PineNote by Pine64
Shares rank 15 of 29 e-readers by recommenders
People recommend it for owning the device and running any software on it, with an open, hackable Linux system. The most common caveats are its size, weight, high price, and a software ecosystem that is still immature.
People recommend it for owning the device and running any software on it, with an open, hackable Linux system. The most common caveats are its size, weight, high price, and a software ecosystem that is still immature.
22 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 14
- criticize it
- 8
- approval share
- 64%
Recommended in 8 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 14 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 1.7 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
- Recommended in 8 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Full ownership and freely modifiable software
“if you really want ownership and don't care much for weight the PineNote is probably the best our there”
Comment from 5 Feb 2026 in “Remarkable Pro Colors” “straight to the point on device ownership/what kind of software you can run, fewer strings attached”
Comment from 15 Jun 2026 in “Your ePub Is Fine. Kobo Disagrees. Blame Adobe” “The point is to buy hardware that is built for you to freely modify and fully own, from the start.”
Comment from 15 Jun 2026 in “Your ePub Is Fine. Kobo Disagrees. Blame Adobe” Daily KOReader reading use
“I have come to be a daily KOReader user on my PineNote, and I love it”
Comment from 29 Jul 2026 in “KOReader” “I run this on a pinenote, and I love it.”
Comment from 29 Jul 2026 in “KOReader”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Heavy, bulky, and expensive
“It's cost-competitive with those products, but it's way too big and too expensive to compare to traditional ~7" e-readers.”
Comment from 7 May 2026 in “Community firmware for the Xteink X4 e-paper reader” “It's bulky / heavy, and just doesn't match my kobo.”
Comment from 15 Jun 2026 in “Your ePub Is Fine. Kobo Disagrees. Blame Adobe” “it's expensive, huge, and potentially unstable; not exactly what I'd want to read in bed at night.”
Comment from 15 Jun 2026 in “Your ePub Is Fine. Kobo Disagrees. Blame Adobe” - Comment from 8 Mar 2026 in “FrameBook”
Software ecosystem slow to develop
“these could be fantastic but it seems the software ecosystem is quite slow to develop”
Comment from 1 Jul 2026 in “Pine64 launch $50 smart speaker for Home Assistant tinkerers” “Issue is the software man no drivers”
Comment from 12 Jun 2026 in “Developer Gets Half-Life Running at 30 FPS on a Nokia N95” Poor value for specs
“It's quite pricey but certainly more straightforward in its offering.”
Comment from 28 May 2026 in “Rust (and Slint) on a Jailbroken Kindle” “The pine stuff is horrible value, and just bad spec hardware.”
Comment from 23 Aug 2026 in “I spent $266 and four AI models to own my tablet. GLM-5.3 finished it in a day”
Other e-readers people recommend
The four most recommended other e-readers, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Amazon Kindle | 222 | 255 | 47% | 12 | 12 yrs37 owners | — |
| Xteink X4 | 178 | 47 | 79% | 10 | 2 mo31 owners | Approved |
| Kobo e-reader | 154 | 53 | 74% | 12 | 7 yrs14 owners | Approved |
| reMarkable 2 | 93 | 45 | 67% | 12 | 5 yrs13 owners | Approved |
| PineNote by Pine64This page | 14 | 8 | 64% | 8 | — | — |
What people said
24 of the 29 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“The pine stuff is horrible value, and just bad spec hardware.”
“Those make it super easy to store and convert handwriting into an email, a draft, etc.”
“I have come to be a daily KOReader user on my PineNote, and I love it”
“I run this on a pinenote, and I love it.”
“these could be fantastic but it seems the software ecosystem is quite slow to develop”
“Probably have to add the HDMI port yourself though”
“I feel like it's not great given what I'm asking of it, and that it's an eink display.”
“It's bulky / heavy, and just doesn't match my kobo.”
“it's expensive, huge, and potentially unstable; not exactly what I'd want to read in bed at night.”
“the ability to do so without distraction, moving a piece of text of the page”
“It's heavy and think but powerful, all the way to having a browser, audio, microSD, etc.”
“I looked at the site and saw some things that made it seem unfit for purpose as an ereader”
“The point is to buy hardware that is built for you to freely modify and fully own, from the start.”
“aimed at Linux developers with an extensive knowledge of embedded systems and/or experience with mobile Linux”
“straight to the point on device ownership/what kind of software you can run, fewer strings attached”
“Issue is the software man no drivers”
“It's quite pricey but certainly more straightforward in its offering.”
“It's cost-competitive with those products, but it's way too big and too expensive to compare to traditional ~7" e-readers.”
“610 Euros seems quite steep for an eReader.”
“This is probably close enough”
“if you really want ownership and don't care much for weight the PineNote is probably the best our there”
“the e-ink tablet and phone debacles have kinda soured me on them”
“these are not so useful for data operators, unless keyboard via bluetooth etc.”
“I think PineNote qualifies by now?”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.