I almost bought an xteink the other week but held off due to lack of a frontlight option.

I instead resurrected my nook simple touch (2011) with this project [1] from XDA forums, its made it infinitely more usable and still has good battery life.

[1] https://xdaforums.com/t/nst-g-the-phoenix-project.4673934/

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wolvoleo 3 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Xteink is coming with a backlit option soon.

Be aware though they're trying to block third party software and their own sucks badly. I don't understand why they try to block this because it makes their hardware actually worth buying.

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jerojero 2 hours ago | parent [-]

They're working with the crosspoint team.

The official hardware (if you buy through their website or amazon) is not blocked. Only Aliexpress offerings.

But yes, they are coming with a FRONTlit option. Although it'll also have a touchscreen and no front buttons.

I'm hoping maybe in a year or so they make an actual successor with the same button layout, no touchscreen (or with a touchscreen but still with all the buttons) and a better chipset (though nothing major, what the X3 has is enough).

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wolvoleo an hour ago | parent | next [-]

Oh ok but why do they block the Ali ones then? I don't think they're on Amazon here in Spain. And if I have to order from China I'd greatly prefer Ali express because they have good consumer protection.

And yes I meant front light sorry. I didn't know that one won't have buttons.

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jwrallie 2 minutes ago | parent | next [-]

I was just looking into it, with coupons and ongoing sale, it is possible to buy the Chinese version for about 7,500 JPY (45 USD) on Aliexpress, while on the official website (and Amazon) it is 13,900 JPY. I am not sure if this applies everywhere.

While there is an "unlock" option, it seems it is strongly implied that you should stick to mainstream custom firmware or risk getting stuck with a firmware forever.

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rkachowski an hour ago | parent | prev [-]

They're just blocked from OTA updates, you can flash whatever you want on the sdcard and then unlock OTA. (I did this yesterday with an aliexpress version x4)

	▲	leobg 25 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		You can. But if you build your own stuff, you can also easily lock yourself out. That whole mechanism that tells the software to look for a new bin file on the SD card and to use that to update is something that needs to be contained in your software. If you forget it, or you get it wrong, the thing will be bricked.

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Mikhail_Edoshin an hour ago | parent | prev [-]

(As far as I understood those from AliExpress can also be unblocked.)

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eth0up 6 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Thanks for mentioning both of these, the xteink and the nook resurrection. My old nooks are all slimy with the black material liquifying, and unusable just for that, else I'd pursue the XDA option. Looking into the xteink now, else Kobo. The one the post is about seems extremely appealing, but the price is a bit high for me, and the lifePo option makes the lesser one seem even more expensive. I really love e-ink. I could easily go with it for all compute.

5k cycles would be nice.