Evaluation Date: February 2025 – Evaluation unit bought from Amazon
Overview
Onyx launched the Boox Palma 2 in November of 2024 as a follow-up to the unique Palma that got here out in 2023 (at first the Palma was simply an experiment that was launched on a really restricted foundation, however then they did a full launch a pair months later after they found folks have been really fascinated by phone-sized ereaders).
In typical Onyx vogue, they solely modified a couple of minor particulars with the brand new mannequin. They added a fingerprint sensor and so they’re utilizing a barely quicker CPU now, and so they up to date the software program to a more recent model of Android (13), however that’s it for upgrades.
The Palma is an unusual E Ink machine. It has a 6.13″ E Ink Carta 1200 display with 300 ppi, which sounds fairly commonplace, however the display is lots narrower than typical 6″ ereaders just like the fundamental Kindle.
The {hardware} options are additionally vastly completely different than what you’d discover on most ereaders. The Palma doesn’t simply appear to be a telephone, its feature-set is extra phone-like too. It has 6GB of RAM, with 128GB of onboard storage, and there’s additionally a microSD card slot.
Different {hardware} options embrace a rotation sensor, a lightweight sensor, it has an exterior speaker, twin microphones, there’s a USB-C port (with OTG assist), and it has a 16MP rear digital camera with LED flash (which may also be used as a flashlight).
The Boox Palma 2 sells for $279.99 from Onyx’s official Amazon retailer. As of this writing, Onyx continues to be promoting the first gen Palma as nicely, and it’s going for $245.99.
Boox Palma 2 Fast Evaluation
Professionals
- Cellphone-like type issue with the narrower display makes it extra pocketable and moveable than different ereaders.
- Extra versatile than most ereaders with the Android 13 OS, and superior {hardware} options (microSD card slot, fingerprint reader, speaker, digital camera, and so on).
- The E Ink display seems to be nice, and the quicker and smoother refreshing with BSR is an enormous step up from non-BSR units.
- Quantity buttons can be utilized as page-turn buttons, and there’s an additional “Sensible” button that may be programmed to do all types of issues.
Cons
- Excessive worth.
- It seems to be like a telephone however it will probably’t really be used as a telephone because it lacks a SIM card slot.
- Sophisticated software program; nearly every thing requires fidgeting with settings (as an illustration, there are at the least 3 separate settings you must tweak to get music apps to play within the background with out turning off).
Verdict
I actually like the scale and form of the Palma for studying on the go, and it’s surprisingly responsive for an E Ink machine due to the {hardware} upgrades and BSR, but it surely’s sort of a bizarre machine that’s midway between a telephone and an ereader.
It doesn’t really feel as good as most trendy telephones as a result of the casing is made out of plastic, and it’s sort of on the thick aspect, however the machine feels lighter than a telephone, and the textured again has a pleasant grippy really feel.
It’s some of the moveable E Ink units available on the market (why isn’t {that a} extra frequent characteristic when to involves ereaders—they preserve getting larger as an alternative of smaller), and I actually like how the amount buttons can be utilized as web page buttons, and so they’re positioned in a spot that’s snug to make use of with both hand.
Whereas I actually just like the Palma’s type issue and total efficiency, I finally determined to ship it again as a result of it’s simply too costly for my explicit use case. I principally simply wish to learn Kindle ebooks and library ebooks; I don’t want 128GB of cupboard space, a digital camera, a fingerprint reader, and all the opposite further options. If it may really be used as a telephone I might be nice with all that and the upper asking worth, however as an ereader it’s simply greater than I want. Hopefully we’ll begin to see extra phone-sized ereaders just like the Palma getting launched within the close to future.
Boox Palma 2 Video Evaluation
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Boox Palma 2 Specs
- 6.13-inch E Ink Carta 1200 show.
- Decision: 1648 x 824 (300 ppi).
- Capacitive touchscreen.
- Frontlight with heat and funky temperature management.
- OS: Android 13 with Google Play.
- CPU: Octa-core + BSR.
- 6GB RAM.
- 128GB cupboard space.
- MicroSD card slot.
- WiFi (2.4GHz + 5GHz).
- Bluetooth 5.1.
- 16MP rear digital camera with LED flash.
- USB-C port with OTG assist.
- Battery: 3950mAh Li-ion Polymer.
- Rotation sensor.
- Mild sensor.
- Fingerprint reader.
- Constructed-in speaker and mics.
- Textual content-to-Speech assist.
- Supported doc codecs: PDF, CAJ, DJVU, CBR, CBZ, EPUB, EPUB3, AZW3, MOBI, TXT, DOC, DOCX, FB2, CHM, RTF, HTML, ZIP, PRC, PPT, PPTX.
- Dimensions: 159 x 80 x 8.0 mm.
- Weight: 170 grams.
- Value: $279 USD through Amazon.
