Boox today announced a new generation of its phone-sized e-reader with the Palma 2.
A phone sized e-reader… huh 🤔. So a phone?
Oh well, at least this keeps someone in a job… I suppose.
Have a friend that got one. They wanted the convenience of android - buy books on any platform you want - but the e ink screen so they are not tempted to mindlessly scroll on the typical websites
Surprisingly, no.
I’ve got both the first-gen Palma, and a Kindle Oasis (2017).
Ignoring anything that’s purely a function of the Palma being significantly newer - has a cool-warm light while that model of Kindle is one colour temperature only, and that it has a faster-refreshing e-ink display, etc - it’s still often a more pleasant experience.
The Palma is a little heavier (especially vs the Kindle without its case, which is typically how I use it), but because it’s narrower much easier to hold. The Oasis does have the physical page turn buttons, but I never found them to be particularly well placed, always required holding it a bit awkwardly.
It’s mildly painful for content that doesn’t reflow (like PDFs) due to the phone-like 16:9 aspect, but imho for e-books is the superior experience.
Tbh, I tried out a friend’s palma before getting one of their other models. The palma really doesn’t improve much compared to a phone. Yeah, the eink screens stress way better for reading, but the size factor matters a lot.
Reading on a device with phone dimensions just isn’t as smooth. You need more width to give enough room for your eyes to not be bouncing around as much. I thought that it would be easier with phone dimensions because you should be able to take in an entire line without scanning side to side, but it doesn’t work out that way.
That being said, the palma I tried out was pretty damn nice otherwise. A little ghosting, a little lag on scrolling through lists and such, but it fits in the hand nicely, and holds a charge for days of solid reading.
I dunno if the new one has the same situation, but the boox devices I’ve used are set up where you have to actively make the play store available, and it isn’t something that’s obvious how to do. That’s good or bad, depending on why you’re picking a boox over a kobo, kindle, or whatever because it’s android.
If this had cellular connectivity it could actually be a pretty cool phone. The battery life is probably good too
In one sense this could actually be an interesting idea for an in-between device between the somewhat resurgent dumbphone and a smartphone. Still get some of the connectivity but with an E Ink display it would preclude many of the more time sucking aspects of a smartphone. Of course, they didn’t actually make this a phone.
I find it weird this device has a camera, though.
