Boox is taking on Xteink with its own tiny e-reader

Boox’s new Tile lineup will take on Xteink’s popular e-readers that are small enough to stick on the back of an iPhone with MagSafe. As spotted by Good E-Reader, the first one is the Picco, which will feature a 3.97-inch front-lit, black-and-white e-paper display and expandable storage with an SD card slot. Boox confirmed to The Verge that the Picco is in the works, noting that it’s part of a new Tile lineup and will have an “accessible price point,” but without any other details about its plans, like specs, the specific price, or a release date.

The front-lit display could put it on par with Xteink’s new $99 X4 Pro e-reader, which The Verge’s Andrew Liszewski calls “the best tiny e-reader you can buy.” However, part of the appeal of Xteink’s little e-readers is their ability to magnetically stick to the back of a phone, and it’s not clear yet if the Boox Picco will have a similar feature.

It appears to have buttons in a promotional image, but it’s also not clear yet if it will rely solely on buttons, like the original Xteink X4, or also include a touchscreen. According to Good E-Reader, the Picco will likely have a minimal, tiled UI limited to basic apps like Neoreader, a music player, and a podcast player, putting it in a very different category than the Android-powered Boox Palma.