X3 came yesterday, the good and the bad so far
I ordered an X3 with case and light April 25, just before the end of the preorder for April 26. It shipped April 28 and arrived in the Midwestern United States on May 8. I was constantly checking the tracking like the days before two day shipping.
Everyone’s concerned about firmware. I ordered from xteink.com, the box has a serial number, and I was able to flash over USB to Crosspoint. Unfortunately, I didn’t try it with the included cable. I didn’t have a charger with a USB-A port handy, so I used a USB-C cable with a 7.62mm dongle to charge it and then used that cable to flash the firmware.
I tried the original firmware (XT 5.1.4 I think, which was the latest?) and it wasn’t so bad. I switched to Crosspoint because it didn’t look like I could get left-justified text in the original and because I was curious.
Honestly, it’s a mixed bag for me. Crosspoint feels a little more responsive, but the small UI text is a bit much for my eyes (I use +1 to +1.5 readers). The Calibre plugin was slow and the connection failed part way through transferring the library and didn’t want to reconnect. I had a better experience plugging the card into my computer and exporting to disk.
The cloud sync with the app to the original firmware was a better experience than the Crosspoint Calibre plugin. It was faster and just worked. I also liked the more readable UI.
I’ll probably keep Crosspoint for the moment for left-justified text and because I’m lazy.
One note on Crosspoint: it appeared frozen after flashing and I had to push the reset button and then hold the power button to get it started. Now it’s working without issue.
Oh, and I also used a braided nylon cable, but I’d prefer something else. The cable is too stiff to feel good about the magnets holding it in place while flashing. A more flexible cable would be better to not risk it losing connection while flashing the firmware. Maybe the included cable would be better, but I’ve seen reports that it doesn’t transfer data?
I saw a post that was disappointed in the build quality of the X3. I can see what they’re talking about. Overall it feels well-built, but there is a little play in the buttons. Combined with the slow refresh of the screen, it makes navigating menus and entering WiFi passwords a little frustrating, but the side buttons feel a bit better and will be the most used now that it’s set up. Room for improvement, but overall great for the price point.
I haven’t had a chance to read with the light yet, but I don’t really care for how the brightness is set. You hold the button and it will go from brightest to dimmest and set whenever you release the button. It also stores a separate brightness setting for each light temperature, so I set the first one to dimmest and then was blinded switching to the next. It’s fine, I’ll probably use it.
I really like the case. I got the mint green and it’s a very light shade. The magnets hold it securely. My little one picked it up and started shaking it by the front flap and the reader didn’t budge. It feels about as thin as you could make a standalone case and I feel all right sticking it in my pocket with my phone and Swiss Army Knife.
Well, that’s my brain dump for what it’s worth. I should probably get reading.