An e-reader rated E for everyone

When you think of an e-reader, a certain image more than likely comes to mind: a gray or black plastic tablet between six and eight inches in size, boxy and rectangular — in essence, a standard tablet. This approach, while suitable for the majority of readers, is formulaic and predictable.

Among the few models to shake up the e-reader’s aesthetic cycle, there’s the Boox Palma. Boox has already rewritten the rules of the e-reader game with E Ink tablets that run Android. The Palma breaks even further out of the bell curve by rejecting not only the traditional clique-ish closed systems of other e-readers but also their tablet-inspired form factor. The result? An e-reader that looks like a phone but walks and quacks like an e-reader.

Price, availability, and what’s in the box

Get it from most e-reader retailers

The Boox Palma has been available since September 2023 and retails for about $280. You can find one directly through the Boox Shop or through Amazon, Best Buy, and B&H Photo Video.

Design and hardware

E Ink display, chic and compact form factor

If you looked at the Palma sideways, you’d mistake it for a phone, thanks to the rear camera island, classic Android home screen, and very smartphone-esque aspect ratio. This makes the Palma remarkably holdable, even for hours at a time; it’s lighter than any other e-reader I’ve used, with the closest contender being the Kobo Nia. The Nia, though, doesn’t sit quite as right in one hand as the Palma does.

The Boox Palma features a 6.13-inch Carta 1200 E Ink screen equipped with a flicker-free front light. The temperature and brightness of this lighting, which Boox calls Moon Light 2, can be adjusted either automatically or manually. The Palma does get pretty bright compared to other e-readers, but I noticed quite a bit of light bleeding around the edges at the highest levels. On the back of the e-reader, there’s a rough, textured plastic material for easier gripping. (From a sensory perspective, I think users are either going to love or hate this, no in-between.)

Since the screen consumes nearly all the Palma’s face, the bezels on any side are quite narrow, and there are no tactile page-turning buttons. It’s an expected sacrifice to make for a reader at this size, but depending on hand size and grip, you may find yourself accidentally touching the display and inadvertently turning a page.

There’s a USB-C charging port on the bottom, plus a speaker. On the left is a microSD tray and a customizable function key, while on the right, you’ll find the power/sleep button and volume control. On the back, there’s the 16MP camera and LED flash in the upper-left corner (sorry, no selfie camera… yet).

Software and performance

E Ink may still have limitations, but the Palma currently leads the pack

The Palma runs Android 11, so Android phone users will find its navigation very similar to their own daily driver. From a user interface standpoint, the Palma is as clean and refined as an average Android phone, as your experience reading apps is actually dictated by the design of the app itself.

Using the Google Play Store, you can download just about any e-reading service you want: Kindle, Audible, Nook, Libby, Kobo, and Google Play Books. The Palma gathered all my reading apps in one convenient place.

But this e-reader doesn’t stop at book-oriented applications. From social media to games to shopping and more, any app you can find through the Google Play Store is just as available on the Palma. The limitation comes not from the software, which in other more traditional E Ink tablets is very one-tracked and closed off to functions outside of reading, but from the E Ink display and refresh rate.

Palma’s E Ink refresh speed can be breathtakingly fast. You get a lot of liberty in adjusting the refresh rates, with options ranging from balanced to ultra-fast. This can even be changed system-wide or for individual apps. But at its highest levels, there’s enough contrast and detail lost that I wouldn’t use this device for mindless video scrolling or watching streamed movies. It works for short videos and simple gaming, though, thanks to an octa-core processor that packs a ton of punch into this little device.

Battery

With such a wide variety of uses, battery life is the Palma’s wild card

The Palma hides a serious brute of a battery under its hood. At 3,950 mAh, the Palma’s battery size surpasses pretty much every single E Ink competitor. That includes the Kindle Scribe, the entire Kobo family, including Kobo Sage (the Palma battery actually triples the Sage battery, which is Kobo’s premium reader right now), and the Nook Glowlight 4 Plus, which is Barnes & Noble’s newest e-reader.

After over two months of testing, the Palma’s battery life just wouldn’t quit. I mostly had only read on the device up to that point, and I’d only used about 75% of the battery. After charging it to a full battery, some more rigorous testing was in order. This testing included at least two hours of daily reading, some light gaming daily, tons of scrolling, and even streaming as I watched a couple of shows. Two weeks later, the battery level had barely passed the halfway-depleted threshold. What sorcery is this?

Competition

Right now, the Palma doesn’t really have any predators

It is impossible to name another device that adopts the on-the-go form factor of a mobile phone, utilizes an industry-leading E Ink display with a processor strong enough to refresh that display fast enough for legible video, gives a platform to competing e-book providers, and eliminates the stress of side-loading. All the while, it promises weeks or months of use with a battery that’s borderline overkill.

That said, the Palma is certainly premium-priced, setting itself apart from the rest of Boox’s catalog. Looking at the same price range across competing brands, we land on vastly different products. The Kindle Scribe is the only Amazon E Ink device currently in the same $250-plus category as the Palma, but its audience is very different. It is a 10-inch tablet with stylus support for taking notes.

Kobo, on the other hand, offers the Nia and Clara 2E in the same size range as the Palma, but they have the expected blockier form factor that’s not as great for slipping into pockets or holding with one hand. We see the same in Barnes & Noble’s Nook family.

Plus, all the brands mentioned so far operate on the expectation that you’re solely a customer of their own book marketplace. Books from outside sources can be side-loaded onto some devices, but this often requires file conversion and plugging the device into a computer, and it can take away some of the tablet’s functions meant for an e-book, like highlighting and annotation.

Should you buy the Boox Palma?

It’s difficult to NOT recommend the Palma

There are a few potential improvements that would nudge the Palma over the line from great to perfect — or as close to perfect as an e-reader can get. It supports wireless headphones via Bluetooth, and I love the onboard speaker (a rare e-reader feature), but hopefully, there’s consideration for a headphone jack in future models. A SIM tray/cellular connection option would make a lot of sense, too, in a device like this that emphasizes portability and app use. And lastly, while it’s unclear how far Boox wants to push the Palma into “practically a phone” territory, a front-facing camera would certainly make progress in that regard.

All in all, the Palma is as portable as it comes, welcoming to all of your favorite apps, outlasts any other e-reader’s battery, and offers a freshly unique look. It’s not the expansive 8+ inch screen that some media consumers may want, but almost every reader will appreciate all that the Palma has to offer.