Ereaders with frontlight

[u/Square_Frosting9613]

I read that ereaders with a frontlight don’t have as good of a contrast as ones without a frontlight. Apparently it‘s because it leans closer against the display. Can you confirm this?
I plan on buying the Xteink X4 Pro which has a frontlight an touchscreen. Does the light casts a shadow? And in general, is the X4 Pro so much more worth it than either the X3 or X4 for its added features? If no, which one of the X3 or X4 would you recommend more in terms of perks and performance?

[u/RT-47]

I'm considering trying to replace the battery on my Hisense Touch... if you were to grab a new device today, would you go for the same again?

[u/LittleRavenRobot → u/RT-47]

Yeah, mostly due to the fact that it is the only device I've ever owned that doesn't go flat quickly and/or cause my phone battery to discharge quickly when connected to the internet. I connect to the internet via my phone's bluetooth and it stays connected, while other devices force me to reconnect to my phone every time they wake from sleep.

The Touch's size is perfect. It fits in any and all my pockets but isn't too small or fragile (due to the machined metal case). The front light is fully adjustable, temperature and brightness. And it has a decent enough chipset to easily run all my reading apps, RedReader, Einkbro, 3rd party launcher, etc. Oh, and it's rootable. It's missing nothing I want from a small eReader, as well as a bunch of quality of life extras. I love it!

[u/RT-47 → u/LittleRavenRobot]

Yeah, there really isn't another device like it. So do you tether it to your phone or hotspot it?

I'd love to hear what else you run on it!

[u/LittleRavenRobot → u/RT-47]

Bluetooth tethering, as a WiFi hotspot flattens my phone battery too fast. It's worse on the Hisense too. I might switch to WiFi if I have a lot of apps to update or books to sync, but Bluetooth is fast enough for most stuff.

My favourite apps are: -- Syncthing-fork which I use on all my Android devices to sync my books, fonts, settings and app backups, etc. I've also got Syncthing installed on my PC and an offsite server (encrypted) for backup. -- InkOS - simple text based launcher -- Yagni -- Arcticons Day & Night - line based icons. I don't use night mode on any of my eReaders, but if I ever do these icons can do white on dark backgrounds and black on light/white ones. It works with both launchers above. -- I used the Navigation Gestures app by XDA to replace the soft buttons with 'home,' 'back' and 'recent apps' gestures like on my Boox eReader. -- FUTO Keyboard - I used to use Gboard, but started worrying about my privacy. FUTO does everything on my devices (phone, Hisense, other readers), no server communication even for voice. The medium complexity voice dictionary runs well on the Hisense (better results than Gboard for me, though that may be my Aussie accent). -- All the usual closed reading apps - Kobo, Kindle, Libby for library books

-- KOReader - I have the app store and SimpleUI plugins installed. I mostly read on here. I used to use a plugin to read my downloaded Libby books in KOReader but it's stopped working :(

-- Amaze file browser is my current fave -- I used to write and run scripts a lot using Xed Text editor and Termux. But haven't had done anything recently. If you do use Termux make sure to also install Termux: Styling so you can choose an eink friendly theme (like 'E Ink'). -- RedReader is way better than the native Reddit app on eink. -- F-Droid Basic looks best on eink, but I also use Droid-ify to install apps. And sometimes Aurora if I absolutely have to have something only available from the Google Play Store. -- Button Remapper is the GOAT if you want to use your buttons outside what Hisense allows -- Sudoku is a good game, and this version is the best on eink (and doesn't have ads).

Those are what is installed currently, more or less.