Last yr I examined the Boox Palma 2, a succesful smartphone-shaped machine with an E Ink screen. The concept is it has the distraction-free appeal of an e-reader like a Kindle or Kobo, but in the type issue of a cellphone. It runs Android, so you can obtain any app, but the screen tech is less alluring than the crisp, pin-sharp OLED one on a cellphone, so you won’t need to doomscroll.
I used it to learn books on the Kindle, Kobo and Libby apps, play video games on the NYT Games app, hear to podcasts and music streaming on Bluetooth headphones and, very sometimes, verify my Gmail.
I liked the idea, but the Palma 2 is a area of interest product. At £279.99 with a monochrome screen, it felt too costly to suggest to people procuring for an e-reader, and as a Wi-Fi only machine it could not act as a cellphone alternative or so-called ‘dumbphone’ – though with Android, it actually wasn’t that dumb.
Enter the new Boox Palma 2 Pro which, on paper, solves my two gripes. It provides in a SIM card slot with support for 5G knowledge connection and a color E Ink screen to take the struggle to the Kindle Colorsoft and Kobo Clara Colour.
I’ve been testing the Palma 2 Pro for a month and despite the big promise, I am once again disillusioned. In truth, it has made me admire the older, cheaper black and white Palma 2 more, as the earlier machine is much higher worth.
In comparability, the new Palma 2 Pro has a worse show and prices £100 more at £379.99. The freedom of utilizing a 5G SIM inside does open up the chance of utilizing it as a cellphone, but with no cellphone or SMS app you can only message or make voice calls utilizing web-based companies such as WhatsApp or Signal.
The reputation of dumber or ‘digital detox’ gadgets means there’s a lot of online consideration on the Palma given its E Ink screen. But the Palma 2 Pro takes it too far, and presents you with the performance of a smartphone, but then disappoints with its screen.
The show makes use of Kaleido 3 E Ink technology, which is essentially grainier in order to be ready to show color tones. But comparable tech on the color Kindle and Kobo e-readers merely seems higher. Boox has not been ready to optimise this show, and it feels unfinished, not to point out is far too dim in most settings. Next to the monochrome Palma 2, it seems decidedly worse, particularly if you need to primarily use it as an e-reader of text-based books.
The color screen is higher if you need to use apps. But those apps look worse in low decision on E Ink than they do on a smartphone. It is indeed great for studying color comedian books or graphic novels, but the phone-sized screen means most titles render fairly cramped.
The Palma 2 Pro can’t actually be thought of a minimal or detox machine if it runs full Android. The only method it’d get you off Instagram or TikTok is because they are nigh on unimaginable to use on this show.
Colours are washed out and you have to fiddle with umpteen per-app settings to attempt and hone the restricted E Ink tech into something approaching usable. I perceive that the Palma runs Android in order to be a versatile machine, but it merely won’t wash as a cellphone alternative if you need to use tons of apps. It’s much higher as a alternative or backup cellphone as it’ll make sure you don’t need to doomscroll at all.
Boox’s plain model of Android 15 is not customisable in the slightest but it does the job. Unlike older Palmas, this one also works with Boox’s InkSense Stylus, which I loved utilizing to take notes in the built-in Notes app. Like the Palma it fees via USB-C.
Think of the Palma 2 Pro more as a dumb pipe for content material rather than an particularly polished piece of {hardware}. If you need an e-reader that slips into your pocket, it’ll do the job, but the monochrome Palma 2 is £100 cheaper.
The Palma 2 Pro has its charms, but it’s too costly. I actually needed to love it, but in the finish the expertise of utilizing it was too irritating to absolutely settle into its use. I choose the common Palma 2, whose monochrome show makes the complete concept of the phone-shaped E Ink machine easier. The addition of a sub-par color screen and 5G on the Palma 2 Pro is pointless for a machine that is best suited to quiet, offline studying.