Boox Palma Is an Almost Perfect Phone-Sized E-Reader
If you’ve ever owned a dedicated e-reader with a grayscale e-ink screen (as opposed to a tablet with a backlit LCD screen), chances are it was one of the many varieties of the Amazon Kindle . Barnes & Noble still makes Nooks, but few people buy them, and you’d have to do your research to even hear about killer Kindle copycats from the likes of Kobo (a Canadian company owned by Japanese retail giant Rakuten).
But if you don’t go beyond Amazon’s latest e-reader, you’re missing out on some of the best devices on the market, even if they’re from companies you’ve never heard of, like Onyx International. , a Chinese technology company that has been producing e-ink devices since 2011. I still remember the first time I saw someone on the subway reading an Onyx Boox tablet; I assumed it was a cheap fake (okay… Bux ?). I was wrong. Companies like Kobo and Onyx not only regularly beat Amazon when it comes to variety and innovation in their e-readers, their devices regularly get simply better: they’re not tied to a proprietary operating system or a specific e-reader store, and much more. flexible and customizable, without the need to jailbreak the firmware like the Kindle.
For the last month or so I’ve been testing the Boox Palma, an Android-based e-ink device released by Onyx last year in phone form, and it’s the best e-reader I’ve ever used.
Buy Boox Palma on Amazon:
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BOOX Palma Mobile ePaper 6G 128G (white or black, $279 )
An e-reader that looks (and almost works) like a phone
I’ve owned a lot of e-readers over the years, ever since my parents got me a third-generation Kindle (the one with the keyboard) back in 2010. I’ve always found the proportions of a standard 6-inch screen. The e-reader’s screen is a bit clunky—too boxy to look like a real book and too large to easily fit in your pocket. I used the larger 7.8-inch Nook Glowlight Plus for a while, and while the extra screen was nice, it was hampered by slow software and difficulty loading library books.
As a result, my eBook library is split between retailers and devices. So, like many people, I do most of my reading on my phone, which supports the Kindle and Nook apps and is well integrated with my library’s favorite app, Libby. Downside: It’s my phone, which means it’s constantly sending me notifications or distracting me with social media when I’m about to read.
Enter the Palma, which is almost the same size as the iPhone 15 Plus. It’s easy to pocket, replicates the screen size I’ve become accustomed to from years of reading on a phone screen, and still has the benefits of a black and white e-ink display, which for me means more immersion in what I’m looking for. read, and there is less risk of distraction.
Android gives you freedom
My biggest complaint with the various Kindles and Nooks has been that I don’t particularly like the user experience on either device – overall I think the Kindle and Nook iPhone apps work much better than the clunkier e-reader versions books.
The beauty of the Palma is that, at the operating system level, it’s essentially a phone running a simple version of Android 11. This means that instead of being subject to the device’s built-in OS for reading and sorting books, you can choose any of them. apps you like best if they’re available for Android download on the Google Play Store (sorry, Apple Books readers). No jailbreaking or sideloading is required (though you can of course do the latter if you want).
I currently have the Kindle, Nook, and Kobo apps installed, as well as the Libby app (for reading library books from the Brooklyn Public Library), as well as the format-independent app Moon Reader+, which I highly recommend if you want more customization options. of your reading apps, from font selection to kerning, file sorting, and more. The point is that any of these apps are open to you – although Onyx has its own default reading app, you are in no way forced to use it.
Listen to your audiobooks and podcasts.
Android support means you can also use the Palma to listen to audiobooks – there’s no headphone jack, but it connects easily enough to your Bluetooth headphones. I tested audiobook syncing through Audible and the Kindle app, and it worked as expected, and there’s enough onboard storage—128GB—to store a very large amount of audio material. (I’m not a fan of audiobooks, but I downloaded Pocket Casts to try out the Palma as a podcast device. In short: it works well, but I still prefer my iPhone for this since it syncs with my Apple Watch and connects more easily to my Beats headphones.)
Easily add fonts, screensavers, and more.
What I love most about Palma is that I can connect it to my laptop and easily download books, download new fonts, and everything else you can do with drag and drop. The Android OS isn’t shy about letting me see the file structure and putting things exactly where they need to be. The end result is that if you’re willing to put in a little effort, you can create a truly personalized experience. Set your own lock screen, choose your wallpaper, read on Wingdings: the possibilities are endless.
High performance
With 6GB of onboard RAM, the Palma is certainly fast enough to get your e-books out quickly, and quickly turning pages or skipping chapters isn’t a problem. Navigating a PDF is also quite smooth: if the app allows it (like Neo Reader’s built-in PDF reader), you can pinch your fingers to zoom in and out and enjoy near-instant performance, which is a lot more than I can talk about trying to enlarge a PDF file on my old Nook.
The device also allows me to browse the Internet with minimal latency, and apps load quickly enough that I never felt like I was using a smaller or clunkier device.
