Yr after 12 months, mannequin after mannequin, the Boox Palma will get just a little nearer to the system of my desires. Onyx, the corporate that makes it, discovered a system that is still both simple and delightful: it’s a gadget concerning the measurement of a smartphone, with entry to the complete breadth of Android apps, however with an E Ink display that provides the Palma a way more centered existence.
My Palma is nearly completely for 4 issues: studying (through Kindle and Readwise), listening (through Pocket Casts and Spotify), taking notes (through MyMind and Workflowy), and controlling my Roku TV. The Palma can do many issues, however it does just a few issues properly. And the battery life is nice.
On paper, the new Palma 2 Pro is the primary to tick all of the bins. The new $399.99 device is the most costly Palma but, but in addition simply essentially the most high-tech. Most importantly, it has a SIM card slot for including (data-only) cell connectivity. It additionally has a coloration display, a more recent model of Android, extra RAM, stylus help, and a bunch of recent software program options. This may very well be the do-everything minimalist system we’ve been ready for.
After testing the system for some time, I’m sorry to report: it’s not. The thought stays one, and the SIM slot and pen help have each made the Palma helpful in new methods. However one in every of this system’s “upgrades” is definitely such an enormous downgrade that I nearly instantly discovered myself utilizing the Palma 2 Professional lower than both of its predecessors. It’s such a obvious drawback that I can’t suggest shopping for this system in any respect; buy the Palma 2 instead. Or simply wait just a little longer, and hope that Onyx figures out how one can give us all the correct options on the identical time.
Let’s simply do that first: the issue is the display. The Palma 2 Professional has a 6.13-inch, coloration display, primarily based on E Ink’s Kaleido 3 know-how. The Kaleido 3 tech is a couple of years outdated, and it’s primarily a coloration filter layered over a regular black-and-white E Ink display.
You’ll find Kaleido 3 screens in numerous devices, none of which look superb, however lots of which look advantageous. The tech comes with a couple of inherent drawbacks, most notably its decision — 150ppi is just half as sharp as a contemporary black-and-white E Ink display — and its brightness. Amazon’s Kindle Colorsoft relies on Kaleido 3, simply to call one instance, however Amazon rebuilt the whole display stack to make it sharper, brighter, and extra correct. Amazon was very clear that it didn’t consider Kaleido was ok by itself.
Amazon was proper. The Palma 2 Professional’s display is a large number. It’s so dim that I’ve to show the system’s gentle up a lot larger than on earlier fashions simply to see textual content on the display. The decrease pixel density makes any small textual content primarily unreadable, and it nonetheless feels vaguely out of focus even once I’m simply studying textual content on a clean background. I’ve spent what looks like hours twiddling with the Palma’s (many, many, approach too many) show settings, and nonetheless can’t get it to the purpose I like taking a look at it.
And for what? Certain, the Palma 2 Professional renders issues in coloration, however these issues appear to be impressionist work slightly than sharp photographs. It supposedly helps 4,096 colours, however in apply turns most issues into some bizarre model of rust crimson. The display is comparatively quick, which makes it enjoyable to pan and zoom across the pages of comedian books, however the ghosting impact is fairly tough and all the pieces simply seems fuzzy. In all my testing, there hasn’t been a single time I’ve been glad to have this coloration display as a substitute of the sharper, brighter, extra nice black-and-white panel on the Palma 2.
It’s a disgrace the display is such a deal-breaker, too, as a result of the SIM slot is the most effective factor that ever occurred to the Boox Palma. I purchased a $20 pay as you go data-only SIM card, popped it into the slot on the backside of the system, and by no means thought of connectivity once more. Because you’re not going to make use of this system for lots of video streaming, just a little information goes a good distance, and having my studying lists and podcast queues mechanically up-to-date has solved one in every of my few points with dwelling the Palma life.
I exploit the Palma as type of a mix iPod / Kindle, however including cell connectivity means you need to use the Palma 2 Professional as a telephone. It’s a surprisingly first rate one: the microphone sounds fairly good, although it’s not nice at cancelling background noise, and the speaker just isn’t nice however actually ok.
The Palma is probably not a telephone for making telephone calls (although some enterprising users appear to be proving in any other case), however you possibly can simply use the calling options of nearly any messaging app. I’m undecided I’d suggest this or any E Ink telephone as an iPhone or Pixel alternative, however the Palma 2 is a good backup telephone or weekend system. And possibly, because it’s all that and a Kindle alternative, the $400 value is just a little simpler to abdomen. Possibly.
So there’s the worst factor concerning the Palma 2 Professional, and the most effective factor about it. Every thing else is just about par for the Palma course. It nonetheless feels just a little plasticky and fragile. It nonetheless benchmarks like a midrange telephone from 4 years in the past, and whereas the numbers are barely larger than the Palma 2, I don’t actually discover the distinction. The digital camera remains to be extra for scanning QR codes than for making reminiscences. The battery nonetheless lasts the higher a part of per week.
Every thing else is just about par for the Palma course
There are a few smaller however nonetheless good upgrades. It has 8GB of RAM and runs Android 15, each of that are nice indicators for the general longevity of the system. (I’ve at all times frightened about how lengthy a Palma might be helpful, given the standard mixture of outdated chip and outdated software program.) The Palma 2 Professional additionally helps Onyx’s $46 InkSense stylus, which writes pretty easily and can be utilized for all the pieces from notes to truly writing your texts longhand if that’s your factor for some cause. It’s not the most effective stylus expertise I’ve ever had, however it works.
Apart from the mass of customization choices, Boox presents its typical set of built-in apps for studying, file-sharing, and some different issues. You possibly can safely ignore most or all of them, as I do. The AI Assistant app is a bit more pushy and onerous to disregard, and does threaten the Palma’s entire non-chaotic existence. With just a little work, although, you possibly can nonetheless flip all of it off and get again to the belongings you need to do.
Finally, the Palma — like most of Onyx’s many, many different Boox gadgets — is strictly the sum of all these components. The corporate doesn’t do loads of in-house components improvement or provide huge new concepts about software program. It’s as a substitute always remixing components and spec sheets to attempt to discover the correct mix for the correct system. The Palma mixture (smartphone, E Ink, Play Retailer) stays a superb one. A knowledge connection makes all three components higher. A coloration display may, too. However not this one. This one despatched me proper again to the Palma 2. It’s black and white, and it solely works on Wi-Fi, however a minimum of it’s good to have a look at.