As much as I love e-readers like my Kindle and Kobo, I often wish they were easier to operate one-handed, that they fit in my pocket, and that I could do more than just read text or listen to audiobooks on them so that I didn’t have to carry so many devices with me. The Onyx Boox Palma, which came out in August 2023, is the first e-ink device that lets me do all those things and more.
The Palma, which is about the size of an iPhone 15 Pro Max, has a crisp e-ink display with the same amount of pixels as the standard Kindle, so text looks especially good. There’s also a sensor on the front of the device that allows it to automatically adjust the screen’s brightness based on your environment. My favorite feature on the Palma, though, is its customizable buttons, which you won’t find on any Kindle or my other favorite e-reader, the Kobo Libra Color.
Additionally, the Palma’s built-in app for reading is packed with thoughtful features, including the ability to set up auto page-turn intervals, a floating toolbar with custom slots for actions such as viewing bookmarks and enabling text-to-speech, and tabs for multiple books. That said, it’s not my preferred reading app because it can feel overly complex compared to the reading apps on a Kobo or Kindle. Luckily, you’re not limited to what’s pre-installed.
The main appeal of buying an Onyx device is that they all run Android. You can install just about any app from the Play Store on the Palma, including the Kindle app (I prefer the Moon+ Reader myself), if that happens to be where you get your books. You can also use it to listen to podcasts or music on Spotify or your preferred streaming services. The built-in speaker doesn’t sound great, unsurprisingly, but you can pair the Palma to a Bluetooth speaker or headphones for a pretty good listening experience.
The Palma also supports installing apps from outside Google’s own store; I found a lightweight web browser designed specifically for e-ink screens, which I use for quick search queries based on what I’m reading or following links from newsletters. I can check email using the browser or install Gmail, but the onscreen keyboard has some delay due to the e-ink display, so typing out long emails isn’t fun without a portable keyboard. The ability to install any app may seem like a drawback — it could easily be as much of a time sink as a phone — but the slow refresh rate of e-ink screens makes it hard to do anything that isn’t text-based (video- and image-heavy apps like Instagram and TikTok as well as games more complex than Sudoku or crosswords don’t work well enough to be appealing). But since text looks so good on the Palma, I haven’t wanted to.
While the Palma looks like a smartphone with an e-ink screen, it doesn’t have cellular capabilities, so any downloads require a Wi-Fi connection. When it’s connected to Wi-Fi, you can even make calls and send texts through apps like WhatsApp or Google Voice.
A couple of quibbles: Because the Palma runs the already outdated Android 11, a developer could stop supporting that old version at any point, so your choice in apps may become more limited as time goes on. Plus, the device is also more vulnerable to security threats, so you may not want to use the Palma to store any sensitive personal data. The device’s plastic also feels cheaper than that of the Kobo Libra Color or Kindle Paperwhite and makes the device feel less premium despite a similar price tag.
My gripes haven’t been enough to stop the Palma from being the only reader I’ve touched for over two weeks; it’s even replaced my iPhone as the device I keep in my pants pocket.
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