More than an e-reader (but still not a real phone)
Android support means you can download more apps than just read. You can also download Goodreads, Gmail, Chrome, X/Twitter, Reddit or anything else you want. And unlike the extremely clunky screens of most e-readers, which suffer from severe lag that makes even scrolling a web page frustrating, the Palma offers four different refresh modes, ranging from HD (best for reading super-crisp text on a static screen, e.g. reading a novel), “Balanced” (for scrolling PDFs), “Fast” or “Ultra-Fast”, which can handle scrolling through social media feeds at speeds close to what you get with an LCD screen.
Doing anything other than reading seems like a chore on the Kindle, but you can actually browse the web and even watch videos on the Palma. Everything will still look a little grainy, and of course everything is in grayscale, but considering I could barely read my email in the “experimental” web browser of my first Kindle, I’m still very impressed. I even downloaded the Tetris app, which works surprisingly well in super-fast mode.
I would never say that using any non-reader app on the Palma is a great experience, but they will work, and in some ways their ugliness is comparable to how they would look on a full color LCD , is almost a blessing – I In the end, I use Palma because I want to read more books. If I wanted to distract myself by immersing myself in social media, my iPhone would support me.
No SIM card support
Even though the Palma looks and functions like an Android phone, it can’t replace your phone because it doesn’t have SIM card support (although it does have a side-loading card tray, it only accepts memory cards up to 1TB) . You can use it to make phone calls over Wi-Fi through a supported app (like Google Voice)—the device has both speakers and a microphone, and also supports Bluetooth headphones. It will also run most messaging apps over Wi-Fi, although they may require a non-SIM phone number to run them. The lack of SIM card support is hardly a deal breaker for me since I had no intention of replacing my phone with another one. electronic ink device. (If this is your goal, check out Hisense , another Chinese company that makes a range of e-ink mobile devices.)
Great one-handed reading experience
My mixed reactions to the Palma as an Android device aside, it’s excellent as an e-book reader. The form factor is what it is: I personally find the 6.13-inch screen very nice, and the screen resolution of 1648 x 824 at 300 ppi means text is always very clear and readable, especially in HD resolution. Build quality is good: the screen is made from “micro-etched glass” which mostly avoids glare issues, the physical buttons are responsive and easy to press, and the back cover is lightly textured to make it easy to hold.
You have the ability to turn pages by tapping the touchscreen or using the physical buttons on the right side of the device, making it easy to read with one hand (especially considering how light it is – around 170 grams). While support varies from app to app, most reading apps I’ve tried flip pages forward and back using the volume up/down button. You can also change the reading settings with infinite scrolling using your fingertip or the volume button. An additional button on the left side can be mapped to a number of different functions based on a quick press, long press or double press. It will refresh the screen by default, which is handy if you’re often annoyed by the faint ghosting that can plague any E Ink screen, but you can also use it to turn pages, advance to the next chapter, and more.
Convenient headlight
The screen backlight is comparable to what I’ve experienced with other e-readers – you can adjust the brightness and warmth to suit your comfort level – perhaps with a slightly larger visible ‘ring’ around the edge of the screen. than, say, a Kindle Paperwhite.
I wasn’t very impressed with the auto brightness option, which is designed to set the best brightness level based on the current lighting conditions. I found that it tended to fluctuate between too bright and too dark, even when I sat still in a dark room. Adjusting the lighting manually is easy enough that it doesn’t bother me too much, but it’s worth noting (and turning off).
What else can he do?
After a month of testing, I feel like the Palma does everything I want it to do very well, and some things I don’t really need, surprisingly well. It can also do a lot more that I haven’t even tried, including document scanning, photography, and video shooting (provided you download the camera app; there’s no built-in one by default, which is weird). On the device itself, the pictures will look like crap, but if you connect it to a laptop to access them, they will look as good as anything you shoot with a regular smartphone camera – not iPhone quality by any means , but why does the reader even have a camera?
Risks to consider
The good thing about the Kindle is that if it breaks, you can simply call Amazon customer service to have it fixed or replaced. With Boox Palma, you won’t have that luxury: parent company Onyx is based in China, and Reddit’s e-reading communities are riddled with reports of less-than-ideal customer service (though keep in mind that most people don’t post). on Reddit about good customer service experiences). There’s also the fact that, being a Chinese company, Onyx isn’t subject to the same restrictions and privacy laws as Apple or Amazon, but that’s a well of paranoia I wouldn’t want to dive into. (Really, the only thing you can learn from looking at my Palm is that I read a lot of science fiction.)
However, if you are in the US, I would definitely recommend purchasing the device from the Onyx store on Amazon. It’s the same price, and you get the usual Amazon benefits, including the ability to contact customer service if you have any problems with delivery.
Bottom line
All this functionality comes at a price—the device retails for $279, which is obviously much more than the entry-level Kindle and is on the same level as the high-end (now discontinued) Kindle Oasis. But all of these features, as well as the form factor, also mean that the Boox Palma is the best e-reader for me and by far the best e-reader I’ve ever used.
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BOOX Palma Mobile ePaper 6G 128G (white or black, $279 )