How I Turned My E-Reader Into a Distraction-Free Writing Device
When I first reviewed the Boox Palma e-reader , I called it the perfect solution to your doomscrolling habit—a device as portable and pocketable as a phone, with an adaptive Android operating system that lets you run any apps you want, but with an e-ink screen that’s both easier on the eyes and less tiring than your smartphone’s LED display. Ironically, by looking like a smartphone but feeling slightly worse to use (for free), this little device has helped me smash my 2025 reading goal in less than six months.
But doomscrolling isn’t just a mobile problem (at least not for me) — it’s just as easy to get caught up in the latest political scandals when I’m scrolling through Bluesky on my laptop via a web browser, let alone writing. So I decided to follow the lead of the Boox fans on Reddit and explore the possibility of turning my Palma into an on-the-go productivity device: a coffee shop-friendly word processor that won’t force me to pretend I’m working while I’m actually scrolling through social media or browsing through another wiki hole.
To test this, I decided to write up my findings on the Palma itself – yes, I wrote this entire article on an e-book.
How to Turn Your Boox Palma (or Other Android-Based E-Reader) into a Mini Word Processor
Because the Palma runs an open version of Android, using it as a laptop replacement is as easy as connecting a Bluetooth keyboard. (While the Palma is my favorite e-reader, you can use a similar setup on any open Android e-ink device—not just those from Boox like the Note Air 4C and Note Max , but also from competitors like Bigme and Hisense.) To keep my setup as sleek and portable as possible, I opted for the iClever BK08 , a slim foldable that’s about the same size and thickness as the Palma itself when stored. It even has a trackpad, and comes with a small fabric carrying case that has enough room for my favorite little e-reader. (It’s a shame it doesn’t fit in the little foldable stand that comes with the keyboard.)
All I had to do to set it up was turn on Bluetooth on my Palma, put the keyboard into pairing mode, and open Google Docs. (That and spend five minutes trying to figure out how to disable the on-screen keyboard when a physical keyboard is connected.)
To do this on the Palm, you’ll need to go into the system’s Settings app, scroll to Additional settings , then tap Language & input . Tap Current and select the ONYX keyboard as your default. Then connect the keyboard via Bluetooth, open your Google Doc, and tap the screen to bring up the on-screen keyboard. Tap the Settings icon (it looks like a hexagon with a hole in the center), then Toggle keyboard . Toggle the slider next to Show virtual keyboard to Off . (These instructions will obviously be different if you’re using a different Android e-reader, like the Bigme B751C , which I’ve yet to test.)
After that, you can start treating your electronic device like a tiny laptop.
What is it like to write on Boox Palma
If you’ve ever tried to find something on your Kindle using a clunky on-screen keyboard, you might expect the experience of typing on an e-ink screen to be a similar exercise in frustration. I had my doubts, given that I wasn’t thrilled with the performance of Boox’s own Note Max tablet dock I tested last year. But I was impressed with the iClever keyboard — the build quality is good, it’s small but not unreasonably small for short writing sessions, and it even has a small touch-sensitive trackpad that let me click around in Google Docs (though frankly, it’s just faster and easier to use the touchscreen).
In terms of performance, I didn’t notice much of a delay between pressing the keys and seeing the characters appear on the screen. To be fair, this probably has less to do with the keyboard (which is a sturdy little device and fun to fold and unfold, but any Bluetooth keyboard would likely behave similarly) and more to do with Boox’s fast-refresh modes, which do their best to make the Palma’s e-ink screen as responsive as the LED on your smartphone. Do they achieve that? Sort of. Ish. If you put the Palma in “speed” mode, you can watch YouTube on the Palma and just about make out what’s happening on the screen. But typing is far less graphically intensive, and as a word processor, this little e-reader is as fast as you need it to be.
The setup is great for distraction-free writing: no intrusive notifications, no new tabs to click on for just a second. Depending on how you configure your settings, the smaller display can also mean you’ll only see a few lines of text at any given time, which can be a boon if you’re the kind of person who enjoys compulsive on-the-fly editing: you’ll be able to quickly type out words and save your edits for later, when you’re back in front of a “real” computer.
The biggest snag I encountered wasn’t related to the keyboard at all. For some reason, the Palm wouldn’t play nice with the free Wi-Fi at Starbucks. I was able to connect to it, but the pop-up menu where you agree to the terms of use kept freezing before I could enter my email address and click “agree.” You could argue that this is a feature, not a bug — you can’t waste time online if you don’t have access to the internet — but I also couldn’t back up my notes to the cloud without connecting to my iPhone’s hotspot.
Conclusion
As fun and functional as I found this setup, I’m not suggesting you ditch your laptop for an e-reader — full disclosure, I didn’t edit or insert images into this review using the Palma, and I didn’t even try to hook it up to Lifehacker CMS. But if you just want to be alone with a blinking cursor, it’s kind of ideal. I wrote the previous 1,000 words more or less in one sitting, without leaving Google Docs to check email or respond to text messages or Instagram notifications, which, er, is not my typical workflow (no one tells my boss; I’m really good at focusing on tasks, I swear).