每当有几分钟空闲时间，我都有了一个比在 Instagram 上无休止刷屏更健康的替代选择。我甚至不需要放下手机。翻转手机，关掉“坏屏幕”，开启“好屏幕”。

For all of its charm, the Xteink is a pretty basic piece of hardware. For $70, you get what you pay for. Other popular e-readers now come with AI-powered recaps, high-definition displays, and Android operating systems. Meanwhile, the Xteink has no touch screen, color display, or backlight for reading in the dark. (Xteink recently launched the X4 Pro, a slightly larger and more expensive model that has a reading light and a touch screen.) Just reading a book on the device isn’t necessarily seamless: The preloaded software is horrific and can’t even display book covers or properly format some text. Unlike with a Kindle, you can’t port over books from Amazon with one click. 尽管有种种魅力，Xteink 仍是一款相当基础的硬件。70 美元的价格，一分钱一分货。现在其他流行的电子阅读器都配备了 AI 摘要、高清显示屏和安卓操作系统。而 Xteink 没有触摸屏、彩色显示屏，也没有用于夜间阅读的背光。（Xteink 最近推出了 X4 Pro，这是一款稍大且更昂贵的型号，配有阅读灯和触摸屏。）在设备上阅读书籍并不一定顺畅：预装的软件非常糟糕，甚至无法显示书籍封面或正确格式化某些文本。与 Kindle 不同，你无法一键从亚马逊导入书籍。

In spite of itself, the Xteink X3, in all of its 3.7 inches of glory, has become a viral hit. Online, people have posted photos of their Xteink on trips to the Austrian mountains or the Aegean Sea; one anesthesiologist says he tucks it into his scrubs. People are mounting the Xteink X3 to their kitchen hood to display recipes and are making all sorts of bespoke accessories, including 3-D-printed reading lights and a case that looks like a gun (I’m serious). Fans have built their own open-source firmware, Crosspoint, that considerably upgrades the device. The version I downloaded displays reading stats and an array of fonts, and it lets me screenshot pages as I read. Late last month, Crosspoint added the ability to access books on Libby, the popular library ebook app. 尽管如此，Xteink X3 凭借其 3.7 英寸的“光辉”，还是成为了病毒式爆款。在网上，人们晒出了带着 Xteink 去奥地利山区或爱琴海旅行的照片；一位麻醉师说他把它塞进手术服里。人们把 Xteink X3 安装在厨房油烟机上显示食谱，还制作了各种定制配件，包括 3D 打印的阅读灯，甚至还有一个看起来像枪的保护套（我是认真的）。粉丝们还开发了自己的开源固件 Crosspoint，极大地升级了该设备。我下载的版本可以显示阅读统计数据和多种字体，并允许我在阅读时截屏。上个月底，Crosspoint 增加了访问流行图书馆电子书应用 Libby 的功能。

The best thing about the Xteink is not any one feature. It’s that this tiny e-reader is fun in a way so few gadgets are anymore. Despite all our advances, the consumer-electronics landscape of 2026 is predictable and banal. Our laptops, smartphones, and tablets are thinner and more powerful than ever, but that feels like a weak substitute for innovation. Next week, Apple is poised to launch one of its most hyped products in years: a folding iPhone. But even folding smartphones are old news; Samsung released its version in 2019. After shelling out hundreds or thousands of dollars for a new gadget, you might still have to pay for subscriptions and endure annoying ads. Sometimes, your purchases aren’t even really yours. Amazon recently removed the ability to download ebooks you already own and transfer them to non-Kindle devices. Xteink 最棒的地方不在于某一个功能，而在于这款小巧的电子阅读器带来了一种如今很少有小工具能提供的乐趣。尽管我们取得了种种进步，但 2026 年的消费电子领域却显得平庸且可预测。我们的笔记本电脑、智能手机和平板电脑比以往任何时候都更轻薄、更强大，但这似乎只是创新的苍白替代品。下周，苹果公司准备推出其近年来最受炒作的产品之一：折叠屏 iPhone。但即使是折叠屏手机也已经是旧闻了；三星早在 2019 年就发布了其版本。在花了几百甚至几千美元购买新设备后，你可能仍需支付订阅费并忍受恼人的广告。有时，你购买的东西甚至不真正属于你。亚马逊最近取消了下载你已拥有的电子书并将其传输到非 Kindle 设备的功能。

In other words, we need more gadgets like the Xteink: cheap, simple, and customizable. With few exceptions, these products are now coming out of China. Neck fans from brands such as JisuLife and Civpower have become sensations for helping people endure the summer heat. Anker’s portable projectors and earbuds are both Wirecutter-recommended. Silicon Valley has left a gaping hole in the gadgets markets, and America 换句话说，我们需要更多像 Xteink 这样廉价、简单且可定制的小工具。除了少数例外，这些产品现在都来自中国。极速（JisuLife）和 Civpower 等品牌的挂脖风扇因帮助人们度过酷暑而风靡一时。Anker 的便携式投影仪和耳机都获得了 Wirecutter 的推荐。硅谷在小工具市场上留下了一个巨大的空白，而美国……