Key Takeaways
The Palma is a disposable e-reader with a robust design and an E Ink screen, but it suffers from connectivity issues and bugs. Despite its shortcomings, the Palma is a useful device for reading articles and books on the go, without distraction. The Palma’s battery life is inferior to other e-readers, which limits its usability somewhat.
I first heard about the Boox Palma a few months ago, when it was now a hot topic among tech YouTubers, but I didn’t actually consider buying one until I saw The Verge’s David Pierce’s article on E Ink gadgets. Like Pierce, I was hoping that Palma would get me to read more and fight the urge to start scrolling through TikTok or Instagram when I’m bored or killing time before an appointment. I write and edit for a living, and I know I should read more in my free time, but I always find myself drifting away from articles and books. Palma might be the device I’ve been waiting for.
While the Palma helped me concentrate on reading, it also had some frustrating bugs, which makes it hard to recommend this disposable gadget to anyone other than those trying to escape the clutches of doomscrolling. Don’t get me wrong, I still really like the Palma. From a design perspective, it’s solid, and I love the textured back (which I always run my finger over). The E Ink screen features an incredibly fast refresh rate, and if you want to extend your battery life, it can be tuned to run a variety of apps. You can also watch videos on apps like YouTube. Boox also sells some great-looking cases for the device. Sometimes it’s just really fun to use.
Still, I can’t wholeheartedly recommend the Palma unless you’re using it solely as a reading device. Here’s my experience so far:
Parma
Boox’s Palma is a great little e-reader, but it’s a lackluster Android device that’s too slow and frustrating to use for anything else.
Brand Parma
6.13 inch screen E Ink Carta 1200
Resolution: 824 x 1648 pixels (300ppi)
Storage 128GB
Connectivity Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 5.0, USB-C
OS Android 11
Weight: 170g
Dimensions: 159 x 80 x 8mm
Memory 6GB
Camera 16MP rear camera
Battery 3,950mAh
Expanding
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The Palma isn’t the E Ink smartphone of your dreams
For me, this is a disposable gadget.
Let’s get one thing straight: the Palma is a terrible smartphone. It doesn’t support SIM or eSIM, the Wi-Fi connection is often spotty, and many Android apps barely work with grayscale E Ink. If you’re interested in the Palma because you want to completely replace your smartphone, you should rethink that strategy (or prepare to endure a lot of frustration and disappointment). In my week with the little E Ink device, I’ve lost count of the number of strange glitches, reboots, and apps that just refuse to run in the background, even after changing settings on the device.
For example, I thought that Palma could be used as a modern-day iPod. I work from home, so I often go for walks to refresh myself, but checking Slack often brings me back to work, or the tempting red Instagram notification bubble on my iPhone 15 Pro often distracts me. With Palma, I wanted to download some podcasts on Pocketcasts and then switch off for a bit while I go get a coffee. The device doesn’t have a data connection, so if I absolutely need the internet, I can use Starbucks Wi-Fi.
I haven’t completely given up on my offline iPod dream with the Palma, and I intend to keep trying different wireless earbuds, but so far, at least, I’ve run into far more snags than I expected.
First, the Palma would disconnect from my AirPods Pro when going into sleep mode, even though I had the option turned off (it eventually worked for a day, then started disconnecting again). I also ran into issues with the AirPods Pro randomly dropping their Bluetooth connection and the audio getting distorted in weird ways.
I haven’t completely given up on the dream of an offline iPod with the Palma, and I intend to try other wireless earbuds, but so far at least I’ve run into many more obstacles than I expected. For most people, the Palma’s apparent Bluetooth issues are probably reason enough not to use it as an offline music player; it’s much easier to just pick up your phone, plug in your wireless earbuds of choice, and start using them right away.
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The Palma is a great little e-reader
Reading on the go
Up until now I have been pretty negative about the Palma, but now I am changing my mind. This gadget is a great e-reader, especially for those who want to read one-handed and have e-books handy to carry around. I went on a long bike trip a few days ago, and during a short break in the middle of the ride, I wanted to bring my e-reader with me to read some articles I had saved in Pocket and finish Iron Gold by Pierce Brown in the Kobo app at a nearby park.
Normally I’d carry a somewhat bulky backpack, but with Palma I could just slip the device into my side bag and go. Sure, the 6.1-inch E Ink display isn’t much smaller than the 7-inch Kobo Libra’s, but it still makes it easy to carry this gadget anywhere.
I can imagine taking Palma on walks, to the doctor’s office, or anywhere I know I’ll be waiting for a while, because I can just slip it into the bag I take everywhere I go. In fact, if I need to, I can ditch the bag and just slip Palma into my pocket along with my phone.
Sure, I could read content on my phone, but I always find myself getting quickly distracted by flashy social media apps and never finishing my reading. Small E Ink devices run Android, so I can run those apps on the Palma if I want, but they’re not suited to use on an E Ink display. If you’re like many of us, this small friction keeps me from focusing on the reason I wanted the device in the first place: reading articles and books.
The Palma’s battery life is also not that great, about two days, so I’m looking into ways to optimize battery life.
I also don’t like reading long texts on OLED/LCD displays because it’s just not for me. The Palma’s excellent E Ink display has a subtle backlight that is enjoyable to look at for long periods of time and is easily adjustable depending on the ambient lighting conditions. That said, under certain backlight levels, there appear to be dead pixels at the bottom of the display. I had the same issue with the recently released Kobo Libra Color, which would disappear randomly, so I hope that won’t happen again this time.
Related: How to get free books on your Kindle or Fire tablet without buying from Amazon
If you’re a book addict like me, reading can be expensive, but now you can get most e-books for free and read them on your Kindle.
There’s still a lot to be revealed about Parma.
And will it stick?
To be honest, I’ve only been using the Boox Palma for about a week, so I’ll have to discover more about the device. For example, the Palma has a programmable button on the side, but I haven’t done anything with it yet (by default, it refreshes the Palma’s E Ink display). I think it would be perfect as a dedicated button to turn pages in the Kobo app.
The Palma’s battery life is also not that great, lasting only about two days in my experience, so I’m looking into ways to optimize battery life.
The battery life of the Palma is also not that great, lasting about 2 days in my experience, so I am looking for ways to optimize the battery life. I want the Palma to be an e-reader that I carry around with me all the time in my backpack or bag, so not running out of battery is essential for this use case to work. Also, maybe I can fix the Bluetooth issues I experienced and turn it into the iPod of my dreams.
But most importantly, while I am reading more now, will that continue? This begs the question of how I have used the Palma so far. I write about a lot of tech devices, and they often end up gathering dust in a drawer after I’m done with them. Is the Palma one of those gadgets? I hope not.
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