The Boox Palma is an amazing gadget I didn’t even know I wanted

There are truly lone 3 things you request to cognize astir the Boox Palma. One: it’s astir the size of a smartphone. Two: it runs Android, with the Play Store. Three: it has an E Ink screen. There are different specs and features I’ll get to, but that operation — smartphone, Android, E Ink — is the Palma’s full crushed for existence.

In a mates of months of utilizing the Palma, a $280 device that has been connected merchantability since past fall, that operation has turned retired to beryllium precisely what I needed. Because it’s smartphone-sized, with a 6.1-inch surface and an wide footprint conscionable a smidge larger than the Samsung Galaxy S24 Plus, I tin clasp it successful 1 manus and acceptable successful my pocket. Because it runs Android, I tin download immoderate app I need. And due to the fact that it’s E Ink, the artillery lasts determination betwixt 4 days and a week, the surface is casual to look astatine adjacent successful the dark, and — and this is the astir important portion — astir apps are conscionable atrocious to use.

Sure, the Palma tin technically download TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube. It tin even, stutteringly, play videos from those apps. But due to the fact that of E Ink’s debased resolution, dilatory refresh rate, and wide black-and-white-ness, it’s a crummy capable acquisition that I’m ne'er tempted to bash so. Instead, I find myself doing the things the Palma’s surface is built for. This happening is archetypal and foremost an e-reader. It’s conscionable that, dissimilar each the different e-readers, this 1 lets you work successful immoderate app you similar to use.

The archetypal app I downloaded onto the Palma was Amazon Kindle, which is wherever each my integer books are. And earlier you’re like, dude, wherefore didn’t you conscionable bargain a Kindle, the 2nd app I downloaded was Readwise Reader, an app for reading and organizing longform articles, PDFs, and conscionable astir thing else. Already, I’d accomplished thing nary different e-reader offers. Then, I downloaded a mates of quality apps, Flipboard, and the note-taking app Obsidian.

Two months later, those are inactive the apps I usage astir connected the Palma. Boox preinstalls a fewer others, similar a dependable recorder and a euphony app, but I hardly touched those. Who needs ‘em erstwhile I person Android! I downloaded Pocket Casts and Spotify instead, and present my Palma is my iPod successful summation to being my Kindle. When I spell retired for java successful the greeting oregon to locomotion the canine successful the afternoon, lone the Palma comes with me. 

I’ve been amazed by however overmuch of my telephone enactment disappeared erstwhile I enactment each my listening and speechmaking onto different device. I ne'er noticed however often I’d excavation my telephone retired to alteration songs, lone to get pulled successful by a Slack connection oregon a Gmail notification. (Come to deliberation of it, acknowledgment to the “Notification Mute” diagnostic successful Boox’s mentation of Android, I don’t deliberation I’ve gotten a azygous notification the full clip I’ve had this thing.) Now that I’m bringing the Palma and not my telephone with maine to the java shop, I’m getting much speechmaking done due to the fact that TikTok isn’t remotely tempting connected this device. I’m really offline astir of the clip — I’ll conscionable instrumentality it disconnected Airplane mode to sync the assorted apps, past unopen disconnected the transportation and spell backmost to reading. A instrumentality that is casual to person with me, that tin technically bash everything but lone makes it casual to bash the worldly I want, has been everything I wanted.

“It’s conscionable the implicit cleanable magnitude of friction,” Craig Mod told maine erstwhile I recounted my acquisition with the Palma. Mod — a blogger, author, and bookmaker who has been penning astir integer speechmaking for years — loves his Palma, too. He wrote a blog station astir it successful May that got a batch of radical excited astir the instrumentality — helium reckons helium convinced astatine slightest a fewer 100 radical to bargain one. “You wouldn’t privation to spell surf YouTube and beryllium like, ‘All right, fto maine ticker MKBHD,’” helium says. “But if I needed to… I could popular into that for a second.” 

That friction is simply a relation of the instrumentality itself: E Ink screens conscionable don’t refresh accelerated capable to look bully playing video. Serviceable successful a pinch? Sure. But not bully capable to truly suck you in. 

Like me, Mod said the Palma’s operation of size and surface sold him connected the device. “It’s cleanable one-handed, it’s not heavy, it’s not going to autumn connected your look successful a weird way,” helium said. “You’ve got it successful your manus with your thumb connected the measurement controls, and you tin easy spell done an nonfiction until you autumn asleep.” Did I notation you tin acceptable the Palma to flip pages erstwhile you property the measurement buttons? Love that. Mod called the Palma “a gentle lullaby of a reader.”

Matt Martin, the CEO of calendar startup Clockwise and different caller Palma owner, echoed the sentiment. “I aspire to work more,” helium said. “I aspire to not walk the 30 minutes earlier furniture connected Instagram Reels.” He downloaded the New York Times app, Instapaper, Libby, and Kindle and said he’s been speechmaking much and Reels-ing little ever since. 

“There’s the aged anecdote we were each taught successful Psych 101,” Martin said, “which is that carnal situation matters. I deliberation a abstracted instrumentality matters here: sometimes you’re reading, and you’re successful a dilatory section, and you person that random thought, like, what was that happening I wanted to bargain connected Amazon? And you’re determination without reasoning astir it.” A instrumentality similar the Palma adds conscionable capable friction to halt that bid earlier it goes excessively far.

Mod has enjoyed the Palma truthful overmuch that helium wants Boox to spell adjacent further. “I would emotion to person this happening arsenic my main driver,” helium said, “so overmuch much than the dopamine casino iPhone wherever it’s vying for your attraction each 2 seconds.” He besides wants Boox to get escaped of the camera connected the backmost of the Palma, which, candidly, I’d wholly forgotten astir until helium mentioned it. I accidental it’s bully to person successful a pinch, but a point-and-shoot this is not. 

Boox didn’t physique a cleanable gadget here. Not by immoderate stretch. The integrative assemblage is simply a small flimsy, the surface is acceptable beauteous acold down the bezels, everything takes a half-second longer than it should, the surface tin beryllium unresponsive astatine times, and I privation it would full-refresh the E Ink to region ghosting a small much often. (There’s a dedicated fastener for doing that past part, though, which helps.) For a $280 e-reader, I’d expect a small much polish successful some hardware and software. Worst of all, the Palma runs Android 11, which is already wildly retired of date, and I’m not counting connected Boox updating it soon oregon ever. More than likely, my Palma volition conscionable dilatory halt working, app by app, implicit the adjacent mates of years. That’s peculiarly frustrating fixed however elemental my needs are; for playing euphony and speechmaking articles, there’s nary crushed this shouldn’t past forever.

All Boox truly did was enactment unneurotic the close acceptable of ingredients — size, screen, apps — into thing that feels little similar a replacement for my smartphone and much similar a complement to it. I support uncovering tiny caller things I similar doing connected the Palma alternatively than my phone; I person The New York Times’ games app connected determination present for immoderate E Ink crosswords, and I conscionable installed the Roku app, for instance, truthful present it’s a backup distant power and a spot to plug successful my headphones erstwhile I request to perceive quietly.

This twelvemonth has been filled with companies trying to overhaul the mode we usage our gadgets. Humane, Rabbit, and others person introduced chaotic caller kinds of devices, hoping we mightiness find caller and antithetic things to bash with them. The Palma represents a overmuch little ambitious — but possibly overmuch much apt — alternative: it conscionable tweaks the smartphone formula, leaving what works but subtly changing the device’s strengths and weaknesses. It’s not arsenic bright, not arsenic fast, not arsenic frictionless. Instead, it’s quiet, simple, sane. And I emotion it for that.